Bislama (; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an
English-based creole language
An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the ''lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the creo ...
and one of the official languages of
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
. It is the first language of many of the "Urban
ni-Vanuatu
Ni-Vanuatu (informally abbreviated Ni-Van) is a large group of closely related Melanesians, Melanesian ethnic groups native to the island country of Vanuatu. As such, ''Ni-Vanuatu'' are a mixed ethnolinguistic group with a shared ethnogenesis tha ...
" (citizens who live in
Port Vila
Port Vila (french: Port-Vila), or simply Vila (; french: Vila; bi, Vila ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate.
Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the pr ...
and
Luganville
Luganville is the second largest city in Vanuatu after the capital Port Vila; it is located on the island of Espiritu Santo and has a population of 18,062 as of the 2020 census. Those on Vanuatu's northern islands who regard Luganville as their bi ...
) and the second language of much of the rest of the country's residents. The lyrics of "
Yumi, Yumi, Yumi
"" (; "We, We, We") is the national anthem of Vanuatu. It was written and composed by François Vincent Ayssav (born 1955) and adopted by the citizens of Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, Répu ...
", the country's national anthem, are composed in Bislama.
More than 95% of Bislama words are of English origin, whilst the remainder comprises a few dozen words from French as well as some specific vocabulary inherited from various
languages of Vanuatu
The Republic of Vanuatu has the world's highest linguistic density per capita.
For a population of 0.3 million, Vanuatu is home to 138 indigenous Oceanic languages.
In addition, modern history has brought new languages, including the country's ...
; though these are essentially limited to flora and fauna terminology. While the influence of these vernacular languages is low on the vocabulary side, it is very high in the
morphosyntax
In linguistics, morphology () is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Morph ...
. As such, Bislama can be described simply as a language with an English vocabulary and an
Oceanic
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
grammar and phonology.
History
During the period of "
blackbirding
Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...
" in the 1870s and 1880s, hundreds of thousands of Pacific islanders (many of them from the
New Hebrides
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (french: link=no, Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides, "Condominium of the New Hebrides") and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group ...
– now the
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
archipelago) were taken as indentured labourers, often kidnapped, and forced to work on plantations, mainly in
Queensland, Australia
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
, and
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
. With several languages being spoken in these plantations a localised
pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
was formed, combining English vocabulary with grammatical structures typical of languages in the region. This early plantation pidgin is the origin not only of Bislama, but also of
Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...
in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
, and
Pijin
Pijin (Solomons Pidgin or Neo-Solomonic) is a language spoken in Solomon Islands. It is closely related to Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea and Bislama of Vanuatu; these might be considered dialects of a single language. It is also related to To ...
of the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
; though not of
Torres Strait Creole
Torres Strait Creole ( tcs, Yumplatok), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a varie ...
in the north of Australia.
This creole started spreading throughout the Vanuatu archipelago at the turn of the 20th century, as former blackbirds and their descendants began to return to their native islands. Knowledge of this creole would facilitate communication not only with European traders and settlers, but also between native populations, and because Vanuatu is the most language-dense country in the world (one count puts it at
113 languages for a population of 225,000), Bislama usefully serves as a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
for communication between ni-Vanuatu, as well as with and between foreigners. Although it has been primarily a spoken-only language for most of its history, the first dictionary of Bislama was published in 1995. This, along with its second edition in 2004, has helped to create a standardised and uniform spelling of written Bislama.
Besides Bislama, most ni-Vanuatu also know their local language, the local language of their father and/or mother, as well as their spouse, oftentimes. The country's official languages of tuition in schools and educational institutions are English and French.
Name
The name of Bislama (also referred to, especially in French, as "Bichelamar") comes via the early 19th century word "Beach-la-Mar" from pseudo-French "biche de mer" or "bêche de mer",
sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothuria ...
, which itself comes from an alteration of the Portuguese "bicho do mar". In the early 1840s, sea cucumbers were also harvested and dried at the same time that
sandalwood
Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...
was gathered. The names ''biche-la-mar'' and 'Sandalwood English' 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.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
wrote in an account of his travels through the Pacific in 1888 and 1889, "the natives themselves have often scraped up a little English ... or an efficient pidgin, what is called to the westward 'Beach-la-Mar'." In
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
's story "Yah! Yah! Yah!", one of his "
South Sea Tales", there is repeated a reference to "a bastard lingo called ''bech-de-mer''", and much of the story's dialogue is conducted in it.
