7/22/2023 0 Comments Png pidgin english phrases![]() “You are all talk, that’s all.”Īnother very logical word in Pidgin is the word for friend, wantok. A frequently used insult in Tok Pisin is the phrase Yu mous warra man tasol. This can be expanded into the phrase mous warra man to mean someone who is all talk. Because the word warra (‘water’) in a different context is used to mean diarrhea, mous warra really means verbal diarrhoea or meaningless talk. There is poetry in these constructions!Īnother wonderful and expressive phrase in Tok Pisin is mous warra, literally ‘mouth water’. Regrettably, by the time I left Papua New Guinea, a helicopter had become a helicopta, but when I first arrived it was still a Mixmasta bilong Jesus (‘Mixmaster belonging to Jesus’). “I am hungry” becomes belly bilong me cry out. For example, a bank is a haus mani (‘house money’) an office is a haus papia (‘house paper’) a geologist is a man bilong lukim ston (‘man belong look at stones’) and so on. Tok Pisin has a limited vocabulary so, as in German, complex words are typically formed by compounding simpler words. In addition, the consonant “f” usually becomes realised as a “p” sound: ‘Afternoon’ is apinun, and ‘finish’ is pinis. So, for example, the word ‘here’ is hia, ‘master’ is masta, ‘morning’ is moning, and ‘beer’ is bia. Tok Pisin is spelled phonetically, exactly as it is pronounced, but this can be a little confusing for Americans because, given Papua New Guinea’s colonial heritage, words are pronounced as they would be pronounced by an Australian. For example, the verb ‘to get rid of’ is rausim, derived, of course, from the German word raus (out). ![]() Most of the words are based on English words, but there is a good sprinkling of German, Portuguese, and local “place talk” ( Plestok) words as well. If one does not use the correct vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, one is simply not understood. Tok Pisin has a precise, albeit occasionally cumbersome, vocabulary and, to my surprise, a precise grammar and syntax. It is a form of baby talk and there is nothing to it. As in any country or region that has seen an influx of foreign arrivals, various forms of patois naturally evolved in the trading regions around the islands of Melanesia, but the Pidgin of Papua New Guinea has gone one step further and been formalized into a codified language, a creole.Īt first, I thought, this is easy. Mutually intelligible conversation between tribes was impossible. At one time, it was estimated that over 40% of the world’s languages occurred on the island of New Guinea. It evolved and was eventually formalized and codified in order to solve the problem arising from there being so many distinct languages in Papua New Guinea as a result of the isolation in which most tribes had spent their histories. “Proper”, formal pidgin is a highly structured language. In fact, as I learned, Pidgin (which is called “Tok Pisin” in Pidgin) is the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea and without a working knowledge of Pidgin, one will not get very far. I knew from my reading that Papua New Guinea had two official languages, English and Pidgin (officially Neo-Melanesian Pidgin). Everywhere I worked, I managed to learn at least some of the local language. All of my life, I have enjoyed studying and learning new languages. Somebody hire him and put him on a plane before he changes his mind.” When they met me, the head of HR said something like, “This young fool actually wants to go to Papua New Guinea. They had been trying to get someone to go there for months and had nearly had a dozen resignations in the process. It was only later that I found out my pride may have been a little unfounded. I was just turning 24 years old when I arrived in Papua New Guinea and I was inordinately proud of myself for having been given this responsibility at such a young age. Esso Eastern, a subsidiary of Exxon Minerals, had hired me to open their copper and gold exploration office there and I was living my dream, setting off on a major career step toward the life of physical and intellectual adventure I wanted. I arrived in Papua New Guinea in September 1980, a young geologist on the adventure of his young lifetime.
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