tok pisin language learning

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tok pisin language learning

Postby toksave » 2005-10-17, 2:42

welkam long dispela tok pisin toksave forum, mi bai skulim yupela hau yupela mas toktok tok pisin na mi bai skulim yupela long olgeta samting mi ken skulim.

welcome to this tok pisin learning forum, i will teach you how you must speak tok pisin and i will teach you all everything i can teach you.

lesson 1 will begin tomorrow

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Postby ego » 2005-10-17, 8:51

It is great to see such a forum here. I am really interested in Tok Pisin, I want to learn more about it, and I will always keep an eye on this thread. I don't want to learn the language though.. just to be clear.
May I ask you, are you a native or you have studied it later in your life? Which books have you used?
Also, could you give us some demographical facts about Tok Pisin?
Last edited by ego on 2005-10-17, 11:25, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby E}{pugnator » 2005-10-17, 10:43

I'm really interested, toksave! Nice to see you at the forum! I'll keep an eye here in order to know more. I suggest you post some translations, like you posted your messabe billingually, that was very helpful already.
Learning Georgian, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Papiamentu from scratch. Trying to brush up my Norwegian up to an advanced level.

Karavinka

Postby Karavinka » 2005-10-17, 17:10

I really appreciate that you started doing his, toksave. :D As you already know, my Tok Pisin is nowhere close to yours, but if you think there's anything I can do to help, just contact me through chat or PM.

Karavinka

Postby Karavinka » 2005-10-17, 17:19

I can recommend some books on Tok Pisin that I found helpful. Note that these books are scholarly books and quite costly, so try your local university library.

Tok Pisin texts : from the beginning to the present / edited by Peter Mühlhäusler, Thomas E. Dutton, Suzanne Romaine.
- This 2003 book illustrates basic grammar of Tok Pisin in a concise way and it presents the various texts in Neomelanesian in different periods of its development.

Handbook of Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin) / S.A. Wurm, P. Mühläusler, eds.
- This is a huge, pillow-sized reference book. It has a very detailed discussions about historical/socioeconomical background of this language as well.

Introduction to New Guinea Pidgin, by Father F. Mihalic.
- This is quite an old book from 1969, but you can grasp some idea what the language is like. I didn't really use this seriously because, obviously from its date of publication, it lacks discussions on creolizaion and post-creolization forms of Tok Pisin.

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-17, 20:50

tenkiu tu mas olgeta, thank you everyone so much
it is my first time doing anything like this and i feel very honored. I am not a papuan native but i am very interested in their creole language and culture.
it has been a year now since i discovered tok pisin, and i like it a lot. as some of you may or may not know, tok pisin is a creole language based on english. many of the vocabulary consists of english but there are many more influences such as malay, melanesian, portuguese, and german. tok pisin has a radio station with online news in tok pisin.
i will have links to this later on.

enjoy the language, hamamas!!

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-19, 1:38

lesson 1, pronounciation
tok pisin has an interesting way of writing. it has one writing system, with the use of natural sounds to write a word. unlike english, tok pisin does not contain a difficult writing system.
in tok pisin, words are written how they are said. many sounds, with consonants that are not pronounced in english are written without that consonant in tok pisin. for example: work (if you say it in a british or australian accent, the r isn't pronouced), the word work would be written "wok". tok pisin also has an absence of the sh, j and ch sound, these are replaced with an s, and the f sound is replaced by the p.
the tok pisin word for fish would then be "pis" and the word for finger would be "pinga" (remember the r wooldn't be pronounced). for all thoes spanish speakers out there, this is realy how finger is written.

{lets look at the vowels and consonants}
a - a in father
e - first e in example
i - i in issue
o - o in code
u - u in clue

r - as in spanish r or dd in ladder (i've heard the english r too)
t - t as in tom
p - p as in paul
s - s as in s
d - d as in doctor
f - f as in feet (used in some words)
g - g as in ghost
h - h as in hell
j - j in jew (used in some words)
k - k as in kill
l - l as in law
z - (not common)
x - not used
v - v as in vibe
b - b as in baby
n - n as in name
m - as in month

well, that concludes this session. lesson 1.2 will begin sometime this week.
Last edited by toksave on 2005-12-05, 16:04, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-20, 15:13

lesson 1.2, the tok pisin personal pronouns
in tok pisin the pronouns are as follows
mi = i,me
yu = you
em = he,she, it
ol = they, them
in tok pisin, to make a pronoun plural you add "pela", pela is also used in adjectives.
mipela = we
yupela you (all)
*em and ol are not part of this rule*
tok pisin has this rule that allows you to say:
yutu, when there are two people, or yutri, when there are three people, four or more people would be yupela.
tok pisin has what is called an inclusive and exclusive rule, meaning that when you say something like "we are friends" in english, you wouldn't know whether that person meant you or someone els.
ex: we(excluding you) are kids = mipela stap pikinini
we(including you) are kids = yumi stap pikinini

we (inclusive) = yumi
we (exclusive) = mipela

you are a kid = yu stap wanpela pikinini
i am a kid = mi stap wanpela pikinini
they are kids = ol i stap pikinini
he is a kid = em i stap wanpela pikinini man
she is a kid = em i stap wanpela pikinini meri
it is a dog = em istap wanpela dok

vocabulary:
man = man
woman = meri
kid, child = pikinini
dog = dok
boy = pikinini man
girl = pikinini meri

this concludes this lesson, lesson 1.3 will begin sometime this, or next week.

