Tok Bokis, Tok Piksa: Translating parables in Papua New Guinea

This chapter focuses on Bible translation practices, central to Christian missionization in Papua New Guinea, a site of intensive linguistic and cultural contact, and a productive context in which to examine the dynamics of multiple, competing and contradictory conceptualizations about language, language use, and language ideologies. Focusing on the genre "parable," it tracks how translation changes made by New Testament Bible translators working in Tok Pisin, from tok bokis to tok piksa, created ethnopragmatic challenges for Bosavi pastors who struggled in a rapidly shifting metalinguistic terrain to create local meanings across languages and texts. The essay argues that the importance of genre as an interpretive frame cannot be underestimated in terms of understanding changes in linguistic and cultural meanings over time, especially in language contact situations.