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.Homepage of the linguist A. François (CNRS).“The Mystery of the Sinking South Pacific Islands” — Part 2: A Language's Lone Survivor (article in Der Spiegel, 15/06/2012). Like its neighbour Lovono, it has been replaced by Teanu, the main language of Vanikoro.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.Photograph of Emele Mamuli (2005). 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.See also François (2022) for a general presentation.
Notes
References
—— (2021). Online Teanu–English dictionary, with lexical data in Lovono and Tanema. Paris, CNRS.
External links Audio recordings in the Tanema language, in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection of CNRS).