Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin (tok means word or speech and is the tok Pisin equivalent of -ese or -ish) is the creole spoken in Papua New Guinea. Its vocabulary is about 5/6 Indo-European and 1/6 Malayo-Polynesian and indigenous New Guinea languages; its grammar is built on a simple pidgin grammar, with various irregularities.
The verb has one suffix, -im to indicate transitivity (luk, look; lukim, see). But some verbs, such as kaikai "eat", can be transitive without it. Tense is indicated by the separate words bai (future) and bin (past).
The noun does not indicate number, though pronouns do.
Adjectives usually take the suffix -pela when modifying nouns; an exception is liklik "little". Liklik can also be used as an adverb meaning "slightly", as in dispela bikpela liklik ston, "this slightly big stone".
Pronouns show person, number, and exclusion:
| 1 | 2i | 2e | 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | mi | - | yu | em |
| Dual | mitupela | yutupela | yumitupela | tupela |
| Plural | mipela | yumi | yupela | ol |
Reduplication is very common in tok Pisin. Sometimes it is used as a method of derivation; sometimes words just have it. Some words are distinguished only by reduplication: sip "ship", sipsip "sheep".
There are only two proper prepositions: bilong, which means "of" or "for", and long, which means everything else. Some phrases are used as prepositions, such as long namel (bilong), "in the middle of".