Pijin

Facts

  • Language: Pijin
  • Alternate names: Solomons Pidgin, Neo-Solomonic, Kanaka
  • Language code: pis
  • Language family: Indo-European, Classical Indo-European, Germanic, Northwest Germanic, West Germanic, North Sea Germanic, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic, Later Anglic, Middle-Modern English, Macro-English, Pacific Creole English, Early Melanesian Pidgin
  • Creole language
  • Number of speakers: 24400
  • Script:

More information:

    Introduction

    Pijin is a Creole language spoken in the Solomon Islands. It is closely related to Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea; Bislama of Vanuatu; and Torres Strait Creole of the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia and is written in the Latin alphabet.

    The verb

    Transitive verbs are distinguished from intransitive verbs by a specific suffix: -m, -em, -im, or -um.

    There are a few exceptions to this, such as save 'to know'. A few trasitive verbs may occur with or without a transitive suffix, such as torowe and torowem 'throw away''.

    There are a number of Pijin verbs which have both transitive and intransitive forms:

    Verblist