Tuvaluan Language Website Links For
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Information About

Tuvaluan Language





HISTORY

Tuvaluan has been spoken for more than 2 000 years.


GRAMMAR

The sound system of Tuvaluan consists of five generally follows the Noun , the possessor followed the possessed.


DIALECTS

Tuvaluan is divided into two groups of Dialect s, Northern Tuvaluan, comprised of dialects spoken on the islands of Nanumea, Nanumaga, and Niutao (as well as Niulakita), and Southern Tuvaluan, comprised of dialects spoken on the islands of Funafuti, Vaitupu, Nukufetau and Nukulaelae. All dialects are mutually intelligible, and differ in terms of phonology, morphology, and lexicon. The Funafuti-Vaitupu dialects (which are very close to one another) is the de-facto national language, although speakers of the Northern dialects often use their own dialect in public contexts outside of their own communities. The inhabitants of one island of Tuvalu, Nui, speak a dialect of Gilbertese, a Micronesian language only very distantly related to Tuvaluan.


LITERATURE

The Bible was translated into Tuvaluan in 1987. Besides this, very little Tuvaluan language books are available. There is a newspaper published in Tuvaluan, called Sikuleo o Tuvalu.


EXTERNAL LINKS



REFERENCES

  • Niko Besnier, 1995 , ''Literacy, Emotion, and Authority: Reading and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll'', Cambridge University Press

  • Niko Besnier, 2000 , ''Tuvaluan: a Polynesian language of the Central Pacific'', Routledge