Futuna

Futuna, more precisely Futuna-Aniwa or West Futunan, is a Polynesian language spoken on Futuna and Aniwa in Vanuatu's Tafea group, amid the Melanesian islands of the southern New Hebrides. It belongs to the Futunic branch of Nuclear Polynesian and descends from voyagers who pushed westward after Proto-Polynesian had taken shape in the Tonga and Samoa region some three thousand years ago; its closest relative is East Futunan of Wallis and Futuna.

James Cook recorded the name Futuna from Tanna islanders during his 1774 visit, though no Europeans are known to have landed there in this period. Futuna had no writing and lived in oral tradition.