How to Write Professionally in Tok Pisin Part 1

If you are approached by someone to translate from English or any other language into Tok Pisin, then congratulations!

Here's what you need to do.

First, get your hands on a Tok Pisin Dictionary. I am not refering to online Tok Pisin dictionaries.

Make sure you have a copy of Oxford Tok Pisin dcitionary or Jacaranda Grammar and Dictionary of Tok Pisin.

Second, make sure to buy and read Wantok Niuspepa. In it you will find the spellings of new words.

As a writer of Tok Pisin, you want to follow as much as possible the standardized and acceptable spellings used by writers and publishers of Tok Pisin.

Do not try to spell words according to how you pronounce it. First check with the dictionaries, if there are no transliterations of those words yet, then you may go ahead and transliterate it.

But, you must observe the Tok Pisin writing guide detailed by Mihalic in the Jacaranda Grammar and Dictionary of Tok Pisin.

I will discuss these rules in my next post.