Nanumea dialect

The Nanumea dialect, also known as te 'Gana Faka Nanumea or Nanumean,^[1] is a dialect of Tuvaluan, also considered by some to be a separate language,^[2] spoken on the island of Nanumea in northern Tuvalu. It is part of the Northern dialect group of Tuvaluan,^[3] and is closely related to other Polynesian languages, especially the languages of the Polynesian outliers, such as Tuvaluan, Nukuoro, Kapingamarani, Samoan and Tokelauan, and less so related to more well-known Polynesian languages such as Māori and 'Ōlelo Hawai'i.^[4][5][6] There is one Nanumean lexicon.^[7]

Nanumea
Nanumean
Te Gagana Faka Nanumea/Te 'Gana Faka Nanumea
Pronunciation	te ŋa'ŋana ˈfaka nanuˈmea/te 'ŋːana 'faka nanu'mea
Native to	Nanumea, Tuvalu
Region	Polynesia
Ethnicity	Nanumea Islanders
Native speakers	Uncertain
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Nuclear Polynesian Ellicean Tuvaluan ? Northern ? Nanumea
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tvl Nanumea doesn't have its own language code
ISO 639-3	tvl
Linguist List	tvl

Phonology

Nanumea's phonemes are the same as to the phonemes of other northern dialects of the Tuvaluan language, as can be observed:^[8][3][9][4]

Vowels

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i	u	iː	uː
Mid	e	o	eː	oː
Open	a		aː

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n	ŋ
Plosive	p		t	k
Fricative	f	v			h
Lateral			l

Consonants can also be germinated,^[5][4][3] just like Tuvaluan.

Challenges

Nanumea may eventually sink completely below sea level by the near future,^[10] which is a threat to te 'Gana Faka Nanumea, because if the atoll was no longer there, there would be no use for Nanumean.

Similarities and differences with standard Tuvaluan

^[8][11][3]

English	Nanumea	Tuvaluan	Additional Information
Cat	Puuhi	Pūsi	/s/ turns into /h/ in northern dialects and, to an extent, the Nukulaelae dialect[3][9]
Spouse	Aavaga	Āvaga
Idea	Aofaga	Manatu
Gold	Aulo	Aulo	Latin loanword
To fold	Fefetu/Taketake	Sai
Bat (Instrument)	Pate	Pate
Table	Laulau	Taipola
To help	Fakamaamaa	Fesoasoani
Fly (Insect)	Lago	Lago
Nominalizer suffix	-a	-ga	'-a' is also used in Tokelauan.[12]
Ten	Agafulu	Sefulu/Hefulu	'Agafulu' seems to also have been used in older Tuvaluan, as is described by Donald G. K.,[13] though more modern[11][14] dictionaries cite 'sefulu' as the used word for ten, though in compound words 'agafulu' seems to have maintained, e.g. agafulumaikao ten coconuts.