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Bislama
Spoken in: Vanuatu
Total speakers: 6,200 (first language),
>200,000 (additional language)
Language family: Creole language
 English Creole
  Pacific
   Bislama
Language codes
ISO 639-1: bi
ISO 639-2: bis
ISO 639-3: bis
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu ( French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu) is an Island List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. An English-based creole language, or English creole for short is a Creole language that was significantly influenced by the English language. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Bislama is a creole language, one of the official languages of Vanuatu. A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu ( French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu) is an Island 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. Port Vila (ˌpɔrt ˈviːlə is the capital city of Vanuatu. It is also Vanuatu's largest city Luganville is the second largest city in the Republic of Vanuatu and is located on the island of Espiritu Santo. "Yumi, Yumi, Yumi", the Vanuatu national anthem, is in Bislama. " Yumi Yumi Yumi " ("We We We" is the National anthem of Vanuatu.

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. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Vanuatu has three official languages English, French, and Bislama, a Creole language evolved from English [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]

Contents

History

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 recruited to work on plantations, mainly in Queensland, Australia and Fiji. Blackbirding refers to the recruitment of people through trickery and Kidnappings to work on plantations particularly the Sugar cane Plantations of Events and Trends Technology The invention of the prototype telephone by Alexander G Events and Trends Technology Development and commercial production of Electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered Hebrides (disambiguation New Hebrides was the colonial name for an Island group in the South Pacific that now forms the nation of Vanuatu. Fundamentally a plantation is usually a large Farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country on which Cotton, Tobacco Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent Fiji (Matanitu ko Viti फ़िजी officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands (Matanitu Tu-Vaka-i-koya ko Viti फ़िजी द्वीप समूह गणराज्य 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, Pijin of the Solomon Islands, and Torres Strait Creole north of Australia. Tok Pisin ( tok means "word" or "speech" as in "talk" pisin means " Pidgin " is a creole spoken throughout Papua New Guinea (or ˈpæpjuːə in Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini) officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands Torres Strait Creole (also Torres Strait Pidgin Torres Strait Brokan/Broken Cape York Creole Lockhart Creole Papuan Pidgin English) is an oral Creole For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

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 the size of Connecticut state), Bislama usefully serves as a lingua franca for communication between ni-Vanuatu, as well as with and even between foreigners. Vanuatu has three official languages English, French, and Bislama, a Creole language evolved from English A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely 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.

Name

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". The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The sea cucumber (also known as trepang, bêche-de-mer, or ambiguously Sea slug) is an Echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea [6] In the mid-nineteenth century, sea cucumbers were also harvested and dried at the same time that sandalwood was gathered. for the film industry in India see Cinema of Karnataka Sandalwood is the name for several fragrant Woods and their Essential 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.

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 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.

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 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. In Syntax, a transitive verb is a Verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance ( see below) assimilatory phonological process involving Vowels in some languages 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:

Mi wantem bia ~ I want beer.
Mi bin wantem bia ~ I wanted beer (bin=past tense marker, probably borrowed from the English form of to be "been")
Bambae/Bae mi wantem bia ~ I will want beer. (Bambae/Bae=future tense marker, possibly borrowed from the English "by and by" or "maybe")

Nouns

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. . .

Pronouns

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.

Singular

Dual

Trial

Plural

Pronouns do not decline. In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating

Aspect markers

no : not

hem i no kakae yam = he doesn't eat (a, the) yam

nomo : no/any more (placed before the predicate)

hem i nomo kakae yam = he doesn't eat (a, the) yam any more

nomo : only / doesn't but

hem i kakae yam nomo = he only eats yam

neva : never

hem i neva kakae yam = he never eats yam

jes : shows an action that has just occurred

mifala i jes wekap = we just woke up

stat : start, commencement of a process

hem i stat kukum kumala = he/she has started to cook sweet potatoes

stap : ongoing or habitual action

hem i stap kukum kumala = he/she is now cooking sweet potatoes / he/she usually makes sweet potatoes

gogo : continual action

hem i kukum kumala gogo = he/she keeps on cooking sweet potatoes / he/she continually cooks sweet potatoes

bin : (been) - completed action

hem i bin go long Kanal = he has gone to Luganville (principal city in Santo)

finis : finished, past tense (when before object)

hem i finis kakae = he is finished eating

finis : already (when after object)

hem i kakae finis = he has already eaten

mas : must

hem i mas kakae = he must eat

traem : try

hem i traem singsing = he tries to sing

wantem : want

hem i wantem go long Kanal = he wants to go to Luganville

save : can, know

mi save toktok langwis bislama = I can speak Bislama

sapos : (suppose) if

sapos yumitufala i faenem pig, yumitufala i kilim hem i ded = if we find a pig, we'll kill it

