Tanema | |
---|---|
Tetawo | |
Native to | Solomon Islands |
Region | Vanikoro |
Native speakers | 1 (2012) |
Language family | Austronesian |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tnx |
Glottolog | tane1237 |
ELP | Tanema |
Tanema is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |
Tanema (Tetawo, Tetau) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.
As of 2012, Tanema is only spoken by one speaker, Lainol Nalo. Like its neighbour Lovono, it has been replaced by Teanu, the main language of Vanikoro.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. She was one of the last speakers of Tanema.
Some information on the languages of Vanikoro, including Tanema, can be found in François (2009) for the grammar, and François (2021) for the lexicon.
Languages of the Solomon Islands | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Official language | |||||||||||||
Lingua franca | |||||||||||||
Indigenous languages |
|
This article about Oceanic languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |