#learning tok pisin | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

er-cryptid · 1 month

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i-m-j-a-d-e · 8 months

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What I'm Doing On My Blog

I'm planning on doing a couple of things with my blog.

Language Journals

Dance Progress

Life Notes

Info Dumps

Cooking Knowledge

Language Journals

I am currently learning Korean and Chinese. I am also re-learning Japanese, Tok Pisin, and Spanish after not using them for a while. On here I'm going to be writing journal entries in each language, posting my vocabulary and grammar notes, and anything else related to my language learning. If you speak any of these languages please interact and correct me if I use something wrong or if there's a better way to say something. I'm open to feedback and would love to have a conversation and make new language friends :).

Dance Progress

My goal for the rest of the year is to learn at least the chorus of a song per day. I have a list of songs I want to learn. I have numbered them and will be using a random number generator to choose which dance to learn that day. I will be posting the list and an entry about each dance I learn (possibly with a video of me doing the dance ;))

Life Notes

This is where I will be posting bullet journal style entries, lessons I've learnt, and photos from my day. Basically like a digital bullet journal. Maybe with drawings.

Info Dumps

Anything I've hyperfocused on I've decided to put my research on here instead of google drive. This can be anything from random topics I research, to whatever series of things I've rabbit holed to draw, to things I've crocheted or designed. Just a digital diary of my hobbies and hyperfixations.

Cooking Knowledge

Cooking is a big thing in my family. My dad has read tons of recipes and cooking books and has committed the information to memory, now he doesn't really uses recipes (only uses them as a base idea of flavours and ingredients if he's unfamiliar) and measures with the spirit of the ancestors. This is the way I've been taught to cook since I was little. Now that I'm an adult and am cooking a lot more I am testing out my skills and figuring things out for myself and creating my own brain cooking book. To help me keep track of everything I'm going to be writing down my recipes, my notes on different dishes and ingredients. My mum can't eat too much garlic and onion, I can't eat shellfish, tomato, and eggplant so I also have to figure out how to make things to suit that. I'll also be writing any techniques I've learnt.

That's my plan for this blog. Obviously there will be some random stuff but I'll try to fit it into one of these categories. Thank You for reading. I love messages and suggestions about new things to try so feel free to message me :)

Have a great day! <33333

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royal-confessions · 6 months

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“People love to call Charles racist when he has been known to be the most liberal out of the royals, to the point where Neo-Nazis and white supremacists literally hate him. Long before Meghan arrived, he was already known to be very open of the many diverse cultures that make up the UK and Commonwealth and always showed some effort in learning a bit of the different languages, dances, religions etc. He always had a very pluralistic outlook. My family from Papua STILL talk about his visit and love how he spoke in Tok Pisin. I’m sure there’s some moments where he’s “out of touch”, but to call him racist is just doing too much. Racism is about INTENT, and that man has never shown himself to intentionally be racist towards anyone. People just allow their hatred of him over Diana cloud their judgement of him, and they refuse to actually see how he’s grown.” - Submitted by Anonymous

#King Charles III #popular

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linguistics-and-such · 7 months

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The Pronouns of Tok Pisin:

There's this wonderful language I recently became aware of called Tok Pisin, which is a creole language with English elements spoken in Papua New Guinea. It has a very interesting pronoun system that I absolutely adore.

Firstly, Tok Pisin doesn't differentiate between subject (I, we, he, she, etc.) and object (me, us, him, her, etc.). So, I and me are both mi, for example.

Secondly, Tok Pisin forms both its possessive adjective (my, our, his, her, etc.) and its possessive noun (mine, yours, his, hers, etc.) by preceding the base pronoun with bilong. So, my and mine are both bilong mi, for example.

Thirdly - and this is probably my favorite feature - Tok Pisin doesn't mark gender or animacy in its 3rd person pronouns: em is he/him, she/her, it, and singular they/them.

Fourthly, Tok Pisin has a dual, trial, and plural system. For example, yu is singular you, yutupela is you two, yutripela is you three, and yupela is you all.

Fifthly, Tok Pisin has an inclusive and exclusive distinction in its dual, trial, and plural 1st person pronouns: mitupela, mitripela, and mipela are the exclusive we/us, and yumitupela, yumitripela, and yumipela are the inclusive we/us.

I have no words to describe how much I love this system. It makes so much logical sense and is so easy to learn.

Here's the full pronoun declension system of 1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person pronouns in Tok Pisin:

1st person singular: mi

1st person dual (ex.): mitupela

1st person trial (ex.): mitripela

1st person plural (ex.): mipela

1st person dual (in.): yumitupela

1st person trial (in.): yumitripela

1st person plural (in.): yumipela

2nd person singular: yu

2nd person dual: yutupela

2nd person trial: yutripela

2nd person plural: yupela

3rd person singular: em

3rd person dual: tupela

3rd person trial: tripela

3rd person plural: ol

The 3rd person pronouns are a bit different. Rather than adding -tupela, -tripela, and -pela to em, the dual and trial are simply tupela and tripela, while the plural is simply ol.

Also, note that the inclusive we/us is literally yu and mi combined, which makes a lot of sense, because the inclusive we/us basically just means you and I, you and me, etc.

#linguistics #grammar #tok pisin #pronouns

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ukfrislandembassy · 3 months

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Kinda spitballing a hypothesis here based off of an I once saw somewhere in the conlanging corner of the internet (I think it was on an episode of Conlangery talking about extremely regular philosophical languages? @gacorley might remember), but I've got an idea about lexical structure, because it seems to me like there's two opposing trends in Language when it comes to semantic fields.

On the one hand, from the perspective of acquisition and to some extent production it's nice to have words that are derivationally related to each other, both because it makes it possible to 'work out' the meaning of the word even in the absence of actual real-world context and because new words can easily be coined to fill lacunae in vocabulary. 'My father is a weaver; What does he do for a living? He weaves' kinda stuff.

But on the other hand, from the perspective of perception you don't really want words that sound similar to each other, particularly in the same semantic field, because when you're talking about those topics, well, if everything sounds similar (especially in a noisy environment where you might not be able to hear entirely clearly) then you're going to start to get confused very quickly. 'Judges judge what judgements are just' sort of thing (see also 'oligosynthesis'), as well as of course 'Acronym and Abbreviation Overload' type phenomena (after all, there's only 26 possible syllables in an acronym...).

I think the fact that languages will vary between favouring one over the other does likely have impacts on learnability. The effect is not going to be major in comparison to other things, but there's unlikely to be nothing there.

For instance, obviously for a speaker of a language that makes a lot of use of derivation (Russian, say), English must be made harder to learn by the number of separate roots needed (like we have entirely different roots for the meat of domestic animals for pity's sake!).

But at the same time, for me, a native speaker of English, part of the irritation of learning Russian is that nobody is there teaching you the derivational morphology that enables you to make a guess at the approximate meaning of расследование from identifying the root (след 'trail') and building up from there (verbaliser -ова-, prepositional prefix рас- and adjectivaliser/abstract nominaliser -ние; the end result means 'investigation'), nor am I really that used to making use of that because in English you so often can't.

I'll note that this is kind of similar to a proposal made in Trudgill's Sociolinguistic Typology (2011), where he points out that small sound systems like Hawai'ian can be found in isolated languages precisely because all the words start to sound the same and context (i.e. shared background information between participants, more available in smaller societies) is more necessary to disambiguate what's being said. I think what I'm proposing is kinda orthogonal to this, because both extremes are kinda difficult, and there's several kinds of factor which can influence a language's tendency in either direction (English for instance has its several layers of historically more prestigious foreign vocabulary from having spent time as the language of an underclass, while 'pidgin-adjacent' creoles are of course forced to 'make do' with limited lexical resources they have, thus giving rise to stuff like Tok Pisin gras bilong fes 'beard'), but perhaps that's something for me to write about somewhere else.

#linguistics #typology

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taintedyke · 2 years

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Melanesia & Pasifika Resources

I'm mixed, from Papua Niugini (Papua New Guinea), considered a Melanesian island within Pasifika. People don't know much about us or that we exist, even within so-called Australia, where I was raised.

Due to how unknown we seem to be, I want to compile some things on the off chance that someone stumbles across my account.

FREE WEST PAPUA — PAPUA MERDEKA!

Resources (books, film, music, etc)

Info (an introduction to West Papua)

Take Action

The FWPC site provides plenty for you to learn and support. Take the time to look through it.

