Papua New Guinea is renowned for having over 700 languages spoken by its four million people. This figure sounds incredible, but is a thoroughly researched fact.
Of course the number is steadily decreasing, as education and transportation break down the barriers that lead to this huge number.
Travel led to the necessity for some kind of common language. The two colonising powers in PNG spoke German and English, and those two languages gave rise to a Pidgin language. The granting of territorial responsibility to Australia after World War 1 ensured it was English that has predominated in this Pidgin.
Many are offended by what they perceive to be "baby talk", and believe Pidgin English cannot be validly called a language.
However what has evolved as Tok Pisin indeed fulfills the criteria for a language. Among these are the facts that it can express all the daily transactions its speakers wish to make without recourse to another language, and its speakers think in the language.
This is not to say Pidgin speakers do not have other languages. Most Papua New Guineans still have a mother tongue, learned in their villages. However with urbanisation there is emerging a generation who are more fluent in Tok Pisin than any other language.
The language has been systematised into a grammar and dictionary. The most work in this area has been done by Frank Mihalic, a priest who still writes in the weekly Tok Pisin newspaper "Wantok". "The Jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar of Melanesian Pisin" is still in print.
There are no Tok Pisin courses that I am aware of available on the Internet. There are some taped courses and some run by various military and Aid organisations.
Mi laik pinisim dispela liklik toksave long Tok Pisin. Planti manmeri bilong PNG i laik toktok long olgeta pren na wantok long dispela tok.
Sapos yu laik kisim save long dispela kain tok, orait, yu salim toksave long dispela man i bin raitim dispela pes, na em i amamas long bekim tok long yu.
For some fun with Tok Pisin...
Main Bill PNG Aviation Flying Wisdom
Missionary Aviation Fellowship
Tok Pisin Irish Archive PNG Portraits