Tenis

A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639: tns
Alternate Names: Tench
Population: 30 (Wurm 2000), decreasing. Ethnic population: 250 (2015 J. Brownie).
Location:: New Ireland province: Tench (Enus) island, Kavieng.
Language Status: 8b (Nearly extinct).
Classification: Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, St. Matthias
Language Use: Seriously endangered (2000 D. Tryon; 2000 S. Wurm). Very few claim to speak Tenis well. Marriages largely cross-linguistic. Elderly only. All shifted to Tok Pisin [tpi]. Many shifted to Mussau-Emira [emi] (Wurm 2007). Most also use English [eng].
Other Comments: Christian.

Location: New Ireland province: Tench (Enus) island, Kavieng.