fauxklore: (Default)
fauxklore ([personal profile] fauxklore) wrote in [personal profile] xiphias 2010-04-28 08:31 am (UTC)

Two other good examples are Swahili and Tok Pisin (Neo-Melanesian Pidgin). Swahili is not as simple as some of the examples you gave, but it is far less complicated than Arabic or the local African languages.

Tok Pisin gets dismissed as broken English, but it is a legitimate language and very useful in Papua New Guinea with its linguistic diversity. People don't speak their local language with outsiders because of taboos, so it's the only unifying method for such a tribal country. It is somewhat understandable to a speaker of standard English, but the grammar is significantly reduced. For example, possessives are just indicated with the word "bilong" so that, say, "your name" becomes "nem bilong yu."

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