Tok Pisin ( English: / t ɒ k ˈ p ɪ s ɪ n / TOK PISS -in , / t ɔː k , - z ɪ n / tawk, -zin ; Tok Pisin [tok pisin] ), often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin , is an English 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.
23-636: The prime minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( Tok Pisin : Prai Minista bilong Papua Niugini ) is Papua New Guinea 's head of government , consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the National Parliament . The prime minister serves as the head of his party, the head of the coalition government, and the chairman of the National Executive Council. The office of Prime Minister
46-544: 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 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
69-417: 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". Past tense: marked by bin (< Eng. been ): Continuative same tense is expressed through: verb + i stap . Completive or perfective aspect expressed through
92-496: A primary language. Tok Pisin is slowly "crowding out" other languages of Papua New Guinea . Tok originates from English talk , but has a wider application, also meaning 'word, speech, language'. 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
115-623: Is liklik "little". It is also found on numerals and determiners: 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, 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 : Some phrases are used as prepositions, such as ' long namel (bilong)' , "in
138-411: 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
161-547: 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
184-480: Is indicated by the separate words bai Future (< Eng. by and by ) and bin (past) (< Eng. been ). The present progressive tense is indicated by the word stap – e.g. Hem kaikai stap "He is eating". The noun does not indicate number, though pronouns do. Adjectives 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
207-568: 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): Three of the digraphs ( ⟨ai⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , and ⟨oi⟩ ) denote diphthongs while
230-538: 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 ,
253-624: 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
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#1732858629301276-664: 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: Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Kuanua language Too Many Requests If you report this error to
299-594: 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
322-508: The fourth, ⟨ng⟩ , is used for both /ŋ/ and /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
345-483: The language is 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
368-401: 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 immediately before the verb. This may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as
391-483: The newly-constructed Melanesia Haus, located opposite the main entrance to the National Parliament House . Tok Pisin language 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
414-486: 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: Many words in
437-445: 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. Tok Pisin has five pure vowels : The verb has a suffix, -im (< Eng. him ) to indicate transitivity ( luk , "look"; lukim , "see"). But some verbs, such as kaikai "eat", can be transitive without it. Tense
460-540: The restoration exercise as well as advising the Prime Minister and other government leaders. After a July 1995 cabinet reshuffle by Julius Chan , functions of the department were expanded. The office of the prime minister and other key government offices were initially located in Konedobu before being relocated to Waigani shortly after independence in 1975. Since April 2024, the Prime Minister's Office has been located at
483-469: 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
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#1732858629301506-464: The word pinis (< Eng. finish ): Transitive words are expressed through -im (< Eng. him ): Future is expressed through the word " bai " (< Eng. by and by ): 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
529-583: Was preceded by the Chief Minister. From December 2011, the office was disputed between Peter O'Neill of the People's National Congress Party and Sir Michael Somare of the National Alliance Party ; the latter eventually supported O'Neill as Prime Minister on 3 August 2012, thus ending the constitutional crisis. The Department of the Prime Minister has the task of providing administrative services to
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