Tok Pisin

However, in parts of the southern provinces of Western, Gulf, Central, Oro, and Milne Bay, the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history and is less universal, especially among older people.Over the decades, Tok Pisin has increasingly overtaken Hiri Motu as the dominant lingua franca among town-dwellers.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).Tok Pisin and the closely related Bislama in Vanuatu and Pijin in the Solomon Islands, which developed in parallel, have traditionally been treated as varieties of a single Melanesian Pidgin English or "Neo-Melanesian" language.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.Most government documents are produced in English, but public information campaigns are often partially or entirely in Tok Pisin.Furthermore, voiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of words, so that English pig is rendered as pik in Tok Pisin.Several of these features derive from the common grammatical norms of Austronesian languages[note 4] – although usually in a simplified form.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".[21] 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.
A Tok Pisin speaker, recorded in Taiwan
A 1971 reference book on Tok Pisin (referring to the language as Melanesian Pidgin )
Hotel room door signs in Papua New Guinea
Papua New GuineaLanguage familyEnglish CreoleMelanesian PidginWriting systemLatin scriptTok Pisin alphabetPidgin BrailleISO 639-2ISO 639-3GlottologLinguasphereUnicodeTaiwanPidginEnglishcreole languagelanguage of Papua New GuineaWesternCentralMilne BayMadangRabaulpolicedefence forceHiri Motulingua francalanguages of Papua New GuineaanglophonescreoleSouth Sea IslanderblackbirdingGermanPortugueseAustronesian languagesKuanuaEast New BritainGerman New GuineaUnserdeutschBislamaVanuatuSolomon IslandsPort Moresbynational parliamentNew Guinea HighlandsFinschhafenBougainvilleNew Irelandsociolectslettersvowelsdigraphsdiphthongsphonemeslexifierconsonantssubstrateeducationvoiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of wordsLabialCoronalPalatalGlottalPlosivevoicelessvoicedAffricateFricativeApproximantRhoticMelanesianprenasalized plosivesalveolar tap or flappure vowelstransitivityAdjectivesPronounspersonnumberclusivitydual numberReduplicationprepositionsgenitiveobliquelocativedativephrasesword orderDerek BickertonMetaphorsPeriphrasesMrs QueenKing Charles IIIcopuladeterminersconjunctionssibilantsAustralianhaus tambaranpalopapickaninnyindefinite articleUniversal Declaration of Human RightsadverbEthnologueThe EconomistThe TelegraphCanberraAustralian National UniversityMilton, QueenslandBathurst, New South WalesUniversity of HawaiʻiDell H. HymesPacific LinguisticsThrowim Way LegTim FlanneryWikipediaWayback MachineRosetta ProjectKaipuleohonePapua New Guinean Sign LanguageAdzeraAmanabAwad BingBugawacIatmulMandaraMangsengMussau-EmiraNekginiNgaingNiwer MilNobonobNumanggangNyindrouPele-AtaPetatsRamoaainaSeimatSolongSomba-SiawariTanggaUneapaAngaatahaAnkaveHamtaiKamasaKawachaSafeyokaSimbariSusuamiTainaeYagwoiaAwin–PaBinandereanBarugaBinandereKorafeOrokaivaYekoraBosaviAimeleKaluliOnobasuluChimbu–WahgiChuaveKandawoKaugelMaringNomaneSalt-YuiSinasinaTembaglaFanamaketKandasKonomalaPatpatarSursurungaWarwar FeniDuna–PogayaPogayaEast KutubuanFiwagaEast StricklandGobasiOdoodeeBisorioLembenaSamberigiElemanKaki AeOrokoloToaripiTairumaOk–OksapminFaiwolNgalumNinggerumOksapminSetamanSugangaTelefolYonggomTeberanDadibiFolopaBaramuTurama–KikorianFinisterre–HuonKainantu–GorokaRamu–Lower SepikSoutheast PapuanTorricelliKailgeMount AvejahaRossel IslandpidginscreolesTorres Strait CreoleMicronesian Pidgin EnglishQueensland Kanaka EnglishSamoan Plantation PidginLanguages of Oceania AustraliaFederated States of MicronesiaKiribatiMarshall IslandsNew ZealandTuvaluCook IslandsAmerican SamoaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsEaster IslandFrench PolynesiaHawaiiNew CaledoniaNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsPitcairn IslandsTokelauWallis and Futuna