{"history":[],"article":{"id":"088907b3-fb0e-43fb-871d-d3032370889b","title":"Tok Pisin","slug":"tok-pisin","content":":::summary\n**Name:** Tok Pisin \n**States:** [Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea) \n**Date:** 2004–2016 \n**Ref:** e25 \n**Speakers 2:** [L2](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-language) speakers: 4,000,000 \n**Familycolor:** Creole \n**Fam 1:** [English Creole](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-based-creole-languages) \n**Fam 2:** Pacific \n**Fam 3:** [Melanesian Pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/melanesian-pidgin-disambiguation) \n**Script:** [Latin script](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-script) ([Tok Pisin alphabet](https://bliptext.com/articles/tok-pisin-alphabet)) [Pidgin Braille](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin-braille) \n**Nation:** 🇵🇬 [Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea) \n**Iso 2:** tpi \n**Iso 3:** tpi \n**Lingua:** 52-ABB-cc \n**Notice:** IPA \n**Glotto:** tokp1240 \n**Glottorefname:** Tok Pisin \n:::\n\n# \n**Tok Pisin** (, ; **Tok Pisin** ), often referred to by [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-based-creole-languages) speakers as **New Guinea [Pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin)** or simply [Pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin), is an [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-based-creole-languages) [creole language](https://bliptext.com/articles/creole-language) spoken throughout [Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea).\nIt is an official [language of Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/languages-of-papua-new-guinea) and the most widely used language in the country.\nHowever, in parts of the southern provinces of [Western](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-province-papua-new-guinea), [Gulf](https://bliptext.com/articles/gulf-province), [Central](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-province-papua-new-guinea), [Oro](https://bliptext.com/articles/oro-province), and [Milne Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/milne-bay-province), the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history and is less universal, especially among older people.\nBetween five and six million people use Tok Pisin to some degree, although not all speak it fluently.\nMany 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/madang) and a father from [Rabaul](https://bliptext.com/articles/rabaul)).\nUrban families in particular, and those of [police](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-papua-new-guinea-constabulary) and [defence force](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea-defence-force) members, often communicate among themselves in Tok Pisin, either never gaining fluency in a local language (tok ples) or learning a local language as a second (or third) language, after Tok Pisin (and possibly [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language)).\nOver the decades, Tok Pisin has increasingly overtaken [Hiri Motu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiri-motu) as the dominant [lingua franca](https://bliptext.com/articles/lingua-franca) among town-dwellers.\nPerhaps one million people now use Tok Pisin as a primary language.\nTok Pisin is slowly \"crowding out\" other [languages of Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/languages-of-papua-new-guinea).\n\n# Name\nTok originates from English talk, but has a wider application, also meaning 'word, speech, language'.\nPisin derives from the English word [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin); the latter, in turn, may originate in the word business, which is descriptive of the typical development and use of [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin)s as inter-ethnic trade languages.\nWhile Tok Pisin's name in the language is Tok Pisin, it is also called \"New Guinea Pidgin\" in English.\nPapua New Guinean [anglophones](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) often refer to Tok Pisin as \"Pidgin\" when speaking English.\nThis usage of \"Pidgin\" differs from the term [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin) (language) as used in linguistics.\nTok 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/lingua-franca) to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages).\nAs such, it is considered a [creole](https://bliptext.com/articles/creole-language) in linguistic terminology.\n# [A 1971 reference book on Tok Pisin (referring to the language as Melanesian Pidgin) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/F.