Robert Eklund’s Tok Pisin Page |
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Here is my Tok Pisin page. Enjoy this fantastic language! |
No smoking sign in Kavieng. |
This page contains several different items, so it’s worthwhile to scroll down. You can read, listen to and download...
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A Short Description of Tok Pisin |
Tok Pisin is an English-lexicon pidgin/creole language spoken in Papua New Guinea. It is one of the three official languages of this nation with nearly 800 languages. (The other two official languages are English and Hiri Motu.) Although around 80% of the lexicon is derived from English, the syntax is predominantly Austronesian. The basic word order is SVO. |
Some Grammatical Traits of Tok Pisin |
The Austronesian substratum in Tok Pisin appears on several levels in
the syntax. A few traits of interest are described in the following
passages. |
Distinction between inclusive and exclusive personal plural pronouns |
Predicate marking |
Serial verb constructions |
Aspect/tense marking |
Reduplicative morphology |
Further reading |
Children’s Ditty |
During my last visit, children on both coasts were singing this funny
little ditty while clapping their hands in a way I never quite managed
to learn myself.
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Recording session on Eva’s veranda, Bimun, New Ireland, January 2000 |
In the table below you find two files to download. The long one covers
a fair share of the recording session, including several alternative takes.
You can hear both me and Eva talk with the performers Tine and Damaris.
(Grace is listening, with her back towards to camera.)
You can also hear the word “temaieng”, which means “thank you” in Kuot.
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Title | English Translation | Sound Files |
Off yu go Off, off, off yu go Off yu go to Port Moresby Kam bek gen, kam bek gen Painim pes solap Pes solap |
Off You Go Off, off, off you go Off you go to Port Moresby When you return You find your face slapped |
Long version. Duration: 2:47 (2612 kb) [mp3] |
Short version. Duration: 0:15 (248 kb) [mp3] |
Tok Pisin Hymn |
Here is a studio recording of the Tok Pisin hymn Yumi litimapin. I performed it at the Swedish Ukulele Festival in Göteborg (before an audience of 3000 people) since I deemed it appropriate given that the ukulele is a common instrument in Papua New Guinea. A week after the festival I recorded it in the In The Labyrinth studio. Below are pictures from the concert and the studio session. |
Yumi litimapim
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Festival |
Eagle ukulele |
Applause ukulele |
Airport Corpus |
During my last visit – December 1999 to February 2000 – I recorded 39 speakers as they were booking or confirming flight at the Air Niugini sales office, Kavieng Airport. |
Kavieng Airport main building. | |
Air Niugini sales office, Kavieng Airport. | |
“NOTICE. Chewing and spitting of betelnut is prohibited in the airport area”. Sign at Kavieng Airport. |
I spent several days at the Air Niugini Sales Office, and asked entering customers whether I could record their conversations with the travel agents, and everyone happily agreed. (Mind you, people in Papua New Guinea are very familiar with linguists.) |
Me recording customer at Air Niugini sales office, Kavieng Airport, January, 2000. |
The data have been used/analysed in three articles so far. The numbering is the same as the one found on the Publications Page. |
[38] |
Eklund, Robert. 2001. |
[36] |
Eklund, Robert. 2000. |
[35] |
Eklund, Robert. 2000. |
One of the customers was Dicks Thomas, co-author of the book
I used to study Tok Pisin prior to my first visit, i.e.,
A New Course in Tok Pisin, by Tom Dutton and Dicks Thomas.
Dicks kindly gave me the permission to put a sample from his
conversation with Loris (who already had given me the permission
to use the sound files, of course).
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Travel agent Loris and customer Dicks Thomas. |
Transcription & Translation | Sound Files | |
L: |
Ahm, wanpela sit i stap lo fotint. Hmm, there is a seat on the 14th. |
Duration: 0:55. (1088 kb.) [mp3] |
D: |
Oke, putim mi lo dispela.
OK, put me on that one. |
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Ating bihain long apinun o tumora mi ...
Perhaps later this afternoon or tomorrow I... |
Duration: 0:55. (1739 kb.) [wav] |
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... mi gat wanpela tiket bai mi...
... I’ve got a ticket that I... |
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... mi no bin yusim from Lae kam long hia.
... I haven’t used it from Lae to here. |
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L: |
OK. Em i bilong go long we? Lae o Mosbi?
OK. What’s its destination? Lae or Port Moresby? |
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D: |
No, long hia i go long Mosbi.
No, from here to Port Moresby. |
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L: |
Oke.