"Its incredibly bittersweet for us displaced West Papuans seeing our PNG wantoks enjoy the freedom from colonial rule that we so deeply desire. And yet we still happily perform our West Papuan dance at your Independence Day gatherings. We’ve learnt to speak Tok Pisin to communicate with you. We’ve learnt and memorised every single PNG classic so we can sing together. We do all this because we realise that no man-made border will ever divide us. All we ask is that you join us in liberating our New Guinea island. Wave the West Papuan morning star flag at every given opportunity. Invite us round for tokstori. Learn our songs and dances. Pull up to our rallies. We are family. We share one motherland."

— An excerpt from this post by Koteka Wenda (Instagram)

WATCH & SEE:

Again: Look through FWPC’s films page.

Empowering PI Communities (Instagram) — “Advancing social justice by engaging the Pacific Islander community in culture-centered advocacy, research + leadership development.”

ARCHIVE PLES (Instagram) — "Documenting visual stories of Papua Niugini. Renegotiating visual narratives. By us, for us."

Art Activism Papua New Guinea (Instagram) — "Social impact artists in Papua New Guinea."

Wantoks: dance of resilience in Melanesia — “In 2018 the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific, hosted the Melanesian Arts & Cultural Festival, celebrating the country’s 40th anniversary of independence. On neighboring island states, the struggle for freedom continues, as West Papua resists Indonesian occupation and the residents of New Caledonia still live under French rule. In all Melanesian countries, residents face the common challenge of climate change, as rising sea levels threaten to swallow both land and tradition.”

I'm Moshanty - Do You Love Me? — “A musical tribute to the late, legendary South Pacific recording artist and transgender activist Moses Moshanty Tau and the LGBTQI community of Papua New Guinea. With their lives still haunted by colonial-era sodomy laws and deadly religious bigotry, Moshanty stands as a beacon of hope for the transgender and LGBTQI community of the entire South Pacific.”

Forgotten Bird of Paradise — “Full version of the multi-award winning undercover documentary, 'Forgotten Bird of Paradise', on West Papua's independence struggle.”

Vai — "The story of one woman's journey of empowerment through culture plays out across several Pacific nations and various incarnations.”

Bataplai (short film) — Synopsis: "Raya (Regina Pande) loves makeup but her family does not. She's torn between her secret dream of being a makeup artist and her family's strict religious beliefs. In a nightmare, she receives a profound message from her Papua New Guinean ancestor who encourages her to look at her Indigenous culture for answers."

^ Here's three posts from Bataplai's Instagram account that share other Pasifika films.

READ:

NOTE: If you’re on the hunt for more Melanesia or Pasifika literature (and on Instagram), check out Mara’s account: thisislanderreads — she’s where I’ve found just about everything listed, so I’m thankful from my quiet corner of the web and wish to share for anyone wanting more Pasifika readings.

Again: Look through FWPC’s books page.

Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders by Various Writers — A free-to-read essay on LGBT+ identity and Pacific Islanders.

We Are the Ocean: Selected Works by Epeli Hau'ofa — “We Are the Ocean is a collection of essays, fiction, and poetry by Epeli Hau'ofa, whose writing over the past three decades has consistently challenged prevailing notions about Oceania and prescriptions for its development. He highlights major problems confronted by the region and suggests alternative perspectives and ways in which its people might reorganize to relate effectively to the changing world.”

Tales of the Tikongs by Epeli Hau’ofa — “In this lively satire of contemporary South Pacific life, we meet a familiar cast of characters: multinational experts, religious fanatics, con men, simple villagers, corrupt politicians. In writing about this tiny world of flawed personalities, Hau'ofa displays his wit and range of comic resource, amply exercising what one reviewer called his "gift of seeing absurdity clearly.”

Pasifika Black: Oceania, Anti-colonialism, and the African World by Quito Swan — “A lively living history of anti-colonialist movements across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.”

My Walk to Equality: Essays, Stories and Poetry by Papua New Guinean Women by Rashmii Amoah Bell — “The anthology celebrates the contribution of women to Papua New Guinean society. It also sets out some of the problems and issues confronting those women in their daily lives. These issues are set out in an eclectic mix of poetry, essays and short stories.”

A Thousand Coloured Dreams by Josephine Abaijah — “A love story set against a background of political intrigue in a decaying colonial regime, and the impending spread of Asia across the Pacific. It is the story of Josephine Abaijah, the first woman elected to the parliament of her country: a tale of courage, love and beauty that endured beyond the limits of reason or the dreams of a simple girl.”

