This part of speech has been studied by Mihalic and Vehaar and known to be a predicate marker.
Austronesian languages like Koro language of Manus has 'i' as well.
'i' always occurs before a verb or a verb phrase and is called a predicate marker.
predicate is the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g. went home in John went home ). (definition from Oxford Languages online).
'i' has become an integral part of writing in Tok Pisin.
An author of Language and Linguistics Melanesian has put another explanation to 'i' on its facebook page describing it as pleonism in Tok Pisin.
Pleonasm is the use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning (e.g. see with one's eyes ), either as a fault of style or for emphasis. ( definition from Oxford Languages online).
If 'i' is a matter of pleonisim, is it therefore now non compulsory in writing?
'Em go lotu' would be accepted in publications as much as 'Em i go lotu'. The difference would be emphasis?
Unless there is a language board to address such issues, the default case remains active where 'i' is a predicate marker and is compulsory in Tok Pisin publications.
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