Tok Pisin
Encyclopedia
Tok Pisin is a creole
spoken throughout Papua New Guinea
. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in that country. In parts of Western
, Gulf, Central
, Oro Province
and Milne Bay Province
s, however, the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history, and is less universal, especially among older people.
Between five and six million people use Tok Pisin to some degree, although by no means do all of these speak it well. Between one and two million are exposed to it as a first language, in particular the children of parents or grandparents originally speaking different vernaculars (for example, a mother from Madang
and a father from Rabaul
). Urban families in particular, and those of police
and defence force members, often communicate between themselves in Tok Pisin, either never gaining fluency in a vernacular
("tok ples"), or learning a vernacular as a second (or third) language, after Tok Pisin (and possibly English
). Perhaps one million people now use Tok Pisin as a primary language.
; the latter, in turn, may originate in the word business, which is descriptive of the typical use of pidgins as inter-ethnic trade languages.
While Tok Pisin is usually referred to under this name, it is also sometimes—though rarely—called New Guinea Pidgin or, in academic contexts, Melanesian Pidgin English or Neo-Melanesian. Given that Papua New Guinean anglophones
almost invariably refer to Tok Pisin as Pidgin when speaking English, it may be considered something of an affectation to call it Tok Pisin, much like referring to German
and French
as Deutsch and français in English. However, Tok Pisin is favoured by many professional linguists to avoid spreading the misconception that Tok Pisin is still a pidgin
language.
Although it was originally a pidgin, Tok Pisin is now considered a distinct language in its own right, because it is a first language for some people and not merely a lingua franca
to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages.
and Blackbirding
). The labourers began to develop a pidgin, drawing vocabulary primarily from English, but also from German
, Malay
, Portuguese
and their own Austronesian languages
(perhaps especially Kuanua
, that of the Tolai
people of East New Britain
).
This English-based pidgin evolved into Tok Pisin in German New Guinea
(where the German-based creole Unserdeutsch
was also spoken). It became a widely used lingua franca – and language of interaction between rulers and ruled, and among the ruled themselves who did not share a common vernacular; the closely related Bislama in Vanuatu
and Pijin in the Solomon Islands
developed in parallel. The flourishing of the mainly English-based Tok Pisin in German New Guinea (despite the language of the metropolitan power being German) is to be contrasted with Hiri Motu, the lingua franca of Papua, which was derived not from English but from Motu
, the vernacular of the indigenous people of the Port Moresby
area.
and Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin is one of the three official languages of Papua New Guinea. It is frequently the language of debate in the national parliament
. Most government documents are produced in English, but public information campaigns are often partially or entirely in Tok Pisin. While English is the main language in the education system, some schools use Tok Pisin in the first three years of elementary education to promote early literacy.
speak rather quickly and often have difficulty making themselves understood elsewhere) and the New Guinea Islands. The variant spoken on Bougainville
and Buka
is moderately distinct from that of New Ireland
and East New Britain
but is much closer to that than it is to the Pijin spoken in the rest of the Solomon Islands.
than the superstrate language. It has 16 consonant
s and 5 vowel
s. However, this varies with the local substrate
languages and the level of education
of the speaker. The following is the "core" phonemic
inventory, common to virtually all varieties of Tok Pisin. More educated speakers, and/or those where the substrate language(s) have larger phoneme inventories, may have as many as 10 distinct vowels.
Nasal plus plosive offsets lose the plosive element in Tok Pisin e.g. English hand becomes Tok Pisin han. Furthermore, voiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of words, so that English pig is rendered as pik in Tok Pisin.
s, similar to the vowels of Spanish
, Japanese
, and many other five-vowel languages:
has a suffix, -im (from "him") 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) (from "by and by") and bin (past) (from "been"). The present progressive tense is indicated by the word stap – e.g. "eating" is kaikai stap (or this can be seen as having a "food stop").
The noun
does not indicate number, though pronouns do.
Adjective
s usually take the suffix -pela (sometimes pronounced -pla; from "fellow") when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik "little". It is also found on numerals and determiners:
Pronoun
s show person
, number
, and clusivity
. The paradigm varies depending on the local languages; dual number is common, while the trial is less so. The largest Tok Pisin pronoun inventory is,
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 (from "belong"), which means "of" or "for", and long (from "along"), which means everything else.
Tok Pisin: "Mipela i go long blekmaket". → English: "We went to the black market".
