Tenis

TNS

nearly extinct

Alternate Names: Tench

Genealogy:

Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Oceanic
St. Matthias

Demographics: 30 (Wurm 2000), decreasing.

Language Use: Seriously endangered (2000 D. Tryon; 2000 S. Wurm). Shifting to Mussau-Emira [emi] and Tok Pisin [tpi]. Very few claim to speak Tenis well. Marriages largely cross-linguistic. Children in Kavieng tend not to learn Tenis. Highly bilingual in Mussau-Emira [emi] (Wurm 2007). Also use Tok Pisin [tpi].

Nation of Origin: Papua New Guinea

Other Comments: Christian.