Let's talk about Tok Pisin Spelling Rules
- Deborah Salle

- 10 hours ago
- 1 min read

I just came across a word in my translation task today, It's 'accuser'. Most Tok Pisin writers would probably use a phrase 'man bilong sutim tok' meaning 'accuser'.
However, my argument is that my audience, today's generation of church goers have read the Bible in English or heard preachers who are trained in English, use this word when preaching, so they are familiar with it and I would also like to represent that spoken usage in writing.
A current trend in Tok Pisin writing
To writers who would prefer to transliterate 'accuser' as 'akiusa', I would like to argue that the Oxford Tok Pisin dictionaries spell 'Computer' as 'kompyuta' and 'community' as 'komyuniti' so to be consistent with the representation of the diphthong /juː/ with the letters 'yu', I will use the spelling 'akyusa'.









That is a relevant point. I agree with it. Also, can you point out the word scene in Tok Pisin?