Thursday 1 September 2011

TOK PISIN IS A SWEET LANGUAGE

Tok Pisin is a sweet, logical and useful language for PNG, evolved over 200 years in communication with villagers in the colonial world. There are traces of words that come from the cotton fields of America, Pacific islands from Hawaii, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

There are few German words any more but much English with the odd word from Latin and a few from the Indonesian/Malay traders. Creole of Australian Aborigines is very similar.

Tok Pisin has been put down as a low level language only able to explain concrete topics. That is not true.    It forces the speaker to break ideas down into logical simplicity. It is no more a bastardized language than English that has come from Saxon, Celt, French and Latin.

It is a simple language to teach as long as the teacher can conceive the logical structure.  Tok Pisin can be likened to a tree with branches arranged in order. It is a rhythmic language based on weak / strong/ weak/ strong like "Jack and Jill went up the hill".

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: TOK PISIN TREE (1)
24 Aug 2011 ... TOK PISIN TREE (1). (68 patterns + 21 basic exercises) .....
The family Positive Living message is a world message based on family love and ...familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011/08/tok-pisin-tree-1_24.html
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FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: TOK PISIN TREE (2)
23 Aug 2011 ... Now let us play with patterns from the Tok Pisin Tree. ....
TOK PISIN FOR AUSSIE DEFENCE AND FAMILIES · TOK PISIN TREE (1) The family
Positive Living message is a world message based on family love and caring. ...
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011/08/tok-pisin-tree-2.html

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I have taught Tok Pisin to about 3500 people in 34 years and still going strong. It is easiest to teach those whose first language is English. I speak to my two daughters only in English.

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