What's Special about Neo Patwa?

 

Last updated September 8, 2010

 

There are many ideas for international languages out there. What's special about Neo Patwa? There are three defining features. None of them are strictly original, but Neo Patwa brings them together in a unique way.

 

A Simple Phonology

 

Neo Patwa has an extremely simple phonology, which makes it easy for people of different language backgrounds to pronounce it.

 

A Simple and International Vocabulary

 

The words used in Neo Patwa are all taken from existing languages. So when you learn Neo Patwa, in fact you are learning words that are already in use by people from different cultures around the world.

 

A Simple Grammar

 

The grammar of Neo Patwa seems in large measure to have been taken from languages such as Tok Pisin, Bislama, and Singlish. What distinguish the grammars of these languages is that they are basically Western grammars adapted by non-Western people. They are international. Neo Patwa, developed as an international pidgin, shares that characteristic.

 

Some Simple Technical Details

 

Some of the basic features of Neo Patwa are as follows:

 

Neo Patwa has no singular/plural forms of nouns or adjectives.

Neo Patwa has no grammatical gender.

Negation and tense are expressed by unchanging preverbal particles. There is no conjugation.

There are no articles.

Neo Patwa has a limited number of prepositions with a wide range of meaning.

Neo Patwa has gender neutral pronouns (no he/she/it distinction).

There is no inversion for questions.