Today, the word "bislama" itself is seldom used by younger speakers of Bislama to refer to sea slugs, as a new re-borrowing from pseudo-French "bêche de mer", which has taken the form "besdemea", has become more popular.
Orthography
The Bislama Latin alphabet uses the letters ''A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y'' and the digraphs ''AE'', ''AO'' and ''
NG''.
An older Latin orthography, used before 1995, had ''É'' (now written ''E''), ''AI'' and ''AU'' (now ''AE'' and ''AO''). For those vowels in hiatus, ''AÏ'' and ''AÜ'' were used (now written ''AI'' and ''AU'').
Labialized consonants, now written ''MW'' and ''PW'', were then spelled with a
macron, following the conventions used for some vernacular Vanuatu languages: ''M̄'' was used for and ''P̄'' for .
On the island of
Pentecost
Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...
, the
avoiuli
Avoiuli (from Raga 'talk about' and 'draw' or 'paint') is a writing system used by the Turaga indigenous movement on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu. It was devised by Chief Viraleo Boborenvanua over a 14-year period, based on designs found in t ...
script is sometimes used for Bislama. The shapes of the letters derive from sand-drawing. It has distinct letters for ''NG'' and ''NGG'', but otherwise corresponds closely to the Latin alphabet above, though capitals are seldom used, punctuation differs, there are digits for higher numbers and
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
s for commonly traded commodities such as pig tusks.
Grammar
Two frequent words in Bislama are "long" and "blong", which take the place of many prepositions in English or French.
"Long"
*''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.
"Blong"
Originally from the English word "belong", ''blong'' takes the place of 'of' or the genitive case in other languages. Just like ''of'' in English, 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.
;Buk blong mi: The book that belongs to me, my book
;Man blong Amerika: Man from America, American.
;Hemi woman blong saiens: She is a woman of science, She is a scientist.
;Man blong dring: Man of drinking i.e. a drinker
Verbs
Verbs in Bislama usually consist of a stem word (borrowed from English, French or indigenous languages); most
transitive verb
A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''.
Transitiv ...
s add to this a transitive suffix.
The form of that suffix is /-em/, /-im/, or /-um/, depending on
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
. If the last vowel of the verb's stem is either -u- or -i-, then that vowel will normally be copied into the transitive suffix – however, there are rare exceptions. For all other stem vowels, the transitive suffix has its default form /-em/:
Note that exceptions exist, such as ''lukim'' ("look").
Examples of transitive verbs which exceptionally ''don't'' take this suffix include: ''kakae'' 'eat, bite'; ''trink'' 'drink'; ''save'' 'know'; ''se'' 'say'.
Verbs do not conjugate. The
tense, aspect and mood of a sentence are indicated with markers such as ''stap'', ''bin'' and ''bae'' that are placed in the sentence.
;Mi stap kakae taro: I'm eating taro
;Mi bin kakae taro: I have eaten taro
;Bae mi kakae taro: I will eat taro
Nouns
The plural is formed by putting ''ol'' before the word. For example, ''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.
Pronouns
![Trilingual warning signs in Vanuatu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Trilingual_warning_signs_in_Vanuatu.jpg)
The
personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
s of Bislama closely resemble those of
Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...
. They feature four grammatical numbers (singular, dual, trial and plural) and also encode the
clusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a grammatical distinction between ''inclusive'' and ''exclusive'' first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called ''inclusive " we"'' and ''exclusive "we"''. Inclusive "we" specifically includes the addressee ...
distinction: 1st person non-singular pronouns (equivalent of English ''we'') are described as ''inclusive'' if they include the addressee (i.e. , ), but ''exclusive'' otherwise (i.e. ). Bislama pronouns do not
decline
Decline may refer to:
*Decadence, involves a perceived decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, or skill over time
* "Decline" (song), 2017 song by Raye and Mr Eazi
* ''The Decline'' (EP), an EP by NOFX
*The Decline (band), Australian ...
