Script guide › Latin
How to recognize Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin is one of 35 languages in Grafle's Latin group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- Reads like phonetically respelled English: gut, tumas, yumi — the creole of Papua New Guinea.
What Tok Pisin looks like
Yumi olgeta i kamap fri na wankain long digniti na raits.
Gude, yu stap gut?
Sori tumas, mi no save.
Latin scripts: The alphabet you're reading now. Each language gives itself away by its own special letters and accent marks.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Papua New Guinea
Easy to confuse with
- English — Tok Pisin looks like English spelled by ear: 'gut', 'tumas', 'yumi'. If it's almost-English but not quite, think Papua New Guinea.