Lonely Planet Pidgin Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (Paperback)

~ Ernest W. Lee (Author), Trevor Balzer (Author), Peter Mulhausler (Author), Paul Monaghan (Author), Denise Angelo (Author), Dana Ober (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

The best available guide to the pidgins and creoles of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, north Australia and Torres Strait. These fascinating languages have developed from English, so you'll recognize plenty of words, but their grammar, sentence structure and extensive vocabularies mean that you'll find this phrasebook invaluable in understanding the language around you.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 2nd edition (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0864425872
• ISBN-13: 978-0864425874
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,891,310 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Lonely Planet Phrasebooks Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A phrasebook plus much more to help you "tok pisin", September 14, 2000

By	Baltic Books "Vic" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

Lonely Planet's "Pidgin Phrasebook" may be the only show in town when it comes to a traveler's language tool for Oceania. In Spring 2000 my wife and I traveled to Papua New Guinea for a highland teachers conference. This book was our companion along with Lonely Planet's Papua New Guinea travel guide (highly recommended!)

This compact book (3.5 x 5.5 x 3/8's inches) is small enough for a shirt pocket, but packed with the language basics-- grammar etc. for 5 or 6 of the island creoles, and much more. Each section contains a mini-travel guide for culture, history, business, travel. It also include a few basic maps. The only drawback is the lack of any kind of dictionary.

Pidgin is the people's language of PNG. You will actually be able to get along fine without a phrase book since English is the language of tourism, education and business. However, if you want to get off into the highlands or another local area, this is a great resource to talk to the everyday folks. As with most countries, a little effort goes a long way in good will.

5.0 out of 5 stars Talk your way through Melanesia!, June 25, 2009

By	Laszlo Wagner (Hungary) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Pidgin: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

This book covers the three Pidgin languages of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - three of the most diverse, fascinating and unspoilt countries in the South Pacific. While English is spoken by many people in all the three, the Pidgins described here are the lingua franca in each, and I found that locals were very happy to hear me speak them. Each of the three languages is introduced by a good description of its grammar (don't worry, easy and similar in all three) and pronunciation, followed by useful phrases arranged thematically.

And here comes my only complaint - I would have preferred more phrases, and perhaps short dictionary listings for all the three languages. Space for that could have been found by omitting what seems a waste here to me - descriptions of two obscure pidgin languages of Australia, which are also included in LP's Australian Phrasebook (where they logicaly belong) anyway.

Still, within the confines of its limited space, this little book is excellent.
If you are lucky enough to travel to these charming archipelagos, don't leave home without it!