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Having lived in Papua New Guinea twice while growing up, I have a certain fondness for the language Tok Pisin. I can’t really speak much of it, but I can understand a fair bit.

You’ve got to love a language where “gras” means “hair”, “bagarap” means pretty much the same thing if you say it out loud in English, and while expressing how full your tummy is after a good meal you accidentally say you’re pregnant[1].

It’s charmingly idiosyncratic to an English ear.

And there’s even an edition of Wikipedia in Tok Pisin: https://tpi.wikipedia.org/

[1] True story. My dad did this and all the locals fell on the ground laughing.

[2] Brief blog post I wrote in 2009 which is the source for this comment: http://www.michevan.id.au/content/wikipedia-really-does-have...

[3] Another blog post about the Vanuatuian cousin, Bislama: http://www.michevan.id.au/content/by-any-other-name/




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