Tok Pisin & Hawai’i Creole English:
EnglishWantoks or Siblings?
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Craig Alan VolkerProfessor of Linguistic Research
Divine Word University, Madang, PNgcvolker AT dwu.ac.pg
Oceanic Origins
pau / pinis: Hanahana pau, orait, yufera slip.Wok pinis, orait, yupela slip.
pronounsSingular Dual Trial Plural mi mitufera mitrifera miferayu yutufera yutrifera yufera him (data not certain)
Oceanic, in modern HCE, not in data
stap / stei durative: Ai laik stei tok stori.
bin / wen past: Ai wen bai da kain.
locative prepositions: andanit a da chri
transitive marker (“im”) : Yu no laik yusim hama?
answering negative questions
Typical Oceanic not in data
inclusive / exclusive “we”
predicate marker (“i”)
no general preposition “long”
productive reduplication
Oceanic but also Japanese
serial verbs of direction:Yufera kachi diswankam! / Gachi diswan go!
no interrogative fronting:Yu laiki wat?
Common with Chinese Pidgin English
bilong / birong: Him haus birong mi
-fela / -fera adjectives: Man him bigfera. Tufera gud wahine.
-fela / -fera determiners: wanfera man / *wanfera tebol
Common English-derived wordsconjunctions: olsem, sapos, taim, orait
Olsem hanahana pau...
“ol” plural
adverbs of intensity: lelebet, tomachiRerebet mani, tomachi pirikia.
atingAting mi Japan go.
Word orderusually SVO
so prepositions & det-adj-n:Wanfera gud wahine
sometimes SOV (like Japanese): Taim mi Japan go.
sometimes postpositions (like Japanese):Mi stap ten klok made.
Wantoks or siblings?
some words and morphemes have common ancestors
Structure in data not Oceanic
Some later diffusion into Hawai’i Creole English of Oceanic structures