///Mihatlic///SVD///The///Jacaranda///Dictionary///and///Grammar///of///Melanesian///Pidgin.jpg]\n# [Hotel room door signs in Papua New Guinea | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Tok-Pisin///New-Guinea-Pidgin///Pidgin-English///Melanesian-Pidgin///Papua-New-Guinea-Hotel-Room-Door-Sign///%28DSC///3096%29.jpg]\n\n# Classification\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-sea-islander) and [blackbirding](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackbirding)).\nThe labourers began to develop a pidgin, drawing vocabulary primarily from English, but also from [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-language), [Malay](https://bliptext.com/articles/malay-language), [Portuguese](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-language) and their own [Austronesian languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/austronesian-languages) (perhaps especially [Kuanua](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuanua-language), that of the [Tolai](https://bliptext.com/articles/tolai-people) people of [East New Britain](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-new-britain)).\nThis English-based pidgin evolved into Tok Pisin in [German New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-new-guinea) (where the German-based creole [Unserdeutsch](https://bliptext.com/articles/unserdeutsch-language) was also spoken).\nIt 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.\nTok Pisin and the closely related [Bislama](https://bliptext.com/articles/bislama) in [Vanuatu](https://bliptext.com/articles/vanuatu) and [Pijin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pijin) in the [Solomon Islands](https://bliptext.com/articles/solomon-islands), which developed in parallel, have traditionally been treated as varieties of a single Melanesian Pidgin English or \"Neo-Melanesian\" language.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiri-motu), the lingua franca of [Papua](https://bliptext.com/articles/territory-of-papua), which was derived not from English but from [Motu](https://bliptext.com/articles/motu-language), the vernacular of the indigenous people of the [Port Moresby](https://bliptext.com/articles/port-moresby) area.\n\n# Official status\nAlong with [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) and [Hiri Motu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiri-motu), Tok Pisin is one of the three official languages of Papua New Guinea.\nIt is frequently the language of debate in the [national parliament](https://bliptext.com/articles/national-parliament-of-papua-new-guinea).\nMost government documents are produced in English, but public information campaigns are often partially or entirely in Tok Pisin.\nWhile 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.\n\n# Regional variations\nThere are considerable variations in vocabulary and grammar in various parts of Papua New Guinea, with distinct dialects in the [New Guinea Highlands](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-guinea-highlands), the north coast of Papua New Guinea, and islands outside of New Guinea.\nFor example, Pidgin speakers from [Finschhafen](https://bliptext.com/articles/finschhafen) speak rather quickly and often have difficulty making themselves understood elsewhere.\nThe variant spoken on [Bougainville](https://bliptext.com/articles/bougainville-island) and [Buka](https://bliptext.com/articles/buka-papua-new-guinea) is moderately distinct from that of [New Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-ireland-island) and [East New Britain](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-new-britain) but is much closer to that than it is to the [Pijin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pijin) spoken in the rest of the Solomon Islands.\nThere are 4 [sociolects](https://bliptext.com/articles/sociolect) of Tok Pisin:\n\n# Alphabet\nThe Tok Pisin alphabet contains 21 [letters](https://bliptext.com/articles/letter-alphabet), five of which are [vowels](https://bliptext.com/articles/vowel), and four [digraphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/digraph-orthography).\nThe letters are (vowels in bold):\nThree of the digraphs (⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, and ⟨oi⟩) denote [diphthongs](https://bliptext.com/articles/diphthong) while the fourth, ⟨ng⟩, is used for both and.\n\n# Phonology\nTok Pisin has a smaller number of [phonemes](https://bliptext.com/articles/phoneme) than its [lexifier](https://bliptext.com/articles/lexifier) language, [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-phonology).\nIt has around 24 core phonemes: 5 [vowels](https://bliptext.com/articles/vowel) and around 19 [consonants](https://bliptext.com/articles/consonant).\nHowever, this varies with the local [substrate](https://bliptext.com/articles/substrata-linguistics) languages and the level of [education](https://bliptext.com/articles/education) of the speaker.\nMore educated speakers, and/or those where the substrate language(s) have larger phoneme inventories, may have as many as 10 distinct vowels.