Tok Pisin
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Tok Pisin (tok means "word" or "speech", pisin means "business") is the creole spoken in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is one of the official languages of PNG and the most widely used language in that country, spoken by about 2 million people as a second language. Tok Pisin was also called Melanesian Pidgin English or Neo-Melanesian.
Tok Pisin is used to some extent in the media and for government issues, though English is still preferred in these contexts. In some schools Tok Pisin is the language of instruction in the first three years of elementary education.
Its vocabulary is about 5/6 Indo-European and 1/6 Austronesian languages; its grammar is built on a simple pidgin grammar, with various irregularities.
The verb has one suffix, -im to indicate transitivity (luk, look; lukim, see). But some verbs, such as kaikai "eat", can be transitive without it. Tense is indicated by the separate words bai (future) and bin (past). The progressive tense is indicated by the word stap - eating is kaikai stap.
The noun does not indicate number, though pronouns do.
Adjectives usually take the suffix -pela when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik "little". Liklik can also be used as an adverb meaning "slightly", as in dispela bikpela liklik ston, "this slightly big stone".
Pronouns show person, number, and exclusiveness/inclusiveness:
| Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st exclusive | mi (I) | mitupela (he/she and I) | mitripela (both of them, and I) | mipela (all of them, and I) |
| 1st inclusive | - | yumitupela (thou and I) | yumitripela (both of you, and I) | yumipela (all of you, and I) |
| 2nd | yu (thou) | yutupela (you two) | yutripela (you three) | yupela (you four or more) |
| 3rd | em (he/she) | tupela (they two) | tripela (they three) | ol (they four or more) |
Reduplication is very common in Tok Pisin. Sometimes it is used as a method of derivation; sometimes words just have it. Some words are distinguished only by reduplication: sip "ship", sipsip "sheep".
There are only two proper prepositions: bilong, which means "of" or "for", and long, which means everything else. Some phrases are used as prepositions, such as long namel (bilong), "in the middle of".
Vocabulary
Tok Pisin can sound very colourful in its use of words, which are derived from English (with Australian influences), indigenous Melanesian languages and German (part of the country was under German rule until 1919). However, Tok Pisin is often ridiculed as 'baby talk' or 'broken English'. For example, the word for 'moustache' is mausgras - literally 'mouth grass'.
- bagarap - break down (literally bugger up)- very widely used in PNG
- balus - airplane (literally pigeon)
- Bikpela - God (from English big fellow)
- haus tambaran - traditional house, house with artifacts of ancestors or for honoring ancestors; tambaran means "ancestor spirit" or "ghost"
- kamap - arrive, become
- meri - woman
- pikinini - child (from Pacific Pidgin English, but ultimately from Portuguese influenced Lingua Franca)
- raus - get out (from German)
- sapos - if (from English suppose)
- save - know (from Pacific Pidgin English, but ultimately from Portuguese influenced Lingua Franca)
The official Tok Pisin language Wikipedia can be found at http://tpi.wikipedia.org/
References
- Mihalic, Francis (1971). The Jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar of Melanesian Pidgin. Milton, Queensland: The Jacaranda Press.
- Murphy, John J. (1985). The Book of Pidgin English. Bathurst, New South Wales: Robert Brown, 6th edition.
- Smith, Geoff P. (2002). Growing Up With Tok Pisin: Contact, Creolization, and Change in Papua New Guinea's National Language. London: Battlebridge Publications. ISBN 1903292069.
- Dutton, Tom and Thomas, Dicks (1985). A New Course in Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin). Canberra: Australian National University. ISBN 0858833417.
External links
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- Tok Pisin phrasebook (http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/Tok_Pisin_phrasebook) at Wikitravel
- A bibliography of Tok Pisin dictionaries, phrase books and study guides (http://THSlone.tripod.com/MPEB.html#tokpisin)
- Revising the Mihalic Project (http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/PNG/MIHALIC/Index.htm), a collaborative internet project to revise and update Fr. Frank Mihalic's Grammar and Dictionary of Neo-Melanesian. An illustrated online dictionary of Tok Pisin.
- Tok Pisin - English Dictionary and online translator. (http://www.calibercreations.com/pisin/) A large and growing collection of Tok Pisin vocabulary on the web; includes photos of Papua New Guinea.
- Ethnologue report for Tok Pisin (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=PDG)
- Radio Australia Tok Pisin service (http://www.abc.net.au/ra/tokpisin/)
- Robert Eklund's Tok Pisin Page (http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/PNG-TokPisin.htm)
- Pidgin/English Dictionary (http://www.june29.com/HLP/lang/pidgin.html) as spoken in Port Moresbybg:Ток писин
de:Tok Pisin eo:Tok-Pisino fr:Tok pisin id:Tok Pisin pl:Tok pisin ru:Ток Писин fi:Tok pisin sv:Tok pisin th:ภาษาทอค พีซิน tpi:Tok Pisin