.
The third person singular ''hem'', also written ''em'' lacks gender distinction, so it can mean either he, she or it. The
predicate
Predicate or predication may refer to:
* Predicate (grammar), in linguistics
* Predication (philosophy)
* several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic:
**Predicate (mathematical logic)
**Propositional function
**Finitary relation, o ...
marker i – a particle which is placed before the
verbal phrase of a sentence – is sometimes merged with the third person pronoun, giving the words hemi and emi, respectively, in singular, and oli in plural.
Tense/aspect/mood markers
*stap + V : (
progressive) ongoing or habitual action
*;hem i stap kukum kumala: or:
:;hemi stap kukum kumala: he/she is cooking sweet potatoes
*bin + V :
past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
(with implication that the state is no longer true)
*;hem i bin sik long fiva: she was sick with fever
ut is no longer sick*V + finis : (
perfective
The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...
) "already" (when placed at the end of a phrase; elsewhere it means "finish")
*;hem i kakae finis: she has already eaten
*bae + V (occasionally bambae): (
irrealis
In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods.
Every ...
) future or hypothetical actions (though, like in English, generally not used in
conditional sentences
Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is ''cond ...
)
*;bae mi go long Santo: I will go to Santo
*;: If the plane hadn't been full, I would have gone to Santo
*no + V : negative, "not"
*;hem i no wantem yam: he doesn't want yam
*nomo + V: "no longer" (when placed after the predicate; elsewhere it means "only")
*;hem i nomo kakae yam: he no longer eats yam
*;hem i kakae yam nomo: he only eats yam
*neva + V : never
*;hem i neva kakae yam: he's never eaten yam
*jes + V : (<"just") an action that has recently occurred
*;: we just woke up
*In a future context, ''jes'' entails a delay, rendered in English as "eventually":
*;bae mi pem: I will buy it / Let me buy it
*;bae mi jes pem, be noyet: I will buy it (eventually), but not yet
*V + gogo : continued action
*;hem i kukum kumala gogo: he keeps on cooking sweet potatoes
*mas + V : "must", be obliged to
*;hem i mas kakae: he must eat
*traem + V : "try to"; also sometimes used for politeness in requests
*;hem i stap traem katem: he's trying to cut it
*;traem soem long mi: could you show it me? (request)
*wantem + V : "want to"
*;hem i wantem go long Santo: she wants to go to Santo
*save + V : be able to, or be in the habit of doing
*;mi save rid: I can read
*;mi no save dring suga: I don't take sugar in drinks
*;fish ia i save kilim man: this fish can kill a person
Some of these markers also have lexical meanings. For example, ''save'' can mean "be able to" but it is also a verb "know".
Subordination
*sapos + Clause : if
;: if we find a pig, we'll kill it
Dialectal variations
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 one might hear 'ordinateur'.
Pacific creole comparison
Literature and samples
The longest written work in Bislama is the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
completed in 1998.
Yumi, Yumi, Yumi
Further reading
* Camden, William. 1979. Parallels in structure and lexicon and syntax between New Hebrides Bislama and the South Santo language spoken at Tangoa. In ''Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics'', No.2. Pacific Linguistics, A-57. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 51–117.
* Charpentier, Jean-Michel. 1979. ''Le pidgin bislama(n) et le multilinguisme aux Nouvelles-Hébrides''.
Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale 35. Paris: SELAF.
* .
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
Bislama WikipediaBislama.org a portal of resources about the Bislama language.
Bislama Translator & Spelling Dictionary for Microsoft WordEnglish – Bislama online translator and MS Word dictionary
*
Vanuatu Daily Post– news in English and Bislama
, from an
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
website
Peace Corps in Vanuatu – Bislama Language Lessons''Preabuk long Bislama''
Book of Mormon in Bislama*
Paradisec
The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) is a cross-institutional project that supports work on endangered languages and cultures of the Pacific and the region around Australia. They digitise reel-to ...
has a number of collections that includ
recordings of Bislama language
{{Authority control
English-based pidgins and creoles
Languages of Vanuatu
Languages of New Caledonia
Bislama words and phrases