Tok Pisin: "Ki bilong yu" → English: "your key"
Tok Pisin: "Ol bilong Godons". → English: "They are from Gordon's". (ibid. 640f).
Some phrase
s are used as prepositions, such as long namel (bilong), "in the middle of".
Several of these features derive from the common grammatical norms of Austronesian languages
– although usually in a simplified form. Other features, such as word order
, are however closer to English.
Sentences which have a 3rd person subject often put the word i just before the verb. This may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as a prefix. Although the word is thought to be derived from "he" or "is", it is not itself a pronoun or a verb but a grammatical marker used in particular constructions. E.g. "Kar i tambu long hia" is "car forbidden here", i.e. "no parking".
Tok Pisin: "Na praim minista i bin tok olsem".
English: "And the prime minister spoke thus". (Romaine 1991: 629)
Continuative Same Tense is expressed through: Verb + i stap.
Tok Pisin: "Em i slip i stap".
English: "He/ She is sleeping". (ibid.: 631)
Completive or perfective aspect expressed through the word "pinis" (from English: finish):
Tok Pisin: "Em i lusim bot pinis".
English: "He had got out of the boat". (Mühlhäusler 1984: 462).
Transitive words are expressed through "-im" (from English: him):
Tok Pisin: "Yu pinisim stori nau."
English: "Finish your story now!". (ibid.: 640).
Future is expressed through the word "bai" (from English: by and by):
Tok Pisin: "Em bai ol i go long rum"
English: "They will go to their rooms now. (Mühlhäusler 1991: 642).
Tok Pisin is also known as a "mixed" language. This means that it consists of characteristics of different languages. Tok Pisin obtained most of its vocabulary from the English language: i.e. English is its lexifier. The origin of the syntax is a matter of debate. Hymes (Hymes 1971b: 5) claims that the syntax is from the substratum languages: i.e. the languages of the local peoples. (Hymes 1971b: 5). Derek Bickerton
's analysis of creoles, on the other hand, claims that the syntax of creoles is imposed on the grammarless pidgin by its first native speakers: the children who grow up exposed to only a pidgin rather than a more developed language such as one of the local languages or English. In this analysis, the original syntax of creoles is in some sense the default grammar humans are born with.
Pidgins are less elaborated than non-Pidgin languages. Their typical characteristics found in Tok Pisin are:
(with Australia
n influences), indigenous Melanesia
n languages and German
(part of the country was under German rule until 1914).
in Tok Pisin:
The Lord's Prayer in English:
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
spoken throughout Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in that country. In parts of Western
Western Province (Papua New Guinea)
Western Province is a coastal province in southwestern Papua New Guinea, bordering the Indonesian province of Papua. The provincial capital is Daru, on the island of Daru. The largest town in the province is Tabubil...
, Gulf, Central
Central Province (Papua New Guinea)
Central Province is a province in Papua New Guinea located on the southern coast of the country. It has a population of 183,983 people and is in size. The seat of government of Central Province, which is located within the National Capital District outside the province, is the Port Moresby suburb...
, Oro Province
Oro Province
Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....
and Milne Bay Province
Milne Bay Province
Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,000 km² of land and 252,990 km² of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited...
s, however, the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history, and is less universal, especially among older people.
Between five and six million people use Tok Pisin to some degree, although by no means do all of these speak it well. Between one and two million are exposed to it as a first language, in particular the children of parents or grandparents originally speaking different vernaculars (for example, a mother from Madang
Madang
Madang is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century....
and a father from Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...
). Urban families in particular, and those of police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
and defence force members, often communicate between themselves in Tok Pisin, either never gaining fluency in a vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
("tok ples"), or learning a vernacular as a second (or third) language, after Tok Pisin (and possibly English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
). Perhaps one million people now use Tok Pisin as a primary language.
Name
Tok is derived from English "talk", but has a wider application, also meaning "word", "speech", or "language". Pisin derives from the English word pidginPidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
; the latter, in turn, may originate in the word business, which is descriptive of the typical use of pidgins as inter-ethnic trade languages.
While Tok Pisin is usually referred to under this name, it is also sometimes—though rarely—called New Guinea Pidgin or, in academic contexts, Melanesian Pidgin English or Neo-Melanesian. Given that Papua New Guinean anglophones
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
almost invariably refer to Tok Pisin as Pidgin when speaking English, it may be considered something of an affectation to call it Tok Pisin, much like referring to German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
as Deutsch and français in English. However, Tok Pisin is favoured by many professional linguists to avoid spreading the misconception that Tok Pisin is still a pidgin
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
language.
