Teanu is the main language spoken on the island of Vanikoro

Vanikoro

Vanikoro is an island from the Santa Cruz group, located 118 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It belongs administratively to the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands....

, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

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Some information on Teanu, as well as on the two other languages of the island, can be found in .

Name

The language receives its name from Teanu, the island located northeast of the Vanikoro island group. The same language has also been known in the literature as Puma (or wrongly Buma), after the main village of Teanu island.

Geography

Whereas Teanu used to be confined to the northeast part of the island group, during the 20th century it has become the main language of the whole island group of Vanikoro, at the expense of the two other languages Lovono and Tanema.

Links

• Linguistic map of Vanikoro, showing the traditional territory of Teanu.
• Audio archives in Teanu language
• Basic vocabulary list in Teanu (Buma) (site: ABVD)