Maiba, a Papuan Novel by Russell Soaba — “The only child of the last chief of Makawana village, Maiba struggles to hold her people together in face of the polarizing forces of convention and modernization. Both protective and painfully aware of the weaknesses of her own community, Maiba acquires the wisdom she needs to face the future.”

The Resonance of My Thoughts by Francis Nii — “Francis Nii, a graduate in economics from the University of Papua New Guinea, is a paraplegic and belongs to Salt Nomane Karimui in the Simbu Province of PNG. Formerly a banker, Francis is a novelist and an award winning essayist. This volume is a collection of some of Francis' essays on social, economic and political issues affecting Papua New Guinea today.”

Black Ice Matter by Gina Cole — “This collection of short stories explores connections between extremes of heat and cold. Sometimes this is spatial or geographical; sometimes it is metaphorical. Sometimes it involves juxtapositions of time; sometimes heat appears where only ice is expected.”

Josefa and the Vu by Tulia Thompson — “When Josefa is met by a giant mysterious warrior claiming to be an ancestral guardian spirit, everything gets chaotic. Meanwhile Jack Bucksworth, the school bully, has stolen his family's sacred tabua and to get it back, Josefa and his friend Ming must embark on a terrifying adventure involving dangerous cliffs, cheeky brothers and eerie laughter.”

Is Anyone Out There?: And Other Stories by Julian Maka'a — (Couldn’t find blurb?)

Sista, Stanap Strong: A Vanuatu Women's Anthology by Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen, Mikaela Nyman — “An anthology of new writing from Vanuatu by three generations of women—and the first of its kind. With poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, and song, its narrative arc stretches from the days of blackbirding to Independence in 1980 to Vanuatu's coming of age in 2020.”

#wantoks/Pasifika

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dsm-wannabe-linguist · 4 years

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Tag yourselves, I’m Patois Pumpkin

#creole #creole languages #haitian creole #tok pisin #patois #langblr #language #language blog #languageblr #linguistics #language memes #language meme #linguistics humor #language learning #crayola #crayons #endangered languages #rare languages #language lover

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busysavingtheuniverse · 3 years

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uh. tua language headcanons i guess.

so since in season two allison said that she spoke seven languages, i figured that applied to everyone, so they speak their native language - the language from where they came from - and one language from each continent excluding antarctica, of course. (for all the eurasia supremacists out there, we're going with europe and asia as separate continents, because that makes it easier). we're not counting english.

i can't guarantee any information is completely accurate, since i did a cursory google search/wikipedia skim and nothing else. please inform me if i'm being offensive in any way!

the name 'luther' has germanic origins, so luther knows german, because it's his language of origin; dutch, because it's a west germanic language like german; kirundi, because that's spoken in burundi, where germany established colonies; tok pisin, because that's spoken in papua new guinea, where germany had colonies; spanish, because argentina and germany have history; the luthigh language from australia, and honestly i just chose this because it started with lu; and finally, lakota, spoken by native americans who lived on the great plains, because it has so many ties to dakota, which diego speaks, that it might as well be the same language, like the differences between british and american english, and this illustrates that diego and luther are more alike than either of them would like to acknowledge

the name 'diego' is, of course, spanish, and since david castaneda is mexican, i decided diego - or, at least, his mother - was too. therefore, he knows mexican spanish, his language of origin; portugese, the second most-spoken language in south america; dakota, because of the reasons mentioned in luther's lakota section; italian, because apparently mexico has an alliance with them; filipino, because before mexico's independence the philippines were governed by them; afrikaans, spoken in south africa, because they have an alliance; and finally, the diyari language from australia, because it started with di

the name 'allison' has its roots in old french*, so the queen herself knows french as her language of origin; german, because in an ironic twist, france and germany are close allies; wolof because that's widely spoken in senegal, which was once a colony of france; algonquin because the french allied with them in the french and indian war; kali'na because the kali'na people are native to french guiana, an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of france; khmer, because the french ruled over cambodia for almost a century; and finally, the alawa language from australia, because it started with al

the name 'klaus' is german, so klaus and luther probably took german classes together, since it's their language of origin**. so klaus speaks german; scots, because it's a west germanic language like german; kinyarwanda, because rwanda was part of german east africa for a while; japanese, because germany and japan obviously have history and klaus strikes me as a weeb; kahlihna, a native language of venezuela, which was a german colony for a while; klallam, a north american language chosen because it starts with kl; and finally, the kija language of australia, because it started with k