OK. |
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D: |
So tiket mi toktok long en, mi holim long Mosbi,
So the ticket I’m talking about, I had it from Port Moresby, |
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... i kam bilong Kavieng tasol mi bin wokabaut long narapela rot.
... to Kavieng, but I’ve come here by another way. |
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L: |
Ah, oke, oke.
Ah, OK, OK. |
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D: |
Iya. Bai yumi senisim, tasol.
Yeah, we’ll just change it. |
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L: |
So yu holim tiket i stap? Tasol em i...?
So you’ve got a ticket? But it... |
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D: |
Ti... tiket i stap ... mi no karim i kam, mi raunraun tasol...
I’ve got a ti... ticket ... I didn’t bring it, I was just out... |
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... na mi tok orait, bai mi painim dispela wanpela ... sit ...
... and I thought I’d go get this ... a seat ... |
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... na bai i rediim i stap
... and they can prepare it. |
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Ating apinun o tumora bai mi kam kisim.
Maybe this afternoon or tomorrow I’ll come and get it. |
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L: |
OK, bai mi givim yu kopi long buking. Yu weit.
OK. I’ll give you a copy of the reservation. Just a minute. |
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D: |
Yes. Oke.
Yes. OK. |
Malaria Comic |
For a language sample, here is an informative comic strip on malaria. |
Tok Pisin Speech Synthesis |
I’ve created what I believe to be the world’s first Tok Pisin speech synthesizer. Download sound files from the table below. Beware of a strong Swedish accent!! |
Tok Pisin Sentence | Sound Files |
Mi laik painim ron bilong balus i kirap long Fraide. (I would like a flight that departs on Friday.) |
[NIST/Sphere] [mp3] [wav] |
Hamas bilong baim tiket i go long Mosbi? (How much does a ticket to Port Moresby cost?) |
[NIST/Sphere]
[mp3]
[wav] |
I gat sampela sit i stap long dispela ron bilong balus? (Are there any seats left on that flight?) |
[NIST/Sphere]
[mp3]
[wav] |
Raitim olgeta flait long Kavieng i go long Mosbi i gat stap long Manus na Madang. (List all flights from Kavieng to Port Moresby with stopovers in Manus and Madang.) |
[NIST/Sphere]
[mp3]
[wav] |
Wanem taim bai mi lusim dispela hap? (What time do I leave?) |
[NIST/Sphere]
[mp3]
[wav] |
Speech-to-Speech Translation |
In 1998, I whipped together (with a lot of help from my friends!) an automatic speech-to-speech translation system from Swedish to Tok Pisin. The paper was presented in poster form at the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing in Sydney, December 1998. Here are a couple of pictures from that event. |
Me presenting my Tok Pisin poster at ICSLP’98 in Sydney. I’m wearing a laplap. Listener: David House, KTH | |
Ditto. Listener: Gösta Bruce, Lund University |
Download the poster, and/or download the full paper: |
[22] |
Eklund, Robert. 1998. |
Download a sample sound file from the table below. |
Swedish-to-Tok Pisin Translation | Sound Files | ||
Visa flighter som går från Boston till San Francisco på tisdag. |
[NIST/Sphere] [mp3] [wav] |
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Soim ol ron bilong balus i lusim Boston i go long San Francisco long Tunde (Show flights from Boston to San Francisco on Tuesday.) |
Tok Pisin Literature List |
Here is a listing of literature on, or in, Tok Pisin. I have not included
literature on pidgin/creole languages in general, even though they might
include some information on Tok Pisin (a paragraph or chapter or so),
but instead concentrated on works devoted mainly to Tok Pisin. I have not
seen all the works with my own eyes, so I can’t vouch for the relevance
of all the titles listed below, some of which are extremely hard to find,
at least from my position in Sweden. |
I would like to thank the following people for the assistance:
Eva Lindström,
Peter Mühlhäusler,
Mikael Parkvall,
Malcolm Ross and Craig Volker. |
If you know about literature on, or in, Tok Pisin which is not found on this
list, please send me an email at
and I’ll add it forthwith. |
Click here for the full Tok Pisin Bibliography. |
Tok Pisin Links |
Here are some links on Tok Pisin. |
Here is a good Tok Pisin link:
Niugini.com.
... and here you can read Hail Mary in Tok Pisin. If you want to listen to Tok Pisin, you can always use the Radio Australia Tok Pisin Service. For a large number of good links, go to Kami Wantok's Forum. Here is a Pidgin–English Dictionary. Karl J. Franklin discusses some lexicographic considerations for Tok Pisin. The personal web site of Thomas H. Slone, where you could also find a bibliography of Melanesian Pidgin English dictionaries, phrase books and study guides |