Natives of Papua and New Guinea are highly gifted at language. Many are multilingual to levels unheard of anywhere else in the world. The main language in Papua is Motu, a beautiful poetic language at least as complicated as english.
JW's in Papua New Guinea used a Pidgin bible and the Watchtower™ magazine was translated into pidgin each week by various people including a fellow Adelaidian Lionel Dingle. As a result of the hardship of translation, Watchtowers™ were often reduced to just several pages. We
had to stretch the study but it made preparation™ easy. Lionel for one was proud of how, but cutting out repeated ideas and phrases he could shrink the translation effort remarkably. At the Port Moresby Bethel™ he handed me a double sided printout once and I remember asking “is that it?” lol.
As a young man I took to Pidgin like a duck to water and thought it was hilarious. Even today I'm tempted to burst into talk about "dispella Jesus long come buggerup dispella sistum" and so on.
I wish I'd kept that bible. I think they're still available through the Bible Society.
My first presentation™ in Pidgin English:
Kissim is the pidgin word for accept and the Awake! magazine was called Kirape! So my first presentation in pidgin went like this:
A pretty young woman came to the entrance to the hut and I proceeded to offer her the Awake! by asking:
Upinoon wantok!, you like kissim dispella Kirape!?
To me it sounded much like "Good afternoon friend, would you like to kiss this fellow corrupt?
Well she may have thought that because she immediately burst out into fits of laughter.
unc steps back to let bush-kanaka pioneer partner (Hilari Miri) take over.
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Unlike Kel Richards clever but very christian "Australian Bible" mentioned in another thread, the pidgin bible has a great deal of character and colorful language reflecting the history of the first German and English traders to venture into the wilds of PNG. Does anyone have access to Awake! And Watchtower magazines in Pidgin? They'd be a great source for warped fun and apostate reflection
uncle bilong wantok longpella buggerup dispela watchtower spirit (how the memory fades - I won't be called into missionary sevice any time soon)