| Tok Pisin | |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /tok pisin/ |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
| Date: | 2004–2016 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Speakers2: | L2 speakers: 4,000,000 |
| Familycolor: | Creole |
| Fam1: | English Creole |
| Fam2: | Pacific |
| Fam3: | Melanesian Pidgin |
| Script: | Latin script (Tok Pisin alphabet) Pidgin Braille |
| Nation: |  Papua New Guinea |
| Iso2: | tpi |
| Iso3: | tpi |
| Lingua: | 52-ABB-cc |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Glotto: | tokp1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Tok Pisin |
Tok Pisin ([1] [2] ;[3] Tok Pisin pronounced as /tok pisin/), often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in the country. 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.
Between five and six million people use Tok Pisin to some degree, although not all speak it fluently. Many now learn it as a first language, in particular the children of parents or grandparents who originally spoke different languages (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 among themselves in Tok Pisin, either never gaining fluency in a local language (Tok Pisin: tok ples) or learning a local language as a second (or third) language, after Tok Pisin (and possibly English). Over the decades, Tok Pisin has increasingly overtaken Hiri Motu as the dominant lingua franca among town-dwellers. Perhaps one million people now use Tok Pisin as a primary language. Tok Pisin is slowly "crowding out" other languages of Papua New Guinea.[4]
Tok Pisin: Tok originates from English talk, but has a wider application, also meaning 'word, speech, language'. Tok Pisin: Pisin derives from the English word pidgin; the latter, in turn, may originate in the word business, which is descriptive of the typical development and use of pidgins as inter-ethnic trade languages.
While Tok Pisin's name in the language is Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin, it is also called "New Guinea Pidgin" in English. Papua New Guinean anglophones often refer to Tok Pisin as "Pidgin" when speaking English. This usage of "Pidgin" differs from the term pidgin (language) as used in linguistics. Tok Pisin is not a pidgin in the latter sense, since it has become a first language for many people (rather than simply a lingua franca to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages). As such, it is considered a creole in linguistic terminology.
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 Islander 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. 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.
Along with English 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.
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, and islands outside of New Guinea. For example, Pidgin speakers from Finschhafen speak rather quickly and often have difficulty making themselves understood elsewhere. 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.
There are 4 sociolects of Tok Pisin:
The Tok Pisin alphabet contains 21 letters, five of which are vowels, and four digraphs. The letters are (vowels in bold):
a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y
Three of the digraphs ((ai), (au), and (oi)) denote diphthongs while the fourth, (ng), is used for both pronounced as //ŋ// and pronounced as //ŋɡ//.
Tok Pisin has a smaller number of phonemes than its lexifier language, English. It has around 24 core phonemes: 5 vowels and around 19 consonants. However, this varies with the local substrate languages and the level of education of the speaker. 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 Tok Pisin: han. Furthermore, voiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of words, so that English pig is rendered as Tok Pisin: pik in Tok Pisin.
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
Tok Pisin has five pure vowels:
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
The verb has a suffix, Tok Pisin: -im (< Eng. him) to indicate transitivity (Tok Pisin: luk, "look"; Tok Pisin: lukim, "see"). But some verbs, such as Tok Pisin: kaikai "eat", can be transitive without it. Tense is indicated by the separate words Tok Pisin: bai Future (< Eng. by and by) and Tok Pisin: bin (past) (< Eng. been). The present progressive tense is indicated by the word Tok Pisin: stap – e.g. Tok Pisin: Hem kaikai stap "He is eating".
The noun does not indicate number, though pronouns do.