obviously five is just a number, but a lot of people think the polish woman in the pilot script was meant to be five's mother. so five speaks polish, since it's his language of origin; french, because poles supported napoleon and poland and france were allies during the interwar period, and also because i'm a five + allison frendship supremacist and wanted them to learn it and take classes together; hindi, because wikipedia said relations between poland and india 'have generally been friendly, characterised by understanding and cooperation on an international front'; swahili, because tanzania and poland are allies; cree, spoken in canada, because canada and poland have quite the history; quechua, spoken in peru, because poland and peru are allies; and finally, the ami language of australia, because it starts with a and i couldn't find a not-extinct language that started with f

the name 'ben' is hebrew, so ben speaks hebrew as his language of origin; korean, because that's justin min's ethnicity and if they make ben anything else i'm going to lose it; danish, because israel and denmark have friendly relations; oromo, because ethiopia and israel have close ties; portugese, because brazil and israel are close and once again ben and diego would take classes together; spanish, because mexico and israel had a good relationship, and ben, diego, and luther would all share a class; and finally, the bunuba language of australia, because it started with b

we saw in the pilot that vanya's mom came from russia, and of course the name 'vanya' is slavic, so she speaks russian as her language of origin; mongolian, because mongolia and russia are friends, apparently; arabic, because sudan and russia have close ties; portugese, because brazil and russia have improving relations and i would like you to imagine the chaos of a class involving diego, ben, and vanya; finnish, because finland and russia are friendly; unangam tunuu, because alaska was once russian territory; and finally, the pintupi language of australia, because there were none that started with v

*i wasn't sure if allison was scottish or french, since google had mixed opinions, but i settled the matter by reading this site's page on the name. i don't think they made this history up, but if anyone wants to fact check me/the site, then feel free to!

**so, luther and klaus might actually be the twins here. who would've guessed?

#please reblog this i spent so much time on it #also there's no read more because when i did put it it deleted almost half of my post and i had to redo it #tua #tua hc #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #number five #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves

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er-cryptid · 16 days

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Patreon

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crustacean-on-main · 2 years

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wondering how difficult it is to learn high-register tok pisin as an english speaker

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luulapants · 3 years

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the passcode thing is cool as shit. if youre still infodumping what is your FAVORITE thing about a language. or languages in general. talk for a long time about some nerd shit is what i'm saying

You want a long infodump of nerd shit?? HERE IT COMES

My absolute favorite area of study in linguistics is pidgin and creole languages and, in particular, this really weird theory around them being the secret to discovering the “root code of language.” To start, you need to know what a pidgins and creoles are and what the difference is:

The word “pidgin” is based on a transcription of how Chinese merchants pronounced the English word “business.” And that’s a pretty apt description! A pidgin is a sort of broken mashup of two or more languages that occurs when speakers of different languages, who don’t speak one another’s languages with much fluency, have to interact and figure out how to communicate with one another. Historically, this often happened during trade and commerce interactions.

Imagine you’re a French merchant arriving in Haiti and trying to sell gun powder to a local who speaks no French whatsoever and you don’t even know what language this dude speaks. And you’re pointing at your wares and shouting “Poudre pour les armes!!” which to him probably sounds like “Pood pore lay zahhm” and the local kinda squints at you and says “Poud zam?” and mimes shooting a gun. You’re sick of shouting and you think he gets what you’re saying, so you’re just like “Oui, sure, poud zam,” and now gunpowder is “poud zam.”

Generally, one language provides most of the vocabulary for a pidgin, whichever is most widely spoken or is spoken by those with the most prestige or power. That’s called 'lexification.' So, for instance, Haitian creole is 'French lexified.' The vocabulary will be colored by local accents, though, and depend on what sounds everyone knows how to make (if half the people don’t know how to trill their ‘R’s, that sound will be left out of a Spanish-based pidgin).

When it comes to grammar, though, pidgins are distinctly lacking. Communicating grammar by pointing and shouting just doesn’t work that well, and you can mostly get by without a lot of grammatical nuance in those contexts. “Me give gunpowder. You give one-two-three bag gold.” BOOM, commerce accomplished.

You really only need more comprehensive structures once the pidgin enters the private/personal sphere, and THIS is where creoles come in. A pidgin becomes a creole the moment it becomes someone’s mother tongue. The second a kid is raised speaking pidgin as a first language, it’s considered a creole. And the reason we make that distinction is where things get very interesting.

