Tok Pisin

Last Updated: 2020-07-02

Background

Language Family: Creole / English based / Pacific

• Although the “Pisin” of the language’s name does indeed come from the English word “pidgin,” the language is more accurately characterized as a creole as there are native speakers and the system has become grammaticized (Smith 2008, 192).

Phonology

• There is much variation in the phonemic inventory as many speakers learn Tok Pisin as a second language or also speak English (Smith 2008, 199). The analysis below reflects the core (somewhat idealized) phonemic inventory.

Consonants

	Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p b	t d			k ɡ
Affricates			dʒ
Fricatives	f v	s				h
Nasals	m	n			ŋ
Trills		r
Approximants	w	l		j
Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless, whereas those on the right are voiced.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Alphabet

Grapheme	Phoneme
a	/a/
b	/b/
d	/d/
e	/e/
f	/f/
g	/ɡ/
h	/h/
i	/i/
j	/dʒ/
k	/k/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
o	/o/
p	/p/
r	/r/
s	/s/
t	/t/
u	/u/
v	/v/
w	/w/
y	/j/
Digraph
ng	/ŋ/

Lenition Rules

• /dʒ/ spirantizes to [s] non-word-initally (Boer and Williams 2017, 60).

Misc. Rules

• Epenthetic vowels are often inserted between consonant clusters (Smith 2008, 204).

References

Boer, Jennifer, and Cori Williams. 2017. “Tok Pisin Phonology: A Preliminary Study.” Language & Linguistics in Melanesia 37: 55–81.

Smith, Geoffrey. 2008. “Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea: Phonology.” Varieties of English 3: Pacific and Australasia, 188–210.