Although it was originally a pidgin, Tok Pisin is now considered a distinct language in its own right, because it is a first language for some people and not merely a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages.
Classification
The Tok Pisin language is a result of Pacific Islanders intermixing, when people speaking numerous different languages were sent to work on plantations in Queensland and various islands (see South Sea IslanderSouth Sea Islander
The Australian label South Sea Islanders refers to the Australian descendants of people from the more than 80 islands in the Western Pacific including the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu in Melanesia and the Loyalty Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, Rotuma and Tuvalu in Polynesia and Micronesia who were...
and Blackbirding
Blackbirding
Blackbirding is a term that refers to recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work as labourers. From the 1860s blackbirding ships were engaged in seeking workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru...
). The labourers began to develop a pidgin, drawing vocabulary primarily from English, but also from German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and their own Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
(perhaps especially Kuanua
Kuanua language
The Tolai language, or Kuanua, is spoken by the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain Province. The Tolai language, or Kuanua, is spoken by the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain Province. The...
, that of the Tolai
Tolai
The Tolai are the indigenous people of the Gazelle Peninsula and the Duke of York Islands of East New Britain in the New Guinea Islands region of Papua New Guinea...
people of East New Britain
East New Britain
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, on the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and it also includes the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely destroyed in the 1994 volcanic eruption...
).
This English-based pidgin evolved into Tok Pisin in German New Guinea
German New Guinea
German New Guinea was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australia following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups...
(where the German-based creole Unserdeutsch
Unserdeutsch language
Unserdeutsch , or Rabaul Creole German, is a German-based creole language spoken primarily in Papua New Guinea. It was formed among the New Guinean children residing in a German-run orphanage...
was also spoken). It became a widely used lingua franca – and language of interaction between rulers and ruled, and among the ruled themselves who did not share a common vernacular; the closely related Bislama in Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
and Pijin in the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
developed in parallel. The flourishing of the mainly English-based Tok Pisin in German New Guinea (despite the language of the metropolitan power being German) is to be contrasted with Hiri Motu, the lingua franca of Papua, which was derived not from English but from Motu
Motu language
Motu is one of many Central Papuan Tip languages, and is spoken by the Motuans, native inhabitants of Papua New Guinea...
, the vernacular of the indigenous people of the Port Moresby
Port Moresby
Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...
area.
Official status
Along with EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin is one of the three official languages of Papua New Guinea. It is frequently the language of debate in the national parliament
National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was first created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea, but gained its current name with the granting of independence in 1975....
. Most government documents are produced in English, but public information campaigns are often partially or entirely in Tok Pisin. While English is the main language in the education system, some schools use Tok Pisin in the first three years of elementary education to promote early literacy.
Regional variations
There are considerable variations in vocabulary and grammar in various parts of Papua New Guinea, with distinct dialects in the New Guinea Highlands, the north coast of Papua New Guinea (Pidgin speakers from FinschhafenFinschhafen
Finschhafen is a district on the northeast coast of the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the port of the same name.The port was discovered in 1884 by the German researcher Otto Finsch. In 1885 the German colony of German New Guinea created a town on the site and named it...
speak rather quickly and often have difficulty making themselves understood elsewhere) and the New Guinea Islands. The variant spoken on Bougainville
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
and Buka
Buka, Papua New Guinea
Buka is situated on Buka Island, Bougainville Province, Papua New Guinea. It has been the capital of the province during the Bougainville civil war...
is moderately distinct from that of New Ireland
New Ireland (island)
New Ireland is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 7,404 km² in area. It is the largest island of the New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named after Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by...
and East New Britain
East New Britain
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, on the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and it also includes the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely destroyed in the 1994 volcanic eruption...
but is much closer to that than it is to the Pijin spoken in the rest of the Solomon Islands.
Phonology
Tok Pisin, like many pidgins and creoles, has a far simpler phonologyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
than the superstrate language. It has 16 consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s and 5 vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s. However, this varies with the local substrate
Substratum
In linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum...
languages and the level of education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
of the speaker. The following is the "core" phonemic
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
inventory, common to virtually all varieties of Tok Pisin. More educated speakers, and/or those where the substrate language(s) have larger phoneme inventories, may have as many as 10 distinct vowels.
Nasal plus plosive offsets lose the plosive element in Tok Pisin e.g. English hand becomes Tok Pisin han. Furthermore, voiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of words, so that English pig is rendered as pik in Tok Pisin.
