Grations Online

Tok Pisin (tok means "word" or "speech" as in "talk", pisin means "pidgin") is spoken in Papua New Guinea. It is one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in that country, spoken by about 4 million people as a second language and over a hundred thousand as a first language.

Although it was originally a pidgin, Tok Pisin is now considered a distinct language in its own right because it is a first language for some people and not merely a 'linqua franca 'to facilitate communication with speakers of other languages. Since its formation, it has been steadily developing a more complex and distinctive grammar as it has undergone creolisation.

 For a great link on Tok Pisin with dictionaries and much information go to:     www.tok-pisin.com

There aren't as many sounds in Tok Pisin as there are in English.

In Tok Pisin, the "s" sound is used for the "sh" sound, so the English word "shell" has become sel in Tok Pisin.

The "p" sound is used for the "f" sound, so the English word "fish" has become pis.

Like many dialects of English, Tok Pisin does not have the r sound following a vowel, so for example, the English word "work" has become wok in Tok Pisin.

Also, Tok Pisin has a rule that at the end of a word or a syllable, g becomes k and d becomes t. So the word for 'pig' is pik and the word for 'road' is rot.

The Tok Pisin vowels are a, e, i, o and u.

In English, the letter for a vowel might have many different pronunciations -- for example, compare the sound of the "u" in "rule", "put", "but", and "fuse". But in Tok Pisin, each vowel has only one pronunciation, much like the "pure vowels" in languages such as Spanish.

      
       a is pronounced similar to the "a" in the English word "father"
       e is pronounced similar to the "e" in "vein"
       i is pronounced similar to the "i" in "machine"
       o is pronounced similar to the "o" in "boat"
       u is pronounced similar to the "u" in "rule"