TOK PISIN

Zsunics Mária

25. Nov. 2019

Historical background
• One of the Pacific pidgins

• After the1950s on plantations in Queensland

(Australia)

• Labour from Malaysia, China  lingua franca

• English, German, Malay, Portuguese,

Austronesian lg-es
 Historical background
• Like a creole

• Now official in Papua New Guinea (English, Hiri Motu)

Grammar
• Verbs have suffix –im (from ‘him’) to indicate
transitivity
e.g. luk, look; lukim, see

• Time is lexically expressed, present is not

indicated
pukpuk hia i gat bikpela tis
crocodile here PM got big-AM teeth
This crocodile has got big teeth.
Grammar
• Adjectives take the suffix –pela (from
‘fellow’)
e.g. yangpela - young
nupela - new
olpela - old
bikpela – big
sotpela – short
blakpela – black
gutpela - good
naispela - nice, beautiful
exception: liklik – little
 Grammar
• Numerals take the suffix –pela
1 wan wanpela
2 tu tupela
3 tri tripela
4 foa fopela
5 faiv faipela
11 wanpela ten wan
12 wanpela ten tu
18 wanpela ten et
26 tupela ten sikis
54 faipela ten foa
 Grammar
• Past tense: bin (from ‘been’)
Na praim minista i bin tok olsem.
And the prime minister spoke this.
• Continuative tense: verb + i stap
Em i slip i stap.
He/She is sleeping.
• Future: bai (from ‘by and by’)
Em bai ol i go long rum.
They will go to their rooms now.
Pronunciation
• Simpler

• /t/, /d/, and /l/ can be either dental or alveolar

consonants, while /n/ is only alveolar.
• The phoneme /r/ is pronounced as the alveolar tap
or flap, [ɾ].
• 17 consonants
• 5 vowels (i, e, u, o, a)
• e.g. hand  han
pig  pik
Vocabulary
• from English (with Australian influences), indigenous
Melanesian languages and German
• belhat – angry (lit. "belly hot")
bensin - petrol (from German "Benzin")
diwai – tree, wood
gras – hair
haus moni – bank
haus sik – hospital
haus karai – place of mourning (cry)
susa – sister
tambu – forbidden, from "taboo”
Interesting facts
• 5-6 million speakers
• Also a 1st language  now rather a creole
• 1 million uses as a primary lg
• Tok = talking (+ word, speech, lg)
Pisin = pidgin
• New Guinean Pidgin
• Religion: Christian
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!