Consonants
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... |
Palatal | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||
| Fricative | v | s | h | ||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ŋ | ||
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
l | ||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | j | |||
| Rhotic consonant Rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, also called tremulants or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including "R, r" from the Roman alphabet and "Р, p" from the Cyrillic alphabet... |
r |
- Where symbols appear in pairs the one to the left represents a voiceless consonant., /d/, and /l/ can be either dental or alveolar consonants, while /n/ is only alveolar.
- In most Tok Pisin dialects, the phoneme /r/ is pronounced as the alveolar tap or flapAlveolar tapThe alveolar flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar flaps is .-Definition:...
, [ɾ].
Vowels
Tok Pisin has five vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s, similar to the vowels of Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and many other five-vowel languages:
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | u | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e | o | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a |
Grammar
The verbVerb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
has a suffix, -im (from "him") 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) (from "by and by") and bin (past) (from "been"). The present progressive tense is indicated by the word stap – e.g. "eating" is kaikai stap (or this can be seen as having a "food stop").
The noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
does not indicate number, though pronouns do.
Adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s usually take the suffix -pela (sometimes pronounced -pla; from "fellow") when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik "little". It is also found on numerals and determiners:
- Tok Pisin: "wanpela" → English: "one"
- Tok Pisin: "tupela" → English: "two"
- Tok Pisin: "dispela boi" → English: "this bloke".
Pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s show person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, and clusivity
Clusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
. The paradigm varies depending on the local languages; dual number is common, while the trial is less so. The largest Tok Pisin pronoun inventory is,
| 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 or yumi (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
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
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 (from "belong"), which means "of" or "for", and long (from "along"), which means everything else.
Tok Pisin: "Mipela i go long blekmaket". → English: "We went to the black market".
Tok Pisin: "Ki bilong yu" → English: "your key"
Tok Pisin: "Ol bilong Godons". → English: "They are from Gordon's". (ibid. 640f).
Some phrase
Phrase
In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....
s are used as prepositions, such as long namel (bilong), "in the middle of".
Several of these features derive from the common grammatical norms of Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
– although usually in a simplified form. Other features, such as word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
, are however closer to English.
Sentences which have a 3rd person subject often put the word i just before the verb. This may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as a prefix. Although the word is thought to be derived from "he" or "is", it is not itself a pronoun or a verb but a grammatical marker used in particular constructions. E.g. "Kar i tambu long hia" is "car forbidden here", i.e. "no parking".
Tense and aspect
Past Tense: Marked by "bin" (from English 'been'):Tok Pisin: "Na praim minista i bin tok olsem".
English: "And the prime minister spoke thus". (Romaine 1991: 629)
Continuative Same Tense is expressed through: Verb + i stap.
Tok Pisin: "Em i slip i stap".
English: "He/ She is sleeping". (ibid.: 631)
Completive or perfective aspect expressed through the word "pinis" (from English: finish):
Tok Pisin: "Em i lusim bot pinis".
English: "He had got out of the boat". (Mühlhäusler 1984: 462).
Transitive words are expressed through "-im" (from English: him):
Tok Pisin: "Yu pinisim stori nau."
English: "Finish your story now!". (ibid.: 640).
Future is expressed through the word "bai" (from English: by and by):
Tok Pisin: "Em bai ol i go long rum"
English: "They will go to their rooms now. (Mühlhäusler 1991: 642).
Development of Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin is a language that developed out of regional dialects of the languages of the local inhabitants and English, brought into the country when English speakers arrived. There were four phases in the development of Tok Pisin that were laid out by Loreto Todd.- Casual contact between English speakers and local people developed a marginal pisin
- Pisin English was used between the local people. The language expanded from the users' mother tongue
- As the interracial contact increased the vocabulary expanded according to the dominant language.
- In areas where English was the official language a depidginization occurred (Todd, 1990)
Tok Pisin is also known as a "mixed" language. This means that it consists of characteristics of different languages. Tok Pisin obtained most of its vocabulary from the English language: i.e. English is its lexifier. The origin of the syntax is a matter of debate. Hymes (Hymes 1971b: 5) claims that the syntax is from the substratum languages: i.e. the languages of the local peoples. (Hymes 1971b: 5). Derek Bickerton
Derek Bickerton
Derek Bickerton is a linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Based on his work in creole languages in Guyana and Hawaii, he has proposed that the features of creole languages provide powerful insights into the development of language both by individuals and as a...
