| 167th | Top sovereign states |
| 94th | Latin_alphabet">Top languages by writing system: Latin alphabet |
| Bislama | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | Vanuatu | |
| Total speakers | 6,200 (first language), 200,000 (additional language) |
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| Language family | Creole language
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | bi | |
| ISO 639-2 | bis | |
| ISO 639-3 | bis | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Bislama is a creole language, one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" (those who live in Port Vila and Luganville), and the second language of the rest of the country's residents. "Yumi, Yumi, Yumi", the Vanuatu national anthem, is in Bislama.
More than 95% of Bislama words are of English origin; the remainder combines a few dozen words from French, as well as some vocabulary inherited from various languages of Vanuatu, essentially limited to flora and fauna terminology.[1] While the influence of these vernacular languages is low on the vocabulary side, it is very high in the morphosyntax. Essentially speaking, Bislama can be described as a language with an English vocabulary and an Austronesian grammar.[2]
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During the period known as Blackbirding, in the 1870s and 1880s, hundreds of thousands of Pacific islanders (many of them from the New Hebrides archipelago) were enslaved and forced to work on plantations, mainly in Queensland, Australia and Fiji. With several languages being spoken in these plantations, a pidgin was formed, combining English vocabulary[3] with grammatical structures typical of languages in the region.[4] This early plantation pidgin is the origin not only of Bislama, but also of Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea and Pijin of the Solomon Islands, though not of Torres Strait Creole north of Australia.
This pidgin started spreading over the Vanuatu archipelago at the turn of the 20th century, as the Blackbirders began to come back into their native islands: knowledge of this pidgin would facilitate communication not only with European traders and settlers, but also between native populations of remote islands within the archipelago. This is how Bislama was born, progressively evolving separately from other related pidgins from the Pacific.
Because Vanuatu is one of the most language-dense countries in the world (one count puts it at 113 languages for a land area of just 12,200 km2), Bislama usefully serves as a lingua franca for communication between ni-Vanuatu, as well as with and even between foreigners. Besides Bislama, most ni-Vanuatu also know their local language, the local language of their father and that of their mother, and their spouse, and formal schools are taught in English or in French.
Over the past century or so, Bislama has evolved to what is currently spoken and written. Only recently (1995, with second edition in 2004) has the first dictionary of Bislama[5] been published, and this has helped to create a uniform spelling of Bislama.
The name of Bislama (previously also spelled "Bichelamar") comes via the 19th century word "Beach-la-Mar" from French "bêche de mer" sea cucumber, which itself comes from an alteration of the Portuguese "bicho do mar".[6] In the mid-nineteenth century, sea cucumbers were also harvested and dried at the same time that sandalwood was gathered. The name came to be associated with the kind of pidgin that came to be used by the local laborers between themselves, as well as their English-speaking overseers.
Two frequent words in Bislama are "long" and "blong", which take the place of many prepositions in English or French.
Long as 'next to', 'by', 'beside' etc...
Stoa long haos: The store next to the house.
long as 'at' or 'to'
Mi bin stap long ples ia bifo: I have been to this place
before.
Mi stap long stoa: I am at the store.
long as 'in'
Jea long haos: The chair in the house.
Long holds many other related meanings, and is sometimes used in improvisation.
Originally from Eng. "belong", blong takes the place of
'of' or the genitive case in other languages. Just like Eng.
of, it is one of the most widely used and versatile words
in the language, and can indicate possession, country of origin,
defining characteristics, intention, and others.
Verbs in Bislama do not conjugate. Usually they consist of a stem word borrowed from English, French or indigenous languages and on many transitive verbs the ending -em, -im, or -um, depending on vowel harmony. There is a past tense and a future tense marker that usually goes at the beginning of the sentence or next to the verb. For example:
The plural is formed by putting "ol" before the word: bia=beer. Ol bia = "beers". "Ol" comes from the English "all". When used with numbers, the singular form is used. 2 bia, 3 bia, etc...
Bislama features dual, trial, and plural personal pronouns as well as an inclusive and exclusive we (inclusive meaning I + you, exclusive meaning I + he/she/it/they, not you). Following are the Bislama plural personal pronouns, in italics the English transliteration where useful to understand/remember, and the grammatical category.
Pronouns do not decline.
no : not
nomo : no/any more (placed before the predicate)
nomo : only / doesn't but
neva : never
jes : shows an action that has just occurred
stat : start, commencement of a process
stap : ongoing or habitual action
gogo : continual action
bin : (been) - completed action
finis : finished, past tense (when before object)
finis : already (when after object)
mas : must
traem : try
wantem : want
save : can, know; from French savoir
sapos : (suppose) if
Dialects exist, based mainly on different pronunciations in different areas which stem from the different sounds of the native languages. The future tense marker can be heard to be said as: Bambae, Mbae, Nambae, or Bae. There are also preferences for using Bislama or native words that vary from place to place, and most people insert English, French, or local language words to fill out Bislama. So in the capital city it is common to hear 'computer'; in other places you might hear 'ordinateur'.
| English | Bislama | Pijin | Tok Pisin | Torres Strait Creole |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| and | mo | an | na | ane, ne, an, a |
| the / this | __ ia / ya | __ ia | dispela __ | dha - dhemtu - dhem (the) / dhis __ (ia) (this) / dhis __ dhe (that) / dhas __ (dhe) (that) |
| he / she / it / him / her | hem | hem | em / en | em |
| for | from | fo | long | po |
| (adjective marker) | -fala | -fala | -pela | -Ø (-wan wHen not before the noun - em i big man he's a big man - man i bigwan the man's big) |
| woman | woman | woman / mere | meri | uman / oman (dialect difference) |
The longest written work in Bislama is the recently completed Bible.
| Luke 2:6-7: |
| Bislama: |
|
"Tufala i stap yet long Betlehem, nao i kam kasem stret taem blong Meri i bonem pikinini. Nao hem i bonem fasbon pikinin blong hem we hem i boe. Hem i kavremapgud long kaliko, nao i putum hem i slip long wan bokis we oltaim ol man oli stap putum gras long hem, blong ol anamol oli kakae. Tufala i mekem olsem, from we long hotel, i no gat ples blong tufala i stap." |
|
Bislama words CHORUS: God i givim ples ya long yumi, CHORUS Plante fasin blong bifo i stap, CHORUS Yumi save plante wok i stap, CHORUS |
English translation CHORUS: God has given us this land; CHORUS We have many traditions CHORUS We know there is much work to be done CHORUS |
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A loanword from the Bislama language, from French bêche de mer “sea cucumber”. In the mid-nineteenth century, sea cucumbers were harvested and dried at the same time that sandalwood was gathered. The name came to be associated with the kind of pidgin speech that was used by the local laborers between themselves, as well as their English-speaking overseers.
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Singular |
Plural |
Bislama
Bislama
Bislama n.
Bislama is one of the three national languages of Vanuatu. It is a new language, made during the last two or three hundred years by mixing English with some French and some local words. The way the words are put together is like people have talked in Vanuatu for a long time -- not like English or French words are put together.
Bislama is like this:
  | Pidginise Your English: How to speak Bislama - andrewgray.com - File not found |
| | Vanuatu Daily Post - The Vanuatu Daily Post |
| | Bislama Translator & Spelling Dictionary for Microsoft Word - Bislama Spelling Dictionary |
| | Bislama - Open Directory - Science: Social Sciences: Linguistics: Languages: Natural: Pidgins and Creoles: English Based: Bislama |
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