Pidgin English (Tok Pisin)

Tok Pisin (tok means "word" or "speech" as in "talk", pisin means "pidgin") is the creole spoken in northern mainland Papua New Guinea, the National Capital District, and the New Guinea Islands. Pidgin English exists in a number of varieties, but the most important is Melanesian Pidgin of eastern New Guinea and other nearby islands. It is spoken and understood, with varying degrees of proficiency, by an estimated 300-400,000 people and the number is increasing rapidly. As the indispensable lingua franca of the area, it has been given official status in the country now known as Papua New Guinea.

A pidgin language is generally based on one of the major world languages, such as English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Arising out of commercial activities, it contains a sharply reduced grammar and vocabulary, making it much easier to learn than the parent tongue.

Melanesian Pidgin, which appears in the text below, has a vocabulary of about 1,500 words. Many others are curious compounds, such as haus kuk ("house cook"), meaning "kitchen"; haus sik ("house sick"), meaning "hospital"; and hauspepa ("house paper"), meaning "office." The common word bilong (from "belong"), which simply means "of," appears in glas bilong lukluk ("glass belong look-look"), meaning "mirror"; smok bilong graun ("smoke belong ground"), meaning "dust"; lait bilong klaut ("light belong cloud"), meaning "lightning"; and man bilong longwe ples ("man belong long-way place"), meaning "foreigner." The ubiquitous suffix -pela (from "fellow") appears in the plural of personal pronouns (e.g., mi— I, mipcla— we), in numerals up to 12 (wanpela— one, tupela—two), in one-syllable adjectives (bikpela—big, gutpcla—good), and in some other common words (dispela—this, sainpela—some).