Tok Pisin

Abstract

Tok Pisin (or New Guinea Pidgin) is the dialect of Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Papua New Guinea. It serves as the main language of wider communication in a country where more than 800 separate indigenous languages are spoken by a population of nearly five million. The two other dialects of Melanesian Pidgin are Pijin, spoken in the Solomon Islands (with more than 80 indigenous languages and a population of around 480,000), and Bislama, spoken in Vanuatu (more than 100 languages, population 192,000). Torres Strait Creole (also known as Broken or Yumiplatok) - spoken by approximately 10,000 people around the northern tip of eastern Australia - is closely related to Melanesian Pidgin but is usually considered to be a separate language.