Tok Pisin

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Tok Pisin
Native to Papua New Guinea
Native speakers
120,000  (2004)[1]
4 million L2 speakers
English Creole
  • Pacific
    • Tok Pisin
Latin script (Tok Pisin alphabet)
Pidgin Braille
Official status
Official language in
 Papua New Guinea
Language codes
ISO 639-2 tpi
ISO 639-3 tpi
Glottolog tokp1240[2]
Linguasphere 52-ABB-cc


While it likely developed as a trade pidgin, Tok Pisin has become a distinct language in its own right. Non-academic Anglophones living in Papua New Guinea tend to refer to it as "Pidgin," "New Guinea Pidgin" or "Pidgin English", but it is common usage among academics, as well as people familiar with Tok Pisin, to refer to the language by its own name.



A 1971 reference book on Tok Pisin (then called Melanesian Pidgin).

Tok is derived from English "talk", but has a wider application, also meaning "word", "speech", or "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 the language is Tok Pisin, it is also called New Guinea Pidgin[4] in English. Papua New Guinean anglophones almost invariably refer to Tok Pisin as Pidgin when speaking English.[5] However, professional linguists prefer to use the term Tok Pisin, as this is considered a distinct language in its own right.[citation needed] The language can no longer be considered a pidgin strictly speaking: it is now a first language for numerous people, and is not simply a lingua franca to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages.




Official status[edit]


Regional variations[edit]



The Tok Pisin alphabet contains 22 letters and 3 digraphs, five of which are vowels. The letters are (vowels in bold):


There are three digraphs:

ai, au ng (used for both /ŋ/ and /ŋɡ/)


Tok Pisin, like many pidgins and creoles, has a far simpler phonology than the superstrate language. It has 16 consonants and 5 vowels. However, this varies with the local substrate languages and the level of education of the speaker. The following is the "core" phonemic inventory, common to virtually all varieties of Tok Pisin. More educated speakers, and/or those where the substrate language(s) have larger phoneme inventories, may have as many as 10 distinct vowels.



Labial Coronal Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Fricative v s h
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral l
Approximant w j
Rhotic r



Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a


The verb has a suffix, -im (from "him") to indicate transitivity (luk, look; lukim, see). But some verbs, such as kaikai "eat", can be transitive without it. Tense is indicated by the separate words bai (future) (from "by and by") and bin (past) (from "been"). The present progressive tense is indicated by the word stap – e.g. "eating" is kaikai stap (or this can be seen as having a "food stop").

The noun does not indicate number, though pronouns do.

Adjectives usually take the suffix -pela (sometimes pronounced -pla; from "fellow") when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik "little".[6] It is also found on numerals and determiners:

Tok Pisin: "wanpela" → English: "one"
Tok Pisin: "tupela" → English: "two"
Tok Pisin: "dispela boi" → English: "this bloke"


Singular Dual Trial Plural
1st exclusive mi
(he/she and I)
(both of them, and I)
(all of them, and I)
1st inclusive  – yumitupela
(thou and I)
(both of you, and I)
yumipela or yumi
(all of you, and I)
2nd yu
(you two)
(you three)
(you four or more)
3rd em
(they two)
(they three)
(they four or more)

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: bilong (from "belong"), which means "of" or "for", and long (from "along"), which means everything else. Tok Pisin: "Mipela i bin go long blekmaket". → English: "We went to the black market". Tok Pisin: "Ki bilong yu" → English: "your key" Tok Pisin: "Ol bilong Godons". → English: "They are from Gordon's". (ibid. 640f). Some phrases are used as prepositions, such as long namel (bilong), "in 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 just before the verb. This may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as 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".

Tense and aspect[edit]

Past tense: marked by "bin" (from English 'been'): Tok Pisin: "Na praim minista i bin tok olsem". English: "And the prime minister spoke thus". (Romaine 1991: 629)

Continuative same tense is expressed through: verb + "i stap". Tok Pisin: "Em i slip i stap". English: "He/She is sleeping". (ibid.: 631)

Completive or perfective aspect expressed through the word "pinis" (from English: finish): Tok Pisin: "Em i lusim bot pinis". English: "He had got out of the boat". (Mühlhäusler 1984: 462).