\nNasal plus plosive offsets lose the plosive element in Tok Pisin e.g. English hand becomes Tok Pisin han.\nFurthermore, [voiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of words](https://bliptext.com/articles/final-devoicing), so that English pig is rendered as pik in Tok Pisin.\n\n## Consonants\n\n## Vowels\nTok Pisin has five [pure vowels](https://bliptext.com/articles/monophthong):\n\n# Grammar\nThe [verb](https://bliptext.com/articles/verb) has a suffix, -im (< Eng. him) to indicate [transitivity](https://bliptext.com/articles/transitive-verb) (luk, \"look\"; lukim, \"see\").\nBut some verbs, such as kaikai \"eat\", can be transitive without it.\nTense is indicated by the separate words bai Future (< Eng. by and by) and bin (past) (< Eng. been).\nThe present progressive tense is indicated by the word stap – e.g. Hem kaikai stap \"He is eating\".\nThe [noun](https://bliptext.com/articles/noun) does not indicate number, though pro[noun](https://bliptext.com/articles/noun)s do.\n[Adjectives](https://bliptext.com/articles/adjective) usually take the suffix -pela (now often pronounced -pla, though more so for pronouns, and -pela for adjectives; from \"fellow\") when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik \"little\".\nIt is also found on numerals and determiners:\n[Pronouns](https://bliptext.com/articles/pronoun) show [person](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammatical-person), [number](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammatical-number), and [clusivity](https://bliptext.com/articles/clusivity).\nThe paradigm varies depending on the local languages; [dual number](https://bliptext.com/articles/dual-grammatical-number) is common, while the [trial](https://bliptext.com/articles/trial-grammatical-number) is less so.\nThe largest Tok Pisin pronoun inventory is,\n[Reduplication](https://bliptext.com/articles/reduplication) is very common in Tok Pisin.\nSometimes it is used as a method of derivation; sometimes words just have it.\nSome words are distinguished only by reduplication: sip \"ship\", sipsip \"sheep\".\nThere are only two proper [prepositions](https://bliptext.com/articles/preposition):\nSome [phrases](https://bliptext.com/articles/phrase) are used as prepositions, such as 'long namel (bilong)', \"in the middle of\".\nSeveral of these features derive from the common grammatical norms of [Austronesian languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/austronesian-languages) – although usually in a simplified form.\nOther features, such as [word order](https://bliptext.com/articles/word-order), are however closer to English.\nSentences which have a 3rd person subject often put the word i immediately before the verb.\nThis may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as a prefix.\nAlthough 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\".\n\n## Tense and aspect\nPast tense: marked by bin (< Eng. been):\nContinuative same tense is expressed through: verb + i stap.\nCompletive or perfective aspect expressed through the word pinis (< Eng. finish):\nTransitive words are expressed through -im (< Eng. him):\nFuture is expressed through the word \"bai\" (< Eng. by and by):\n\n# Development of Tok Pisin\nTok 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.\nThere were four phases in the development of Tok Pisin that were laid out by Loreto Todd.\nTok Pisin is also known as a \"mixed\" language.\nThis means that it consists of characteristics of different languages.\nTok Pisin obtained most of its vocabulary from the English language (i.e., English is its [lexifier](https://bliptext.com/articles/lexifier)).\nThe origin of the syntax is a matter of debate.\nEdward Wolfers claimed that the syntax is from the substratum languages—the languages of the local peoples.\n[Derek Bickerton](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nIn this analysis, the original syntax of creoles is in some sense the default grammar humans are born with.\nPidgins are less elaborated than non-Pidgin languages.\nTheir typical characteristics found in Tok Pisin are:\n\n# Vocabulary\nMany words in the Tok Pisin language are derived from [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) (with [Australian](https://bliptext.com/articles/australian-english) influences), indigenous [Melanesian](https://bliptext.com/articles/melanesia) languages, and [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-language) (part of the country was under [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-language) rule until 1919).