Editing Tok Pisin (section)

==Development of Tok Pisin==
Tok Pisin developed out of regional dialects of the local inhabitants' languages and English, brought into the country when English speakers arrived. Four phases in Tok Pisin's development were laid out by Loreto Todd.
# Casual contact between English speakers and local people developed a marginal pidgin.
# Pidgin English was used between the local people. The language expanded from the users' mother tongue.
# As the interracial contact increased, the vocabulary expanded according to the dominant language.
# In areas where English was the official language, a depidginization occurred (Todd, 1990).

Tok Pisin is also known as a "mixed" language. This means that it consists of characteristics of different languages. Tok Pisin obtained most of its vocabulary from English (i.e., English is its [[lexifier]]). The origin of the syntax is a matter of debate. Edward Wolfers claimed that the syntax is from the substratum languages—the languages of the local peoples.{{sfn|Wolfers|1971|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wG08AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA413 413]}} [[Derek Bickerton]]'s analysis of creoles, on the other hand, claims that the syntax of creoles is imposed on the grammarless pidgin by its first native speakers: the children who grow up exposed to only a pidgin rather than a more developed language such as one of the local languages or English. In this analysis, the original syntax of creoles is in some sense the default grammar humans are born with.

Pidgins are less elaborated than non-Pidgin languages. Their typical characteristics found in Tok Pisin are:

#A smaller vocabulary which leads to metaphors to supply lexical units:
#*Smaller vocabulary:
#*:{{lang|tpi|vot}} = "election" (n) and "vote" (v)
#*:{{lang|tpi|hevi}} = "heavy" (adj) and "weight" (n)
#*[[Metaphor]]s:
#*:{{lang|tpi|skru bilong han}} (screw of the arm) = "[[elbow]]"
#*:{{lang|tpi|skru bilong lek}} (screw of the leg) = "[[knee]]" (Just {{lang|tpi|skru}} almost always indicates the knee. In liturgical contexts, {{lang|tpi|brukim skru}} is "kneel.")
#*:{{lang|tpi|gras bilong het}} (grass of the head) = "hair" (Hall, 1966: 90f) (Most commonly just {{lang|tpi|gras}}—see note on {{lang|tpi|skru bilong lek}} above.)
#*[[Circumlocution]]:
#*:{{lang|tpi|nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin}} (literally "first child of [[Elizabeth II|Mrs Queen]]") = [[King Charles III]], then known through his relation to the Queen.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/9654071/Prince-of-Wales-nambawan-pikinini-visits-Papua-New-Guinea.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/9654071/Prince-of-Wales-nambawan-pikinini-visits-Papua-New-Guinea.html |archive-date=2022-01-12 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Prince of Wales, 'nambawan pikinini', visits Papua New Guinea|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date=4 November 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
#A reduced grammar: lack of [[copula (linguistics)|copula]], [[determiner (linguistics)|determiners]]; reduced set of [[prepositions]], and [[grammatical conjunction|conjunctions]]
#Less differentiated phonology: {{IPA|[p]}} and {{IPA|[f]}} are not distinguished in Tok Pisin (they are in free variation). The [[Sibilant consonant|sibilants]] {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/z/}}, {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, {{IPA|/ʒ/}}, {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, and {{IPA|/dʒ/}} are also not distinguished.
#:All of the English words ''fish'', ''peach'', ''feast'', ''piss'', and ''peace'' would have been realised in Tok Pisin as {{lang|tpi|pis}}. In fact, the Tok Pisin {{lang|tpi|pis}} means "fish" (and usually has a sound closer to [{{IPA-link|ɪ}}], almost like the English word ''piss''). English ''piss'' was reduplicated to keep it distinct: thus {{lang|tpi|pispis}} means "urine" or "to urinate".
#:Likewise, {{lang|tpi|sip}} in Tok Pisin could have represented English ''ship'', ''jib'', ''jeep'', ''sieve'', ''sheep'', or ''chief''. In fact, it means "ship".

=== Circumlocution ===
The use of circumlocutions to compensate for limited vocabulary is a familiar process in pidgin languages. Tok Pisin is no different: consider ''[[wikt:bel_i_no_laikim_kaikai|bel i no laikim kaikai]]'' "food intolerance" (literally "the belly does not like the food").  

However, Tok Pisin has become especially known for its supposed use of very lengthy [[Circumlocution|circumlocutions]]. Two commonly-cited examples relate to the [[piano]] and the [[helicopter]]. 

The following Tok Pisin "names" for the piano were recorded by early 20th-century writers:<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Mühlhäusler |first=Peter |title=Growth and structure of the lexicon of New Guinea Pidgin |publisher=[[Australian National University]] |year=1979 |isbn=0858831910 |location=Canberra}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=227-8}}

* ''big fellow box spose whiteman fight him he cry too much'' (1902)
* ''box belong cry'' ("screaming box") (1902)
* ''big fellow bokkes, suppose missis he fight him, he cry too much'' (1911)
* ''bigfela bokis yu fait-im i krai'' (1921)
* ''bikpela bokis bilong krai taim yu paitim na kikim em'' (1969)

Linguists observe that these circumlocutions are unstable ''ad hoc'' descriptions of an object, rather than set "words" or names. The situation is comparable to a Tok Pisin-English dictionary's definition of a Tok Pisin word with no English equivalent, such as ''milis'' being defined as "coconut milk made from shedding coconut meat in the water of a ripe nut"; nobody would suggest that this lengthy expression is the "English name" for this drink.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=225}}

Secondly, it is often claimed that ''mixmaster bilong [[Jesus Christ]]'' is the Tok Pisin word for "helicopter" (the [[Sunbeam Products|Sunbeam]] Mixmaster was an electric [[food processor]] popular in the United States and Australia). This [[Urban legend|factoid]] appeared as early as 1965<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Lowell |author-link=Lowell Thomas |title=Adventures with the New Guinea Head-hunters |publisher=Doubleday |year=1965 |pages=291-2}}</ref> and still circulates online today. However, the phrase appears to be a fabrication by [[Expatriate|expatriates]] working in New Guinea.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=231}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Milton |title=New Guinea |date=1972 |publisher=Kodansha International |isbn=978-0-87011-166-2 |editor-last= |editor-first= |edition= |series=This beautiful world |location=Tokyo |pages=11 |editor-last2= |editor-first2=}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Laycock |first=Donald C. |date=1970 |title=It was a peculiarly great year for pidgin |journal=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=45-8}}</ref> Linguists point out that helicopters, introduced to New Guinea by oil search teams,<ref name=":1" /> would have been far more familiar to early Tok Pisin speakers than electric food processors.<ref name=":2" />