Transitive words are expressed through "-im" (from English: him): Tok Pisin: "Yu pinisim stori nau." English: "Finish your story now!". (ibid.: 640).

Future is expressed through the word "bai" (from English: by and by): Tok Pisin: "Em bai ol i go long rum" English: "They will go to their rooms now. (Mühlhäusler 1991: 642).

Development of Tok Pisin[edit]

Sign in common use in the 1980s giving a warning in Tok Pisin: "Work on road, cars must stop if you see the red sign."


  2. Pidgin English was used between the local people. The language expanded from the users' mother tongue



    • Smaller vocabulary:
      Tok Pisin: "vot"; English: "election" (n) and "vote" (v)
      Tok Pisin: "hevi"; English: "heavy" (adj) and "weight" (n)
    • Metaphors:
      Tok Pisin: "skru bilong han" (screw of the arm); English: "elbow"
      Tok Pisin: "skru bilong lek" (screw of the leg); English: "knee" (Just "skru" almost always indicates the knee. In liturgical contexts, "brukim skru" is "kneel").
      Tok Pisin: "gras bilong het" (grass of the head); English: "hair" (Hall, 1966: 90f) (Most commonly just "gras" – see note on "skru bilong lek" above).
    • Periphrases:
      Tok Pisin: "nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin" (literally “first child of Mrs Queen”); English: Prince Charles.[7]
    All of the English words "fish", "peach", "feast" or "peace" would have been realised in Tok Pisin as pis. In fact the Tok Pisin pis means "fish" (and usually has more of a short "i" sound, almost like the English word "piss", sometimes "pfiss"). English "piss" was reduplicated to keep it distinct: thus pispis means "urine" or "to urinate".
    Likewise, sip in Tok Pisin could have represented English "ship", "jib", "jeep", "sieve" or "chief". In fact it means "ship".



