Banaban was spoken by the Banaban people prior to the arrival of Captain Walkup of the American Mission Society in the 1890s. His attempts to promote Kiribati as opposed to Banaban because there existed a Kiribati translation of the Bible resulted in Banaban being replaced by Kiribati on the island.[1][2] The Banaban people now speak a dialect of Kiribati with some words from the original Banaban language, according to Ethnologue.[3]
It was mutually unintelligible with Kiribati.
Remnants
Little sample texts remain from Banaban. The most notable possible remnant is a transcription of a lullaby from the Dalton Family collection, possibly written in Banaban according to Banaban Elders.
Te Karanga, also called the stick dance, is a Banaban war dance. The traditional chants from this dance, which is still practiced, use Banaban words.[4]
References
↑K. Sigrah; Stacey M. King (2001). "Banaban Lost Language". Banaban Voice. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
