Wednesday 4 December 2013

Magimiks Bilong Yesus (and other useful terms)

I happened upon this little wordlist yesterday and it made me laugh, so I pass it on in the interest of spreading good cheer. It also shows remarkable creative ingenuity in making a handful of words express a wide range of meanings, sometimes achieving a kind of poetry. This particular form of pidgin English is called Tok Pisin and is widely spoken in Papua New Guinea. In Tok Pisin, Prince Philip is known as 'oldfella Pili-Pili him bilong Misis Kwin'. On the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, where the Prince is revered as the errant son of a local mountain god, he is known more respectfully as 'number one bigfella him bilong Misis Queen'.

liklik box you pull him he cry you push him he cry – an accordion
bigfella iron walking stick him go bang along topside – a rifle
skru bilong han (screw belong arm) – elbow
gras bilong het (grass belong head) – hair
maus gras (mouth grass) – moustache
gras bilong fes (grass belong face) – beard
bel hevi (belly heavy) – the heavy sinking feeling that often accompanies extreme sadness
magimiks bilong Yesus (Magimix belong Jesus) – helicopter
pen bilong maus (pen belong mouth) – lipstick
bun nating (bone nothing) – a very thin person
tit i gat windua bilong em (teeth have window belong him) – a broken-off tooth
sikispela lek (six legs) – man with two wives
susok man (shoe sock man) – urbanite
frok-bel (frog belly) – obese person
pato-lek (duck legs) – waddling person
emti tin (empty tin) – person who speaks nonsense
flat taia (flat tire) – exhausted person
smok balus (smoke bird) – jet airplane
poket bruk (pocket broken) – out of money
bagarap (bugger up) – broken, to break down
haus moni (house money) – bank
haus sik (house sick) – hospital
belhat (belly hot) – angry

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for your posting. I need a bit of good cheer this morning. As a flat tire who is a bit belly heavy today, I must now go trim my mouth grass.

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