Unlike pidgins, creoles are grammatically complete. But it’s not like anyone sits down and says, "Okay, kids are learning this now, we have to figure out the grammar rules.” It’s actually the opposite. Children naturally fill in the grammatical gaps of a pidgin. Studies that compared adult pidgin speakers with their creole-speaking children found that the children had formed grammatical constructions... pretty much out of nowhere. They do it naturally. Instinctively.

Now, this makes sense if you’ve ever spoken with a child who is still learning their first language. Have you ever heard a kid say ‘mouses' instead of 'mice'? It’s because they’ve learned the grammar rule for how we pluralize things in English and simply over-applied it. Kids will take the barest hints and grains of grammar in a pidgin and apply them over an entire language. And if there’s nothing to go off of? They make it out of nothing.

One really fascinating thing about creoles is that a lot of them share similar features - even when they were made in very different places, based on very different languages. Since a lot of modern creoles were created during the colonial period, one theory was that those features come from common ‘substratum’ languages (languages that didn’t lexify the pidgin) that were spoken by the African slaves transported around the world. While this may have contributed to some language similarities, attempts to trace back the linguistic origins of the populations that created the original pidgins has generally disproved this theory. Another WILD theory was that all creoles were originally based on Portuguese. Don’t ask me how this makes sense. It doesn’t. But there were whole ass professional academics spewing that shit.

A more contemporary - and exciting! - theory is that these common features come from a “root code of language” buried in the human brain. Basically, that children can and will learn whatever grammatical constructions exist in the language they’re taught, but when there’s nothing for them to go off of, there is a very old basic language instinct that reverts them to our oldest, most basic grammar forms. One example is reduplication or the repeating of all or part of a word. Instead of using a suffix for pluralization (mouses), you just say the word twice (mouse-mouse). Instead of saying ‘really tall,’ you say ‘tall-tall.’ This does exist in some other languages but is particularly common in creoles.

Creoles are often seen as “simple” or “incomplete” languages. While they are simpler in some ways, native speakers are still able to convey complex ideas, which makes them more complicated in others. For instance, creoles tend to have a smaller vocabulary. However, to make up for this, they tend to be highly metaphorical in their constructions. In Tok Pisin, the creole of Papua New Guinea, most fibrous materials are called 'gras' (as in ‘grass’ - it’s English-lexified). But to distinguish between them, you have ‘gras bilong het’ (hair), ‘gras bilong sipsip’ (wool), ‘gras bilong solwara’ (seaweed).

Grammatically, creoles tend to have fewer verb tenses and tend not to have case markers. But it would be a mistake to say that all creole grammar is simple. To use Tok Pisin as an example again, that language has way more pronoun distinctions than most languages. Instead of just “we,” it has words for “you and me,” “me and another person [not you],” “me and two other people [not you],” “me and the two of you,” “me and all y’all,” and “me and all of them.” They have different forms of ‘you’ depending on if you’re talking about one, two, three, or more than three people - same with ‘he/she/them’! (And their pronouns are nongendered.)

Grammatical simplicity doesn’t equate to a lesser language, in any case. And it can tell us a lot about how languages develop over time. Creoles have fewer irregular constructions than older languages, which makes sense - irregular constructions are often vestiges of old words or grammar that no longer exist. A lot of grammatical complexity is just the result of things being added to a language or changing over time. If creoles are using a “new” root code sort of grammar, it makes sense that it wouldn’t be as “complex” - they haven’t had time to fuck it up yet!

So these are some of the many, many reasons I love creoles. I hope you enjoyed this infodump <3

Ask me about linguistics!

#creole #pidgin #language #linguistics #infodump

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linguisten · 4 years

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LDC Australia & Oceania 3/7: Oksapmin

Linguistic Diversity Challenge Australia & Oceania

What is the language called in English and the language itself?

Oksapmin, Nalu

Where is the language spoken?

right in the heart of New Guinea:

How many people speak the language? Is it endangered?

It is spoken by approx. 8000 people (as of 1993); it might be endangered

"Oksapmin is the main language of communication in the Tekin Valley and is still the first language that the vast majority of children in the area learn. Tok Pisin and English are, however, becoming more prominent." (ELP)

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages?