\nSome examples:\n\n# Example text\nArticle 1 of the [Universal Declaration of Human Rights](https://bliptext.com/articles/universal-declaration-of-human-rights) in Tok Pisin:\nArticle 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:\n\n# Citations","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T17:52:35.241Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T17:52:35.241Z","search_vector":"'pisin':2 'tok':1","search_content":" \n**Name:** Tok Pisin \n**States:** [Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea) \n**Date:** 2004–2016 \n**Ref:** e25 \n**Speakers 2:** [L2](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-language) speakers: 4,000,000 \n**Familycolor:** Creole \n**Fam 1:** [English Creole](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-based-creole-languages) \n**Fam 2:** Pacific \n**Fam 3:** [Melanesian Pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/melanesian-pidgin-disambiguation) \n**Script:** [Latin script](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-script) ([Tok Pisin alphabet](https://bliptext.com/articles/tok-pisin-alphabet)) [Pidgin Braille](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin-braille) \n**Nation:** 🇵🇬 [Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea) \n**Iso 2:** tpi \n**Iso 3:** tpi \n**Lingua:** 52-ABB-cc \n**Notice:** IPA \n**Glotto:** tokp1240 \n**Glottorefname:** Tok Pisin \n \n\n# \n**Tok Pisin** (, ; **Tok Pisin** ), often referred to by [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-based-creole-languages) speakers as **New Guinea [Pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin)** or simply [Pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin), is an [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-based-creole-languages) [creole language](https://bliptext.com/articles/creole-language) spoken throughout [Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea).\nIt is an official [language of Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/languages-of-papua-new-guinea) and the most widely used language in the country.\nHowever, in parts of the southern provinces of [Western](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-province-papua-new-guinea), [Gulf](https://bliptext.com/articles/gulf-province), [Central](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-province-papua-new-guinea), [Oro](https://bliptext.com/articles/oro-province), and [Milne Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/milne-bay-province), the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history and is less universal, especially among older people.\nBetween five and six million people use Tok Pisin to some degree, although not all speak it fluently.\nMany 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/madang) and a father from [Rabaul](https://bliptext.com/articles/rabaul)).\nUrban families in particular, and those of [police](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-papua-new-guinea-constabulary) and [defence force](https://bliptext.com/articles/papua-new-guinea-defence-force) members, often communicate among themselves in Tok Pisin, either never gaining fluency in a local language (tok ples) or learning a local language as a second (or third) language, after Tok Pisin (and possibly [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language)).\nOver the decades, Tok Pisin has increasingly overtaken [Hiri Motu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiri-motu) as the dominant [lingua franca](https://bliptext.com/articles/lingua-franca) among town-dwellers.\nPerhaps one million people now use Tok Pisin as a primary language.\nTok Pisin is slowly \"crowding out\" other [languages of Papua New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/languages-of-papua-new-guinea).\n\n# Name\nTok originates from English talk, but has a wider application, also meaning 'word, speech, language'.\nPisin derives from the English word [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin); the latter, in turn, may originate in the word business, which is descriptive of the typical development and use of [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin)s as inter-ethnic trade languages.\nWhile Tok Pisin's name in the language is Tok Pisin, it is also called \"New Guinea Pidgin\" in English.\nPapua New Guinean [anglophones](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) often refer to Tok Pisin as \"Pidgin\" when speaking English.\nThis usage of \"Pidgin\" differs from the term [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin) (language) as used in linguistics.\nTok 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/lingua-franca) to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages).\nAs such, it is considered a [creole](https://bliptext.com/articles/creole-language) in linguistic terminology.\n# [A 1971 reference book on Tok Pisin (referring to the language as Melanesian Pidgin) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/F.