Adjectives usually take the suffix Tok Pisin: -pela (now often pronounced Tok Pisin: -pla, though more so for pronouns, and Tok Pisin: -pela for adjectives; from "fellow") when modifying nouns; an exception is Tok Pisin: liklik "little". It is also found on numerals and determiners:
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: wanpela → Eng. "one"
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: tupela → Eng. "two"
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: dispela boi → Eng. "this bloke"
Pronouns 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,
| Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st exclusive | Tok Pisin: mi (I) < Eng. me | Tok Pisin: mitupela (he/she and I) < Eng. *me two fellow | Tok Pisin: mitripela (both of them, and I) Eng. *me three fellow | Tok Pisin: mipela (all of them, and I) Eng. *me fellow | |
| 1st inclusive | – | Tok Pisin: yumitupela (you and I) < Eng. *you me two fellow | Tok Pisin: yumitripela (both of you, and I) < Eng. *you me three fellow | Tok Pisin: yumipela or yumi (all of you, and I) < Eng. *you me fellow or *you me | |
| 2nd | Tok Pisin: yu (thou) < Eng. you | Tok Pisin: yutupela (you two) < Eng. *you two fellow | Tok Pisin: yutripela (you three) < Eng. *you three fellow | Tok Pisin: yupela (you four or more) < Eng. *you fellow | |
| 3rd | Tok Pisin: em (he/she/it) < Eng. him | Tok Pisin: tupela (they two) < Eng. *two fellow | Tok Pisin: tripela (they three) < Eng. *three fellow | Tok Pisin: ol (they four or more) < Eng. all |
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: Tok Pisin: sip "ship", Tok Pisin: sipsip "sheep".
There are only two proper prepositions:
Some phrases are used as prepositions, such as 'Tok Pisin: 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 Tok Pisin: i immediately 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., Tok Pisin: Kar i tambu long hia is "car forbidden here", i.e., "no parking".
Past tense: marked by Tok Pisin: bin (< Eng. been):
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: Na praim minista i '''bin''' tok olsem.
English: "And the prime minister spoke thus."
Continuative same tense is expressed through: verb + Tok Pisin: i stap.
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: Em i slip '''i stap'''.
English: "He/She is sleeping."
Completive or perfective aspect expressed through the word Tok Pisin: pinis (< Eng. finish):
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: Em i lusim bot '''pinis'''.
English: "He had got out of the boat."[6]
Transitive words are expressed through Tok Pisin: -im (< Eng. him):
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: Yu pinis'''im''' stori nau.
English: "Finish your story now!"[7]
Future is expressed through the word "Tok Pisin: bai" (< Eng. by and by):
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin: Nil nabaut {{strong|bai
English: "If you take just any nails that happen to be around, those will rust."
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.
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. Edward Wolfers claimed that the syntax is from the substratum languages—the languages of the local peoples. 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:
Tok Pisin: vot = "election" (n) and "vote" (v)
Tok Pisin: hevi = "heavy" (adj) and "weight" (n)
Tok Pisin: skru bilong han (screw of the arm) = "elbow"
Tok Pisin: skru bilong lek (screw of the leg) = "knee" (Just Tok Pisin: skru almost always indicates the knee. In liturgical contexts, Tok Pisin: brukim skru is "kneel.")
Tok Pisin: gras bilong het (grass of the head) = "hair" (Hall, 1966: 90f) (Most commonly just Tok Pisin: gras —see note on Tok Pisin: skru bilong lek above.)
Tok Pisin: nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin (literally "first child of Mrs Queen") = King Charles III, then known through his relation to the Queen.[8]
All of the English words fish, peach, feast, piss, and peace would have been realised in Tok Pisin as Tok Pisin: pis. In fact, the Tok Pisin Tok Pisin: pis means "fish" (and usually has a sound closer to [{{IPA-link|ɪ}}], almost like the English word piss). English piss was reduplicated to keep it distinct: thus Tok Pisin: pispis means "urine" or "to urinate".
Likewise, Tok Pisin: sip in Tok Pisin could have represented English ship, jib, jeep, sieve, sheep, or chief. In fact, it means "ship".
Many words in the Tok Pisin language are derived from English (with Australian influences), indigenous Melanesian languages, and German (part of the country was under German rule until 1919). Some examples:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Tok Pisin:
Tok Pisin: Yumi olgeta mama karim umi long stap fri na wankain long wei yumi lukim i gutpela na strepela tru. Yumi olgeta igat ting ting bilong wanem samting i rait na rong na mipela olgeta i mas mekim gutpela pasin long ol narapela long tingting bilong brata susa.[9]
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[10]