Trans New Guinea >> Nuclear Trans New Guinea >> Asmat-Awyu-Ok >> Awyu-Ok >> Ok-Oksapmin; its closest relatives are the members of the OK branch

What writing system does the language use?

traditionally unwritten, resources are in Latin alphabet

What kind of grammatical features does the language have? What is its typological profile?

SOV with prefixes and suffixes, obligatory evidential marking, complex (serial) verbs, and demonstratives which distinguish for elevation

What does the language sound like?

youtube

What do you personally find interesting about the language?

Its numeral system (body part system), its dyadic kinship system

(re)sources:

http://www.language-archives.org/language/opm

https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/oksa1245

http://endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10678

https://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_oks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksapmin_language

https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/35153 (grammar)

#linguisticdiversitychallenge #oksapmin #papuan languages #lingblr

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script-a-world · 4 years

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My MC's world has a medieval-type setting, but magic allowed them to advance faster with space travel. So they're fully aware of and in contact with six nearby solar systems that are populated. My question is: would it make sense to have people from all these different planets communicate with each other via a Universal Sign Language? (For the record, there's also deaf characters in my story that use their own regional sign languages, which are different than the interplanetary sign language)

Feral: I think it totally makes sense. For trade to occur between groups that speak different languages, some kind of common language has to be established for communication. Often in our history, that’s been a language imposed by dominant or colonial powers, but a pidgin or a blended language could easily develop. Sign languages are particularly fantastic for this as they can be used equally among hearing and d/Deaf people as well as in a variety of environments. One thing to keep in mind is that for a USL to work, the various peoples across the six solar systems will need to have enough anatomical similarities that the audience can reasonably expect them to be able to make the same signs. As you know, there are many sign languages in the real world, and they have accents and dialects within them (video), so it’s reasonable to assume that any USL would have the same. Noting that accents develop from different alien species having a variation on specific signs from what is considered the “standard” way of doing it can help with verisimilitude as well as allow for a slightly wider variety of alien anatomy, but still keep in mind that if a large portion of your population couldn’t possibly sign in the standard dialect, it’s unlikely that said dialect would have organically developed or been accepted without force.

Utuabzu: It is certainly plausible, particularly if one or several species lack the ability to use spoken language for anatomical reasons. Throughout history one of the first things that happens when two groups first come into contact is the development of a contact language. This is usually a very basic code with a few words initially established by gesture, almost all nouns or verbs, and little to no grammar. Over time, with prolonged contact this evolves into a pidgin, characterised by a simplified grammar and a limited vocabulary, but still more versatility than a contact language. If, later on, you have a significant number of children learning the pidgin as a first language, they will elaborate its grammar as they use it and create or borrow vocabulary to fill in gaps until you have a full, natural language, called a creole. (NB: while there are several languages called “Pidgin” or some variation thereof, they are almost all now classed as creoles. Pidgin and creole are here just the technical terms used by linguists and should not be taken as any sort of value judgement.)

One thing that can occur is that a pre-existing common language, sometimes a pidgin or creole, can spread and overtake contact languages instead of allowing them to develop into pidgins. A good example of this is Bislama in Vanuatu or Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, where an initially limited pidgin extended to cover peoples speaking languages unrelated to the initial speakers’, and often with little to no direct contact with them. In both cases this occurred in large part because a powerful body (in this case government) chose to use that creole as its common language.

So, in short, yes, it’s totally plausible. You may especially want to look at this real-world example of a signed creole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indian_Sign_Language

#pylons #language #sign language #reallygoodandoriginalusername

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universal-translation-services · 4 years

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What Is The Most Common Language in Papua New Guinea

Global warming made us reconsider a lot of things. It is true that humans affect each other, but we sometimes forget that our interactions with nature and the world around us will also have consequences. This is why it is up to us to figure out whether or not we should continue exploring the world. If our exploration leads to the destruction of the world, then maybe it is better to let things be. There are many regions of the world that we still haven’t explored, just like there are various languages that we don’t know about yet. We have to ask ourselves whether knowing that they exist is enough or do we need to interfere with them to gain more insight.