///Mihatlic///SVD///The///Jacaranda///Dictionary///and///Grammar///of///Melanesian///Pidgin.jpg]\n# [Hotel room door signs in Papua New Guinea | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Tok-Pisin///New-Guinea-Pidgin///Pidgin-English///Melanesian-Pidgin///Papua-New-Guinea-Hotel-Room-Door-Sign///%28DSC///3096%29.jpg]\n\n# Classification\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-sea-islander) and [blackbirding](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackbirding)).\nThe labourers began to develop a pidgin, drawing vocabulary primarily from English, but also from [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-language), [Malay](https://bliptext.com/articles/malay-language), [Portuguese](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-language) and their own [Austronesian languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/austronesian-languages) (perhaps especially [Kuanua](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuanua-language), that of the [Tolai](https://bliptext.com/articles/tolai-people) people of [East New Britain](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-new-britain)).\nThis English-based pidgin evolved into Tok Pisin in [German New Guinea](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-new-guinea) (where the German-based creole [Unserdeutsch](https://bliptext.com/articles/unserdeutsch-language) was also spoken).\nIt 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.\nTok Pisin and the closely related [Bislama](https://bliptext.com/articles/bislama) in [Vanuatu](https://bliptext.com/articles/vanuatu) and [Pijin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pijin) in the [Solomon Islands](https://bliptext.com/articles/solomon-islands), which developed in parallel, have traditionally been treated as varieties of a single Melanesian Pidgin English or \"Neo-Melanesian\" language.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/motu-language)](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiri-motu), the lingua franca of [Papua](https://bliptext.com/articles/territory-of-papua), which was derived not from English but from [Motu](https://bliptext.com/articles/motu-language), the vernacular of the indigenous people of the [Port Moresby](https://bliptext.com/articles/port-moresby) area.\n\n# Official status\nAlong with [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) and [Hiri Motu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiri-motu), Tok Pisin is one of the three official languages of Papua New Guinea.\nIt is frequently the language of debate in the [national parliament](https://bliptext.com/articles/national-parliament-of-papua-new-guinea).\nMost government documents are produced in English, but public information campaigns are often partially or entirely in Tok Pisin.\nWhile 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.\n\n# Regional variations\nThere are considerable variations in vocabulary and grammar in various parts of Papua New Guinea, with distinct dialects in the [New Guinea Highlands](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-guinea-highlands), the north coast of Papua New Guinea, and islands outside of New Guinea.\nFor example, Pidgin speakers from [Finschhafen](https://bliptext.com/articles/finschhafen) speak rather quickly and often have difficulty making themselves understood elsewhere.\nThe variant spoken on [Bougainville](https://bliptext.com/articles/bougainville-island) and [Buka](https://bliptext.com/articles/buka-papua-new-guinea) is moderately distinct from that of [New Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-ireland-island) and [East New Britain](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-new-britain) but is much closer to that than it is to the [Pijin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pijin) spoken in the rest of the Solomon Islands.\nThere are 4 [sociolects](https://bliptext.com/articles/sociolect) of Tok Pisin:\n\n# Alphabet\nThe Tok Pisin alphabet contains 21 [letters](https://bliptext.com/articles/letter-alphabet), five of which are [vowels](https://bliptext.com/articles/vowel), and four [digraphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/digraph-orthography).\nThe letters are (vowels in bold):\nThree of the digraphs (⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, and ⟨oi⟩) denote [diphthongs](https://bliptext.com/articles/diphthong) while the fourth, ⟨ng⟩, is used for both and.\n\n# Phonology\nTok Pisin has a smaller number of [phonemes](https://bliptext.com/articles/phoneme) than its [lexifier](https://bliptext.com/articles/lexifier) language, [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-phonology).\nIt has around 24 core phonemes: 5 [vowels](https://bliptext.com/articles/vowel) and around 19 [consonants](https://bliptext.com/articles/consonant).\nHowever, this varies with the local [substrate](https://bliptext.com/articles/substrata-linguistics) languages and the level of [education](https://bliptext.com/articles/education) of the speaker.\nMore educated speakers, and/or those where the substrate language(s) have larger phoneme inventories, may have as many as 10 distinct vowels.