The Teop language is an Oceanic language of the Nehan-North Bougainville network of the North-West Solomonic Group of the Meso-Melanesian Cluster (Ross 1988). The island of Bougainville was torn by a civil war which lasted from 1989 to 1998. This war resulted in thousands of deaths ― an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 people lost their lives ― having a devastating effect on the speech population. With respect to the current situation, it is difficult to obtain accurate figures as to the number of Teop speakers today; figures from the last decade range from 5,000 to 10,000. Although these figures seem to be quite high for an endangered language, it is highly endangered. Factors like marriage outside of the Teop speech community, the influence of neighbouring languages, the increasing use of Tok Pisin as a lingua franca and the use of English in schools further contribute to its endangerment.