Editing Tok Pisin (section)

=== 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" />