's analysis of creoles, on the other hand, claims that the syntax of creoles is imposed on the grammarless pidgin by its first native speakers: the children who grow up exposed to only a pidgin rather than a more developed language such as one of the local languages or English. In this analysis, the original syntax of creoles is in some sense the default grammar humans are born with.
Pidgins are less elaborated than non-Pidgin languages. Their typical characteristics found in Tok Pisin are:
- A smaller vocabulary which leads to metaphors to supply lexical units:
- Smaller vocabulary:
- Tok Pisin: "vot"; English: "election" (n) and "vote" (v)
- Tok Pisin: "hevi"; English: "heavy" (adj) and "weight" (n)
- Metaphors:
- Tok Pisin: "skru bilong han" (screw of the arm); English: "elbowElbowThe human elbow is the region surrounding the elbow-joint—the ginglymus or hinge joint in the middle of the arm. Three bones form the elbow joint: the humerus of the upper arm, and the paired radius and ulna of the forearm....
" (This is almost always just "skru" – hardly ever distinguished as "skru bilong han" except in liturgical contexts, where "brukim skru" is "kneel"). - Tok Pisin: "gras bilong het" (grass of the head); English: "hair" (Hall, 1966: 90f) (Most commonly just "gras" – see note on "skru bilong han" above).
- Tok Pisin: "skru bilong han" (screw of the arm); English: "elbow
- Smaller vocabulary:
- A reduced grammar: lack of copula, determiners; reduced set of prepositions, and conjunctionsGrammatical conjunctionIn grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...
- Less differentiated phonology: [p] and [f] are not distinguished in Tok Pisin (they are in free variation). The sibilantsSibilant consonantA sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...
/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, and /dʒ/ are also not distinguished.- "pis" in Tok Pisin could mean in English: "beads", "fish", "peach", "feast" or "peace".
- "sip" in Tok Pisin could mean in English: "ship", "jib", "jeep", "sieve" or "chief"
Vocabulary
Tok Pisin can sound very colourful in its use of words, which are derived from EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
(with Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n influences), indigenous Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
n languages and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(part of the country was under German rule until 1914).
- as – bottom, cause, beginning (from "ass"/"arse"). "As ples bilong em" = "his birthplace"
- bagarap(im) – broken, to break down (from "bugger up") – also used in Papua New Guinea English in contexts that would be considered vulgar in other countries.
- bagarap olgeta – completely broken
- balus – airplane or bird (from a Melanesian word for "bird")
- belhat – angry (lit. "belly hot")
- belo – lunch (from the bellow of horns used by businesses to indicate the lunch hour has begun)
- bilong wanem? – why?
- bubu – grandparent, any elderly relation – also grandchild. Possibly from Hiri Motu – where it is a familiar form of tubu, as in tubuna or tubugu.
- diwai – tree, plant, stick etc.
- gat bel – pregnant (lit. "has belly"; pasin bilong givim bel = fertility)
- hamamas / amamas – happy
- hap – a piece of, as in "hap diwai" = a piece of wood. (from "half")
- haus – house
- haus meri – female domestic servant
- haus moni – bank (from "house money")
- haus sik – hospital (from "house sick")
- haus dok sik – animal hospital (from "house dog sick")
- haus karai – place of mourning (from "house cry")
- sit haus (rarely used) – toilet, also:
- liklik haus – toilet
- haus tambaranHaus TambaranHaus Tambaran is a Tok Pisin phrase which describes a type of traditional ancestral worship house in the East Sepik region of Papua New Guinea...
– traditional Sepik-region house with artifacts of ancestors or for honoring ancestors; tambaran means "ancestor spirit" or "ghost"
- hevi – heavy, problem. "Em i gat bigpela hevi" = "he has a big problem".
- hukim pis – to catch fish (from "hook")
- kaikai – food, eat (a Polynesian loan)
- kakaruk – chicken (probably onomatapoetic, from the crowing of the rooster)
- kamap – arrive, become (from "come up")
- kisim – get, take (from "catch them")
- lotu – church, from Fijian, but sometimes sios is used for "church"
- manki – small boy, by extension, young man (Probably from the English jocular/affectionate usage "monkey", applied to mischievous children, although a derivation from the German "männchen", meaning "little man" has also been suggested)
- maski – it doesn't matter, don't worry about it (from German "macht nichts" = "it doesn't matter")
- manmeri – people
- maus gras – moustache (lit: "mouth grass").
