| Teanu | |
|---|---|
| Buma, Puma | |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
| Region | Vanikoro, Eastern Solomons |
Native speakers | 800 (2012)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tkw |
| Glottolog | tean1237 |
| ELP | Teanu |
 Teanu is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| Coordinates:11°39′S166°54′E / 11.650°S 166.900°E /-11.650; 166.900 | |
Teanu (orPuma,Buma) is the main language spoken on the island ofVanikoro, in the easternmost province of theSolomon Islands.
The language receives its name fromTeanu, the island located northeast of the Vanikoro island group. The same language has also been known in the literature asPuma (or wronglyBuma), after themain village of Teanu island.[3]
The very first source about the languages of Vanikoro were wordlists collected in 1834 by FrenchnaturalistJoseph Paul Gaimard, as he took part in thefirst voyage ofAstrolabe (1826–36) led byDumont d'Urville. On top of his botanical and zoological work, Gaimard collected, and later published, about ten pages of wordlists in Teanu, Tanema and Lovono.[4] In this work, the three languages were labelled respectively "Tanéanou", "Tanema", and "Vanikoro".
More data was collected in the 1980s by Australian linguistDarrell Tryon;[5] he described Teanu using the name "Buma".
The languages of Vanikoro are currently being studied by French linguistAlexandre François.[6]
Whereas Teanu used to be confined to the northeast part of the island group, during the 20th century it became the main language of the whole island group of Vanikoro, at the expense of the two other indigenous languagesLovono andTanema.[3]
While the Melanesian population ofVanikoro now speaks Teanu, the southern coast of the island also has been colonised for a few centuries by aPolynesian population, who still keep strong ties with their homeland, the nearby island ofTikopia. Their main language isTikopia, even though some speak Teanu as a second language.
The phoneme inventory of Teanu includes 19 consonants and 5 vowels.[7][8]
| Labio- velarized | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pʷ | p | t | k | |
| prenasal | ᵐbʷ | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | |
| Nasal | mʷ | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Fricative | v | s | ||||
| Liquid | lateral | l | ||||
| trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | |||||
The labiodental fricative /v/ can be freely devoiced[f], especially word-initially.[9] By contrast, the phoneme /s/ is always heard voiceless.[10]
Teanu does not have a phonemic palatal glide /j/: the sound [j] only exists as an allophone of /i/ before another vowel: e.g.iebe [i.e.ᵐbe] ~ [je.ᵐbe] ‘besom, broom’.[7][8]
Teanu has 5phonemic vowels, /i e a o u/.[3]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Tryon (2002) proposed that vowel length may be contrastive, but more recent research has found this to be incorrect: the language only has five short vowels (François 2009:107).