Papua New Guinea and Its Languages:

Probably the most diverse country in the world is Papua New Guinea that is home to different indigenous groups. All of these groups live in separate communities, which is why not a lot is known about them in the outside world. Their cultures and beliefs are unique. The groups don’t even interact with each other. But the country offers them protection and does not interfere in their daily activities. It is interesting to note that these communities have their own vernaculars too. According to one estimate, more than eight hundred and fifty languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea. Most of these are indigenous languages that are spoken by their respective communities only. Some of these vernaculars are only spoken by less than a thousand people. Only a handful of the total languages are known throughout the country. Lately, the country has been on the way to create a more united front, which involves making one vernacular popular throughout the nation. As a result, all the other vernaculars are losing their importance.

What is the Most Common Language in Papua New Guinea?

Answering linguistic questions about a diverse country like this is not easy. However, by studying the past and observing the present, we can reach a balanced conclusion. In a linguistically diverse country like Papua New Guinea, it was not easy for the population to select one language as their lingua franca. However, there is one vernacular in the country that is spoken the most widely, and that is Tok Pisin. Tok Pisin: Currently, more than 57% of the country’s population speaks Tok Pisin. Although there aren’t that many native speakers of the tongue, it has gained popularity as a second language. It has quickly established itself as the most widely spoken language in the country. Since it does not have a long history, it is not popular among older people. It is one of the officially recognized vernaculars in the country. It is an English-based creole but has developed its unique features over the years to be considered a separate language. Among the people who speak it in Papua New Guinea today, some of them are not very fluent. However, the younger generations are learning it as their first language now from their parents and grandparents. It is also being taught in schools to make sure other children do not remain deprived of this knowledge. As the influence of Tok Pisin has increased in the country, it has had a negative effect on other vernaculars. It is known to be driving out other vernaculars. But people don’t see it as a bad thing as it will help them feel united as a nation. The composition of Tok Pisin is unique. Although plenty of its vocabulary has been adopted from English, it also has elements of Malay, German, and Portuguese. The influence of Austronesian languages on Tok Pisin is also pretty clear. It is interesting to note that despite English dominating the administrative branches of the government, it is Tok Pisin that can be heard in parliamentary debates and election campaigns. English: The second most common vernacular in Papua New Guinea is English. It is spoken by nearly 50% of the population. It is one of the three officially recognized languages in the country. Official documents are issued in English. Even schools use English as the medium of education. Although Tok Pisin’s popularity is increasing, it hasn’t affected English. That could be attributed to the importance of the English language in the world. People understand that they will have to rely on this vernacular to make their way into the world, which is why they can’t survive without learning it. Hiri Motu: The third official language of the country is Hiri Motu. It is spoken by nearly 5% of the population. It is the simplified form of the vernacular known as Motu, which belongs to the Austronesian family. But interestingly, the two are not mutually intelligible. There was a time when Hiri Motu was the lingua franca of one part of the country, but today, it has lost that position due to the popularity of Tok Pisin. It is true that more than eight hundred vernaculars are spoken in Papua New Guinea, but we don’t know much about them. But despite the lack of outside influence, those tongues have managed to survive even after all this time. It is the close-knit communities of the indigenous people that have helped in keeping the vernaculars alive. Their wish to keep to themselves has helped their cultures and languages. The absence of outside influence has allowed the cultures and languages to maintain their purity. Read the full article

#official_website_of_papua_new_guinea #papua_new_guinea_language_translator_hiri_motu #Papua_New_Guinea #hiri_motu_to_english

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thisdiscontentedwinter · 7 years

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To be a High School coach in the US you need to meet certain requirements in terms of school but most of the time they will be doubled up and also be teachers because it saves the school districts money to get multi uses. They need to have basic information about the sport they're coaching but there's no requirement that they have played it at any point. However in most of the BIG sports (ie Football, Basketball, Baseball) they will have most likely have prior experience in playing it. (Con't)

(Part 2) Given how serious they take Lacrosse in Beacon Hills it's definitely almost a given that Finstock was a player back in the day and I agree with you that he was most likely a good one.

I don’t think you need to have special coaching qualifications here--as long as you’re already a teacher, I suppose, but I really don’t know for sure.

My dad coached rugby league once, but that wasn’t in Australia. And it was an adult team. Go the mighty Muruks! Sidenote: I just googled what a muruk is, and it’s a cassowary. Oooooh! That never occurred to me before. In my still-five-years-old-when-I-learned-this-language=brain, I have just always assumed that a muruk was its own thing, not the Tok Pisin word for an animal we also had here in Australia. Live and learn!

Well, that turned into an unrelated ramble, didn’t it?

Story of my life.

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sakurastudyblr · 7 years

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