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Postby ego » 2005-10-20, 20:32

blank :?
Last edited by ego on 2005-10-31, 23:52, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby Luís » 2005-10-20, 22:18

toksave wrote:we(including you) are kids = yumi stap pikinini


Even in Tok Pisin you have Portuguese words? :D

Pikinini = pequenino/pequenininho = very small

I did some research and apparently there's another common word from Portuguese in Tok Pisin - save (to know), from "saber "(to know).
Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-21, 1:48

ego, i've honestly only seen that rule for "yu" and not for "mi", but maybe you can say it. luis, yes your right, tok pisin has words from portuguese like the once you've mentioned. i will cover details on "save" and how it is used in the next lesson.

well, gutpela nait olgeta

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-21, 15:00

i'm realy happy to hear you guys say that, i will continue to do a good job with this forum.

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-28, 0:13

sorry guys that took so long but the hurricane left me without power for a couple of days.

i'll be posting the lesson later

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-28, 15:18

lesson 1.3 welkam
in this lesson we will cover some verbs and their forms. in tok pisin verbs don't change from person to person (1st person, 2end person, etc..) and in tok pisin, you don't have to add any "ed" "ing" to show any tense. ex: mi wok nau (i'm working now)
mi wok asde (i worked yesturday).

***i'd like to clear something up, the word "ol" doesn't have to be used if the pluralization is implied, ex: triplea dok (three dogs)***

to show tense in tok pisin you add short words to represent the tense. **this is common in many creoles** ex:
jon i bin wok asde (john worked yesterday)
jon bai i wok tumora (john will work tomorrow)
jon i wok i stap nau (john is working now)
jon i wok pinis (john is finished working)
jon i save wok long tunde (john works on tuesday)
jon i ken wok (john can work)
jon inap wok (john can work)

note: "save" in here is used for doing samething regularly. "ken" is used for being allowed to do something. "inap" is used for being able to do something.

the suffix "-im" is used in a verb only when followed by the object.
ex: mi rait (i'm writing) mi raitim pas (i'm writing a letter)
***(the same rule is used for all tenses)please use it in this form, i'm sorry if i had misslead any of you in chat, remember i'm not a native speaker***

vocabulary:
pas = letter
asde = yesterday
tumora = tomorrow
wok = work, job (also used as "to do")
rait = write

lesson 1.4 will begin soon

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-28, 15:20

my typos are always the same...lol
if you guys see that i write "plea" its actualy "pela"

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-31, 0:24

hey everyone, just for info, a friend told me that in Papua New Guinea the latest expression for "goodbye" is "catch mulai" i'm not sure if its in tok pisin, but feel free to use it.

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-31, 5:36

i just realized that i never tought how to pluralize nouns,... well, here it goes..

in tok pisin, nouns are pluralized by puting "ol" before the word.
ex: meri = woman, ol meri = women

i saw a man in my house = mi bin lukim wanpela man insait long haus bilong mi.

i saw men in my house = mi bin lukim ol man insait long haus bilong mi

(remember that if pluralization is implied, don't use "ol")

i saw three men in my house = mi bin lukim tripela man insait long haus bilong mi

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Postby toksave » 2005-10-31, 7:12

lesson 1.4 welkam

i'd like to inclued the days, but this lesson is for greetings and daily expressions.

DAYS
monday = mande
tuesday = tunde
wednesday = trinde
thursday = fonde
frieday = fraide
saturday = sarere
sunday = sande

GREETINGS
welcome = welkam
good morning = monin tru, gutpela monin
good afternoon = avinun tru, gutpela avinun
good evening = gutpela nait
hello = gude, halo

DAILY EXPRESSIONS AND PHRASES
what is your name? = husat nem bilong yu?
please = plis
sorry = sori
thank you = tenkiu
thank you very much = tenkiu tru, tenkiu tumas
do you know tok pisin? = yu save tok pisin?
i speak english = mi save tok inglis
enjoy! = hamamas!
what do you think? = yu ting wanem?
how much does this cost? = em hao mas?
today = tete
tomorrow = tumora
yesterday = asde

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Postby ego » 2005-10-31, 9:56

Halo tisa (I hope this indeed means teacher :D ).

I am closely looking to your lessons as I had promised. I have some questions and I would appreciate if you could answer:

1. If I understood correctly, "save" is used as an auxiliary to demonstrate the continuous present tense. Is this right? Can we say "Mi save go" = I always go?

2. What is this "i" in phrases like "jon i bin wok asde"?

3. The word "husat", which let me guess, derives from "who is that", means what exactly? "Which"?

4. Could you say something about the stress in Tok Pisin? Sometimes I don't know which vowel to stress in words like "hamamas" or "save". I used to put the stress on save but since you said it comes from portuguese I started pronouncing save. I am lost.

Tenkiu tumas! :D

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Postby ego » 2005-10-31, 10:15

I found this rule in a Tok Pisin webpage:

Em i wok. 'He/she worked.'
Tom i wok. 'Tom worked.'
Note that the last two sentences have the little word i before the verb. (Remember that in Tok Pisin, i is pronounced something like "ee".) This little word is called a "predicate marker", and it must occur in a sentence when subject is em or a noun (like "Tom" or "the bicycle").

So every time the subject is 3d person singular we just put an "i" before the verb? So simple?


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