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A recent question discussing minimal sets of prepositions gained an answer that that Tok Pisin, the English-based creole used as national language and lingua franca of Papua New Guinea has only two prepositions:

  • bilong (of)
  • long (general use)

So what strategies does Tok Pisin employ to express all the relationships typically handled by the larger set of prepositions of a typical European language?

My first guess is that it might use techniques similar to Japanese where "XYZの中に" (XYZ no naka ni) "inside XYZ" is literally "XYZ's middle in", and many similar constructions.

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hippietrail
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    There's also wantaim, 'with'. And there are compound prepositions such as insait long 'inside', ananit long 'underneath', and probably more (my TP is very rusty!). Context disambiguates. – Gaston Ümlaut Oct 10 '13 at 21:14

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