Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea: phonology

Introduction

Like various types of pidginized English around the world, the variety spoken in the New Guinea area has been the object of interest for many years, usually for the wrong reasons. It has in turn evinced hostility, ridicule, amusement and more recently, serious study. Early administrators and other expatriate observers were often scathing in their contempt for what was seen merely as an improperly acquired and mangled form of English. It was much later that Prince Philip characterised it as a “splendid language” but even then he failed to conceal a somewhat patronizing tone. It was not until the last few decades that the language has been taken seriously on its own terms, and although even today many negative attitudes persist, it is at last receiving some of the respect it deserves. This variety, now so widely spoken in Papua New Guinea, is “based on” English in the sense that most lexical items are ultimately derived from it, but observers will soon discover that the language is not comprehensible to English speakers without considerable instruction. It has sometimes been referred to as “Melanesian Pidgin English”, although this more accurately includes sister dialects Bislama in Vanuatu and Pijin in Solomon Islands. The name “Neo-Melanesian” enjoyed brief currency among some academics, but was never widely used. Most speakers refer to it simply as Tok Pisin (“talk pidgin”) or simply Pidgin. It is today Papua New Guinea’s largest and fastest-growing language and the de facto national language.