  • as – bottom, cause, beginning (from "ass"/"arse"). "As ples bilong em" = "his birthplace". "As bilong diwai" = "the stump of a tree".
  • bagarap(im) – broken, to break down (from "bugger up") – (the word is commonly used, with no vulgar undertone, in Tok Pisin and in even in Papua New Guinea English).
  • bagarap olgeta – completely broken
  • balus – bird or more specifically a pigeon or dove (an Austronesian loan word) - by extension aeroplane
  • belhat – angry (lit. "belly hot")
  • belo – bell - as in "belo bilong lotu" = "Church bell". By extension lunch or midday break (from the bell rung to summon diners to the table). A fanciful derivation has been suggested from the "bellows" of horns used by businesses to indicate the beginning of the lunch hour but this seems less likely than the straightforward derivation.
  • bilong wanem? – why?
  • diwai – tree, wood, plant, stick etc.
  • gat bel – pregnant (lit. "has belly"; pasin bilong givim bel = fertility)
  • gut - good
  • hamamas / amamas – happy
  • hap – a piece of, as in "hap diwai" = a piece of wood. (from "half").
  • hapsait - the other side (from "half side")
  • hap ret - purple (from "half red")
  • haus – house or building
    • hausboi/hausmeri – a male/female domestic servant - hausboi (or haus boi) can also mean "servants quarters"
    • haus kaikai — restaurant (from "house food")
    • haus moni – bank (from "house money")
    • haus sik – hospital (from "house sick")
    • haus dok sik – animal hospital (from "house dog sick")
    • haus karai – place of mourning (from "house cry")
    • sit haus (vulgar) – toilet (from "shit house"), also:
      • liklik haus – toilet
      • smol haus – toilet/bathroom ("small house")
    • haus tambaran – traditional Sepik-region house with artifacts of ancestors or for honoring ancestors; tambaran means "ancestor spirit" or "ghost"
  • hevi – heavy, problem. "Em i gat bigpela hevi" = "he has a big problem".
  • hukim pis – to catch fish (from "hook")
    • kaikai bilong moningtaim - breakfast (from "food belong morning time")
    • kaikai bilong nait - dinner/supper (from "food belong night")
  • kamap – arrive, become (from "come up")
  • kisim – get, take (from "get them")
  • lotu – church, worship from Fijian, but sometimes sios is used for "church"
  • mangi/manki – small boy, by extension, young man (Probably from the English jocular/affectionate usage "monkey", applied to mischievous children, although a derivation from the German "männchen", meaning "little man" has also been suggested)
  • manmeri – people (from "man", man, and "meri", woman)
  • maski – it doesn't matter, don't worry about it (Probably from German "macht nichts" = "it doesn't matter")
  • maus gras – moustache (lit: "mouth grass").
  • meri – woman (from the English name "Mary"). Also means female, e.g., "bulmakau meri" (lit. "bull cow female") = cow.
  • olgeta – all (from "all together")
  • olsem wanem - what?, what's going on? (Literally "like what"? Sometimes used as an informal greeting, similar to "what's up?" in English)
  • pisin – bird (from "pigeon"). The homophony of this word with the name of the language has led to a limited association between the two; Mian speakers, for example, refer to Tok Pisin as "wan weng", literally "bird language".
  • pasim – close, lock (from "fasten")
  • pasim maus – shut up, be quiet, i.e. "yu pasim maus" lit: "you close mouth" = "shut up!"
  • paul – wrong, confused, i.e. "em i paul" = "he is confused" (from English "foul")
  • raskol - thief, criminal (from "rascal")
  • raus, rausim ("rausim" is the transitive form) – get out, throw out, remove (from German "raus")
  • rokrok – frog (probably onomatopoetic)
  • sapos – if (from "suppose")
  • save – know, to do habitually (from Pacific Pidgin English, but ultimately from Portuguese influenced Lingua franca, cf. "savvy")
  • sit – remnant (from "shit")
  • solwara – ocean (from "salt water")
  • sop - soap; also
    • sop bilong tit - toothpaste (from "soap belong teeth")
    • sop bilong gras - shampoo (from "soap belong hair")
  • stap – be, live, stay (from "stop")
  • susa – sister, though nowadays very commonly supplanted by "sista". Some Tok Pisin speakers use "susa" to indicate a sibling of the opposite gender, while a sibling of the same gender as the speaker is a "brata" or "barata".
  • susu – milk, breasts, from Malay
  • tambu – forbidden, from "taboo", but also means "in-laws" (mother-in-law, brother-in-law, etc.) and other relatives whom one is forbidden to speak to, or mention the name of, in some PNG customs.
  • telefon - telephone
  • tasol – but, only (from "that's all")

Example of Tok Pisin[edit]

The Lord's Prayer in Tok Pisin:

Papa bilong mipela
Yu stap long heven.
Nem bilong yu i mas i stap holi.
Kingdom bilong yu i mas i kam.
Strongim mipela long bihainim laik bilong yu long graun,
olsem ol i bihainim long heven.
Givim mipela kaikai inap long tude.
Pogivim rong bilong mipela,
olsem mipela i pogivim ol arapela i mekim rong long mipela.
Sambai long mipela long taim bilong traim.
Na rausim olgeta samting nogut long mipela.

The Lord's Prayer in English:

Our father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,


  1. ^ Tok Pisin at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Tok Pisin". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  4. ^ E.g. Nupela Testamen bilong Bikpela Jisas Kraist, 1969.
  6. ^ Liklik can also be used as an adverb meaning "slightly", as in dispela bikpela liklik ston, "this slightly big stone".
  7. ^ "Prince of Wales, 'nambawan pikinini', visits Papua New Guinea". The Telegraph. 4 November 2013. 


Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]