- meri – woman (from the English name "Mary"). Also means female, e.g. "Bulmakau meri" (lit. "bull cow female") = cow.
- olgeta – all (from "all together")
- olsem wanem – how?
- pisin – bird (from "pigeon"). The homophony of this word with the name of the language has led to a limited association between the two; MianMian languageMian is an Ok language spoken in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea by the Mian people. It has some 3,500 speakers spread across two dialects: West Mian with approximately 1,000 speakers in around Yapsiei and East Mian with approximately 2,500 speakers in and around...
speakers, for example, refer to Tok Pisin as "wan weng", literally "bird language". - pasim – close, lock (from "fasten")
- pasim maus – shut up, be quiet, i.e. "yu pasim maus" lit: "you close mouth" = "shut up!"
- paul – chicken, confused, i.e. "em i paul" = "he is confused"
- pikinini – child (from Pacific Pidgin English, but ultimately from PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
influenced Lingua franca, cf. pickaninnyPickaninnyPickaninny is a term in English which refers to children of black descent or a racial caricature thereof. It is a pidgin word form, which may be derived from the Portuguese pequenino . In the Creole English of Surinam the word for a child is pikin ningre...
) - rausim – get out, throw out (from German "raus")
- rokrok – frog (probably onomatopoetic)
- sapos – if (from "suppose")
- save – know, to do habitually (from Pacific Pidgin English, but ultimately from PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
influenced Lingua franca, cf. "savvy") - sit – remnant (from "shit")
- solwara – ocean (from "salt water")
- stap – be, live, stay (from "stop")
- susa – sister, though nowadays very commonly supplanted by "sista". Some Tok Pisin speakers make an additional distinction where a "barata" is a woman's sister.
- susu – milk, breasts, from Malay
- tambu – forbidden, from "taboo", but also means "in-laws" (mother-in-law, brother-in-law, etc.) and other relatives whom one is forbidden to speak to, or mention the name of, in some PNG customs.
- tasol – but, only (from "that's all")
Example of Tok Pisin
The Lord's PrayerLord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
in Tok Pisin:
- Papa bilong mipela
- Yu stap long heven.
- Nem bilong yu i mas i stap holi.
- Kingdom bilong yu i mas i kam.
- Strongim mipela long bihainim laik bilong yu long graun,
- olsem ol i bihainim long heven.
- Givim mipela kaikai inap long tude.
- Pogivim rong bilong mipela,
- olsem mipela i pogivim ol arapela i mekim rong long mipela.
- Sambai long mipela long taim bilong traim.
- Na rausim olgeta samting nogut long mipela.
- Kingdom na strong na glori, em i bilong yu tasol oltaim oltaim.
- Tru.
The Lord's Prayer in English:
- Our father,
- who art in heaven,
- hallowed be thy name.
- Thy kingdom come,
- thy will be done
- on earth as it is in heaven.
- Give us this day our daily bread,
- and forgive us our trespasses
- as we forgive those who trespass against us.
- Lead us not into temptation,
- but deliver us from evil,
- for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever.
- Amen
External links
- Tok Pisin Translation, Resources, and Discussion Offers Tok Pisin translator, vocabulary, and discussion groups.
- Tok Pisin phrasebook on Wikitravel
- A bibliography of Tok Pisin dictionaries, phrase books and study guides
- Revising the Mihalic Project, 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 background, vocabulary, sounds, and grammar, by Jeff Siegel
- Ethnologue report for Tok Pisin
- Radio Australia Tok Pisin service
- Robert Eklund's Tok Pisin Page
- Corpus of Tok Pisin folk tales published in Wantok
- Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin (The Bible in Tok Pisin)
- Eukarist Anglican liturgy of Holy Communion in Tok Pisin
- Pidgin/English Dictionary as spoken in Port MoresbyPort MoresbyPort Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...
compiled by Terry D. Barhost and Sylvia O'Dell-Barhost. - Tokpisin Grammar Workbook for English Speakers. A Practical Approach to Learning the Sentence Structure of Melanesian Pidgin (or Tokpisin).
- Recorded dialogs, children's ditties at Robert Eklund's Tok Pisin website
- Tok Pisin Swadesh List by Rosetta ProjectRosetta ProjectThe Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone to last from 2000 to 12,000 AD; it is run by the Long Now Foundation. Its goal is a meaningful survey and near permanent archive of 1,500...