\nNasal plus plosive offsets lose the plosive element in Tok Pisin e.g. English hand becomes Tok Pisin han.\nFurthermore, [voiced plosives become voiceless at the ends of words](https://bliptext.com/articles/final-devoicing), so that English pig is rendered as pik in Tok Pisin.\n\n## Consonants\n\n## Vowels\nTok Pisin has five [pure vowels](https://bliptext.com/articles/monophthong):\n\n# Grammar\nThe [verb](https://bliptext.com/articles/verb) has a suffix, -im (< Eng. him) to indicate [transitivity](https://bliptext.com/articles/transitive-verb) (luk, \"look\"; lukim, \"see\").\nBut some verbs, such as kaikai \"eat\", can be transitive without it.\nTense is indicated by the separate words bai Future (< Eng. by and by) and bin (past) (< Eng. been).\nThe present progressive tense is indicated by the word stap – e.g. Hem kaikai stap \"He is eating\".\nThe [noun](https://bliptext.com/articles/noun) does not indicate number, though pro[noun](https://bliptext.com/articles/noun)s do.\n[Adjectives](https://bliptext.com/articles/adjective) usually take the suffix -pela (now often pronounced -pla, though more so for pronouns, and -pela for adjectives; from \"fellow\") when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik \"little\".\nIt is also found on numerals and determiners:\n[Pronouns](https://bliptext.com/articles/pronoun) show [person](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammatical-person), [number](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammatical-number), and [clusivity](https://bliptext.com/articles/clusivity).\nThe paradigm varies depending on the local languages; [dual number](https://bliptext.com/articles/dual-grammatical-number) is common, while the [trial](https://bliptext.com/articles/trial-grammatical-number) is less so.\nThe largest Tok Pisin pronoun inventory is,\n[Reduplication](https://bliptext.com/articles/reduplication) is very common in Tok Pisin.\nSometimes it is used as a method of derivation; sometimes words just have it.\nSome words are distinguished only by reduplication: sip \"ship\", sipsip \"sheep\".\nThere are only two proper [prepositions](https://bliptext.com/articles/preposition):\nSome [phrases](https://bliptext.com/articles/phrase) are used as prepositions, such as 'long namel (bilong)', \"in the middle of\".\nSeveral of these features derive from the common grammatical norms of [Austronesian languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/austronesian-languages) – although usually in a simplified form.\nOther features, such as [word order](https://bliptext.com/articles/word-order), are however closer to English.\nSentences which have a 3rd person subject often put the word i immediately before the verb.\nThis may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as a prefix.\nAlthough 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\".\n\n## Tense and aspect\nPast tense: marked by bin (< Eng. been):\nContinuative same tense is expressed through: verb + i stap.\nCompletive or perfective aspect expressed through the word pinis (< Eng. finish):\nTransitive words are expressed through -im (< Eng. him):\nFuture is expressed through the word \"bai\" (< Eng. by and by):\n\n# Development of Tok Pisin\nTok 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.\nThere were four phases in the development of Tok Pisin that were laid out by Loreto Todd.\nTok Pisin is also known as a \"mixed\" language.\nThis means that it consists of characteristics of different languages.\nTok Pisin obtained most of its vocabulary from the English language (i.e., English is its [lexifier](https://bliptext.com/articles/lexifier)).\nThe origin of the syntax is a matter of debate.\nEdward Wolfers claimed that the syntax is from the substratum languages—the languages of the local peoples.\n[Derek Bickerton](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nIn this analysis, the original syntax of creoles is in some sense the default grammar humans are born with.\nPidgins are less elaborated than non-Pidgin languages.\nTheir typical characteristics found in Tok Pisin are:\n\n# Vocabulary\nMany words in the Tok Pisin language are derived from [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) (with [Australian](https://bliptext.com/articles/australian-english) influences), indigenous [Melanesian](https://bliptext.com/articles/melanesia) languages, and [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-language) (part of the country was under [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-language) rule until 1919).\nSome examples:\n\n# Example text\nArticle 1 of the [Universal Declaration of Human Rights](https://bliptext.com/articles/universal-declaration-of-human-rights) in Tok Pisin:\nArticle 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:\n\n# Citations","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History