Tok Pisin

Uncommon card · No. 80730

Tok Pisin (English: TOK PISS-in, tawk, -⁠zin; Tok Pisin: [tok pisin]) is an English creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in the country. In parts of the southern provinces of Western, Gulf, Central, Oro, and Milne Bay, the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history and is less universal, especially among older people. Between five and six million people use Tok Pisin to some degree, though not all speak it fluently. Many now learn it as a first language, in particular the children of parents or grandparents who originally spoke different languages (for example, a mother from Madang and a father from Rabaul). Urban families in particular, and those of police and defence force members, often communicate among themselves in Tok Pisin, either never gaining fluency in a local language (tok ples) or learning a local language as a second (or third) language after Tok Pisin (and possibly English). Over...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Wikitongues, Teddy Nee, CC BY-SA 4.0