Tok Pisin is a language spoken in Papua New Guinea as a lingua franca that enables communication between people of different tribes (language groups).
The dictionary is given roughly in temporal order of getting to know these words (but it can be reordered by clicking on the column headers). The dictionary was mostly learned by looking at the street signs and ads. Words which were overheard might have a misspelling in the following table.
| Tok Pisin | English | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| abenun! | Good afternoon! | Greeting heard in the afternoon. |
| morning! | Good morning! | Greeting heard before noon. |
| wait man | white man, muzungu, gringo | |
| Rais bilong yumi! | Our rice! | Ad |
| yu | you | |
| mi | me | |
| yumi | we, us | |
| Yumi go! | Let's go! | |
| mas (?) | ? | Often heard |
| Bikpela strongpela sop! | Big strong soap! (?) | Ad |
| -pela | 0 | [BUG: check] |
| plenti | a lot | |
| Top ap hia! | Top up here! | Ad |
| buai | betelnut | |
| kaikai | eat, chew (?) | |
| Noken simuk na kaikai buai insait long maket. | Nobody is allowed to smoke or chew betelnut in the market. | |
| car was | car wash | |
| draiv wei | drive way | |
| Noken kam insait! | Nobody can come inside! | Sign at the entrance to the Magic Mountain lodge (next to "Welcome to Magic Mountain"). |
| hanwas | hand wash | |
| bia stoa | beer store | |
| wanpla, dupla, ... | one, two, ... | |
| Em i tambu tru long rausim ol life jackets na ol narapela samting long dispela balus. | It is illegal to remove life jackets or any other equipement from this aircraft. | Note on the back of the seats in the Air Niugini planes. |
| tok | talk, language | |
| long | ? | Very frequent word |