Internal variation

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'.

Pacific Creole Comparison

English Bislama Pijin Tok Pisin Torres Strait Creole
and mo an na
the / this __ ia / ya __ ia dispela __ dis __
he / she / it / him / her hem hem em / en em
for from fo long po
(adjective marker) -fala -fala -pela -Ø
woman woman woman / mere meri oman

Literature and samples

The longest written work in Bislama is the recently completed Bible. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin

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. "

Yumi, Yumi, Yumi

Bislama words

CHORUS:
Yumi, Yumi, yumi I glad long talem se
Yumi, yumi, yumi ol man blong Vanuatu

God i givim ples ya long yumi,
Yumi glat tumas long hem,
Yumi strong mo yumi fri long hem,
Yumi brata evriwan!

CHORUS

Plante fasin blong bifo i stap,
Plante fasin blong tedei,
Be yumi i olsem wan nomo,
Hemia fasin blong yumi!

CHORUS

Yumi save plante wok i stap,
Long ol aelan blong yumi,
God i helpem yumi evriwan,
Hem i papa blong yumi,

CHORUS

English translation

CHORUS:
We (, We, We) are happy to proclaim
We (, We, We) are the People of Vanuatu!

God has given us this land;
This gives us great cause for rejoicing.
We are strong, we are free in this land;
We are all brothers.

CHORUS

We have many traditions
And we are finding new ways.
Now we shall be one Person,
We shall be united for ever.

CHORUS

We know there is much work to be done
On all our islands.
God helps all of us,
He is our father,

CHORUS

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Charpentier, Jean-Michel 1979. Le pidgin bislama(n) et le multilinguisme aux Nouvelles-Hébrides. Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale 35. Paris: SELAF.
  2. ^ Camden, Pastor Bill. 1979. Parallels in structure of lexicon and syntax between New Hebrides Bislama and the South Santo language as spoken at Tangoa. Pacific Linguistics, A-57:51-117.
  3. ^ In addition, whaling captains who picked up workforce from Africa and the Pacific Islands had already developed some sort of pidginized English. Modern Bislama bears a striking resemblance to Pidgin Englishes of West Africa (where the slave trade was also active at one time); it is possible that Bislama is one branch of an evolution of pidgins from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the first truly global trading system began.
  4. ^ For this whole section, see:
    Darrell T. Tryon and Jean-Michel Charpentier. 2004. Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, Growth and Development. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. xix + 559 pp.
    Crowley, Terry. Terry Crowley (1953-2005 was a linguist specializing in Oceanic languages as well as Bislama, the English-lexified Creole recognized as a national 1990. Beach-la-Mar to Bislama: The emergence of a national language in Vanuatu. Oxford Studies in Language Contact. Oxford: Clarendon Press. xxi + 422pp.
  5. ^ Crowley, Terry. Terry Crowley (1953-2005 was a linguist specializing in Oceanic languages as well as Bislama, the English-lexified Creole recognized as a national 1995. An illustrated Bislama-English and English-Bislama dictionary. Vila: Pacific Languages Unit and Vanuatu Extension Centre, University of the South Pacific. (Revised 2004. ) vii + 478pp.
  6. ^ "bêche-de-mer", American Heritage Dictionary, 2000

External links


The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( AHD) is an American Dictionary of the English language published by The Australian National University, commonly abbreviated to ANU, is a public Research university situated in Canberra, Australia. The University of New England ( UNE) is an Australian public university with approximately 18000 higher education students

Dictionary

Bislama

-proper noun

  1. A creole spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu, derived from Indo-European and Malay languages.
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