Tanema language explained

Tanema
Nativename:	Tetawo
States:	Solomon Islands
Region:	Vanikoro
Speakers:	1
Date:	2012
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam3:	Oceanic
Fam4:	Temotu
Fam5:	Vanikoro
Iso3:	tnx
Glotto:	tane1237
Glottorefname:	Tanema
Map:	Lang Status 20-CR.svg

Tanema (Tetawo, Tetau) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.

Vitality

As of 2012, Tanema is only spoken by one speaker, Lainol Nalo.^{[1] [2]} Like its neighbour Lovono, it has been replaced by Teanu, the main language of Vanikoro.

The late Emele Mamuli was a prolific storyteller who could speak fluently the three languages of Vanikoro: Teanu, Lovono and Tanema.^[3] She was one of the last speakers of Tanema.

The language

Some information on the languages of Vanikoro, including Tanema, can be found in for the grammar, and François (2021) for the lexicon.^[4]

References

• • —— (2021). Online Teanu–English dictionary, with lexical data in Lovono and Tanema. Paris, CNRS.
• Web site: Presentation of the Tanema language, and audio archive . François . Alexandre . 2 . 2022 . . Paris . CNRS . 26 September 2022 . pangloss.

External links

• Audio recordings in the Tanema language, in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection of CNRS).

Notes and References

1. http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-field.htm#Solomons Homepage of the linguist A. François
2. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/south-pacific-islands-threatened-by-more-than-just-rising-sea-levels-a-838675-2.html “The Mystery of the Sinking South Pacific Islands” — Part 2: A Language's Lone Survivor
3. https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Tanema?lang=en&mode=pro&seeMore=true#:~:text=Fran%C3%A7ois%2C%20Alexandre-,%E2%80%A0Emele%20Mamuli,-was%20a%20prolific Photograph of Emele Mamuli
4. See also François (2022) for a general presentation.