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Tok Pisin

A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639-3: tpi

Population	122,000 (2004 SIL). 50,000 monolinguals.
Region	Mainly north half of country, well established in Port Moresby, into other regions.
Alternate names	Melanesian English, Neomelanesian, New Guinea Pidgin English, Pidgin, Pisin
Dialects	Dialect differences between lowlands, highlands, and islands. Highlands lexicon has more English influence (J. Holm).
Classification	Creole, English based, Pacific
Language use	Official language. L1 of some people in mixed urban areas. Main means of communication between speakers of different languages. Most frequently used language in Parliament and commerce. Some L2 users speak a ‘broken’ Pidgin. Where it is L1, it is passed on to children by parents. 4,000,000 L2 speakers. All domains. All ages. Positive attitude.
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 40%–45%. Newspapers. Radio programs. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 1989.
Writing system	Latin script.
Comments	Agriculturalists; merchants. Christian, traditional religion.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

Adler, Richard. 1975. "Olsem wanem Tok Pisin i ken helpim ol manmeri long Papua Niugini?."

Bickerton, Derek. 1975. "Can English and Pidgin be kept apart?."

Bickerton, Derek. 1975. "University-level courses in Pidgin & Creole."

Cates, Larry E. and Ann R. Cates. 1975. "Authors for Papua New Guinea."

Conrad, Robert J. 1990. "Problems in translating from Tok Pisin to Mufian."

Davis, Donald R. 1974. "Shall we translate word for word?."

Franklin, Karl J. 1974. Review of: Conversational New Guinea Pidgin, by T. E. Dutton.

Franklin, Karl J. 1974. Review of: Untangled New Guinea Pidgin: a course of study, by Wesley Sadler.

Franklin, Karl J. 1980. "The particles ‘i’ and ‘na’ in Tok Pisin."

Franklin, Karl J. 1987. Review of: A new course in Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin), by Tom Dutton in collaboration with Dicks Thomas.

Franklin, Karl J. 1990. "Cross-cultural advertising: Tok Pisin and English in Papua New Guinea."

Franklin, Karl J. 1990. "On the translation of official notices into Tok Pisin."

Franklin, Karl J. 1992. Traim tasol: Vocabulary testing in Tok Pisin.

Franklin, Karl J. 1993. Review of: Language, education and development: urban and rural Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, by Suzanne Romaine.

Franklin, Karl J. 1998. "Lexicography considerations for Tok Pisin."  

Franklin, Karl J. 1998. Review of: Towards a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: An experiment in corpus linguistics, by John W. M. Verhaar.

Franklin, Karl J. and Steven Kambi Thomas. 2006. "Some Tok Pisin idioms."  

Franklin, Karl. 1986. "SIL and Tok Pisin."

Fraser, Jill. 1977. "A phonological analysis of Fitzroy Crossing children’s Pidgin."

Freyberg, Paul G. 1975. "Bai yumi mekim wanem bilong helpim Tok Pisin?."

Healey, L. R. 1975. "When is a word not a Pidgin word?."

Hooley, Bruce A. 1962. "Transformations in Neomelanesian."

Jenkins, Rebecca Sue. 2000. Language contact and composite structures in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea.

Jenkins, Rebecca Sue. 2005. Language contact and composite structures in New Ireland.  

Jernudd, Björn H. 1982. "Subjective varieties of Pidgin in Papua New Guinea."

Litteral, Robert and Karl J. Franklin. 1990. An introductory programmed course in Tok Pisin ;with accompanying tape by Stephen Thomas.

Litteral, Robert L. 1969. A programmed course in New Guinea Pidgin (with accompanying tapes).

Litteral, Robert L. 1975. "A proposal for the use of Pidgin in Papua New Guinea’s education system."

Litteral, Robert L. 1990. "Tok Pisin: The language of modernization."

Lloyd, J. A., compiler. 1992. A Baruya-Tok Pisin-English dictionary.

Lynch, John. 2010. "Unmarked transitive verbs in Melanesian Pidgin."  

Malone, Susan E., editor. 1987. Developing tokples education programmes in Papua New Guinea.

McElhanon, Kenneth A. 1975. "Appreciating the possibilities of Tok Pisin: Evangelism and the use of Tok Pisin idioms."

McElhanon, Kenneth A. 1978. "On the origin of body image idioms in Tok Pisin."

McElhanon, Kenneth A., editor. 1975. Tok Pisin i go we?: Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, P.N.G., 18-21 September 1973.

Mead, Margaret. 1975. "On the crucial importance of Neo-Melanesian, also called Pidgin English."

Mihalic, F. 1975. "Standardisation in Pidgin."

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1975. "Reduplication and repetition in New Guinea Pidgin."

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1994. "The identification of the word classes in Tok Pisin."

Nagai, Yasuko. 2006. "Collaborative efforts for the futures of detainees."

Noel, John. 1975. "Legitimacy of Pidgin in the development of Papua New Guinea toward nationhood."

Pawley, Andrew. 1975. "On epenthetic vowels in New Guinea Pidgin."

Pence, Alan R. 1975. "Benefits of a unified Pidgin orthography for Papua New Guinea."

Pike, Evelyn G. 1997. "The grammatical structure of a New Guinea Pidgin procedural discourse."

Piniau, S. 1975. "The Pidgin language and publications in Papua New Guinea."

Piniau, S. 1975. "Tok Pisin—Wanpela tok i nap long karimapim yumi olgeta."

Piniau, S. 1975. "Use of Pidgin for community development."

Reesink, Gerard P. 1990. "Mother tongue and Tok Pisin."

Reesink, Gerard P. 1992. "The Melanesian content in Tok Pisin, by Rick J. Goulden. Pacific Linguistics B-104 [revuew]."

Roosman, Raden S. 1975. "The Malay element in Melanesian Pidgin."

Sankoff, Gillian. 1975. "Sampela-nupela lo ikamap long Tok Pisin."

Sankoff, Gillian. 1975. "Wanpela lain manmeri ibin kisim Tok Pisin ikamap olosem tok ples bilong ol: Yumi ken bihainim gutpela Tok Pisin bilong ol."

Scorza, David P. and Karl J. Franklin. 1989. An advanced course in Tok Pisin.

Simons, Linda. 1977. Differences between the pidgins of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Staalsen, Philip and David Strange. 1975. "Pidgin as a medium for training translators."

Stringer, Mary D. 1995. Literacy acquisition and diffusion among preliterate adults: Effects of two methods of instruction in non-industrialised communities in Papua New Guinea.

Stringer, Mary D. 2006. Literacy acquisition and diffusion among preliterate adults: effects of two methods of instruction in non-industrialised communities in Papua New Guinea.  

Tamosan, D. 1975. "Bikpela manmeri i kisim skul (Adult education)."

Wurm, S. A. 1975. "The question of language standardisation and Pidgin."

Vernacular Publications

Getting ready to read (Pre-reader). 1975.

Manki i pas long tais. 1971.

Mekim redi long rit na rait. 1979.

Pasin bilong salim pas. 1972.

Piring em i kisim sik malaria. 1972.

Sampela kantri klostu long yumi. 1973.

Sampela lain pipel bilong Papua Nu Gini. 1973.

Stori bilong kaikai: Ol diwai na kaikai samting i kamap olsem wanem. 1972.

Wanem nem bilong mi? Pasin bilong sampela animal. 1974.