Lord's Prayer in Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea)

[John Cooper]

Papa bilong mipela
Yu stap long heven.
Nem bilong yu i mas i stap holi.
Kingdom bilong yu i mas i kam.
Strongim mipela long bihainim laik bilong yu long graun,
olsem ol i bihainim long heven.
Givim mipela kaikai inap long tude.
Pogivim rong bilong mipela,
olsem mipela i pogivim ol arapela i mekim rong long mipela.
Sambai long mipela long taim bilong traim.
Na rausim olgeta samting nogut long mipela.
Kingdom na strong na glori, em i bilong yu tasol oltaim oltaim.
Tru.

Papa - father
bilong - genitive indicator (belong)
mipela - we/us (we fellows)
yu - you
stap - stop/stay/remain
long - (all prepositions)
heven - heaven
nem - name
mas - imperative indicator (must)
holi - holy
kingdom - kingdom
kam - come
strong - power
-im - (transitive indicator)
strongim - promote/cause
bihainim - follow ('behind' as tr verb)
laik - will/want/like
graun - earth/ground/world
olsem - as
ol - they (all)
givim - give (tr)
kaikai - food
inap - sufficient (enough)
tude - today
pogivim - forgive (tr)
rong - sins
arapela - others (other fellows)
mekim - commit/do, make (tr)
sambai - guard
taim - time
traim - trial/temptation
na - and
rausim - take out/put out
olgeta samting - everything (altogether something)
nogut - evil (not good)
glori - glory
em - he/she/it
tasol - only (that's all)
oltaim - ever (all time)
tru - indeed.
________________________________________

John Cooper

[Robert Billing]

The hyperspace communicator crackled into life and we heard John Cooper
say:

> Papa bilong mipela


> John Cooper

That's amazing. I knew "big fella black teeth you hittim he holler" was a
Grand Piano, but that's lovely.

Thank you.

[Kendall Down]

On 18/11/2012 14:58, John Cooper wrote:

> Nem bilong yu i mas i stap holi.

Actually, I believe your excellent vocabulary missed this one out. 'i'
should actually be 'e' and is really "he", turning the phrase above into
"Name belong you he must he stop holy". "He" in this instance being "it".

God bless,
Kendall K. Down

[Kendall Down]

On 18/11/2012 17:31, Robert Billing wrote:

> That's amazing. I knew "big fella black teeth you hittim he holler" was a
> Grand Piano, but that's lovely.

Even better, "Firs you walkem feet belong him, then you punchem teeth
belong him, and he cry out cry out all same bull-a-moo-cow" for a
mission harmonium.

[awriter...@gmail.com]

Thanks for the having the Our Father in Tok Pisin. I have heard the 'Bik pella blak tet" . . . , as I speak some Tok Pisin, but how can you say "Firs yu walkim feet bilong him?". And what is a 'mission harmonium? Haven't been back to PNG in 2 years, (planning to go for Christmas 2015), but I never heard that one before. Very curious. Aloha from Hawaii!

[Jonathan de Kock]

as of a decade later this is useful for school (english language, a linguistics/english class), thank you

[Kendall K. Down]

On 14/10/2022 04:45, Jonathan de Kock wrote:

> as of a decade later this is useful for school (english language, a linguistics/english class), thank you

Glad to hear it's useful. I'm sure there must be other examples. For
example, back in the days when Hindi had just been declare the national
language in India, I was informed by a rickshaw wallah I knew that we
were no longer permitted to say "istation ko jao" (go to the station).
The English word was now replaced by "choo choo ghari rokne jaga"
(literally, choo choo carriage stopping place). We were both of the
opinion, however, that "choo choo" was just as English as "station"!

[Jonathan de Kock]

Thanks, that's a very cool story! I've never been to India personally, but it is interesting to have seen their recent drift towards Hindu nationalism (not too dissimilar to Christian Nationalism in the US), and it's definitely influenced their languages significantly. Sounds like it already started long ago.

Jon

[Kendall K. Down]

On 18/10/2022 07:47, Jonathan de Kock wrote:

> Thanks, that's a very cool story! I've never been to India personally, but it is interesting to have seen their recent drift towards Hindu nationalism (not too dissimilar to Christian Nationalism in the US), and it's definitely influenced their languages significantly. Sounds like it already started long ago.

The whole thing was a political con. South India has a number of
languages with as rich a history as Hindi and no clear reason why Hindi
should be preferred to any of them, except that all the powerful
politicians were from the north and Hindi was their native language.

India's only real universal language is English. If we watch a video
about India on YouTube I spend half the time shouting at the screen as
the interviewee lards his replies with English words, frequently when
there are perfectly good Hindi/Urdu words that have the same meaning.

Alas, such was the agitation that between Saharanpur and New Delhi, a
distance of 110 miles, there wasn't a single milestone that could be
read. They had been installed by the British, who carefully alternated
English, Hindi, Urdu, so every third one was English, etc. The English
ones had been painted over by those who supported Hindi or Urdu. The
Hindi ones by those who supported English or Urdu. The Urdu ones ... you
get the picture.

My favourite story from those times concerns a certain man riding his
Lambretta through the streets of New Delhi when he found himself
cornered by a mob protesting against the use of English.

"See, you are having English on your scooter; it is saying 'Lambretta',
so we will burn it."

The quick witted fellow expressed abject remorse for this lapse,
claiming to have never noticed the English letters. He declared his
willingness - nay, eagerness - to sacrifice his scooter (which were
expensive and hard to get hold of) for such a worthy cause. But then he
insisted that the thing should be done properly. He noticed that the
leader of the mob - and one or two others - was wearing a watch and the
face of the watch bore English writing - Timex or similar. Therefore let
them put their watches on his scooter and the lot could be burned as a
most effective protest against the use of English.

The attitude of the leader abruptly softened and he declared that
perhaps they had been a bit hasty, especially as it might be considered
a first offence, and unintentional at that, and the scooter owner should
be allowed to go on his way with a stern warning.

Which he did.