Bislama

Introduction

Vanuata

Volcano

Vanuatu Map Bislama is spoken on Vanuatu, a tropical archipelago made up of 83 islands, which stretches over some 500 miles of the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Australia and Hawai’i. Bislama (also known as Bichelama) is an English-based creole whose name comes from the French bêche de mer "sea cucumber." The name became associated with the pidgin used by local laborers who harvested and dried sea cucumbers and by their English-speaking overseers. It is closely related to Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea, Pijin of the Solomon Islands, and Torres Strait Creole.

Bislama is one of the official languages of Vanuatu, along with English and French. It is spoken as a second language by most of the country's people who speak over a hundred first different languages. Bislama is the major language of politics and of the media, but not of education which is conducted in English or French.

Structure

Sound System

baby

Man

Sound system
Even though most of the words in Bislama were borrowed from English or French, their pronunciation is quite different. In addition, since Bislama is learned as a second language by most speakers, its pronunciation is influenced by the first language of the speakers.

Vowels
Bislama has five vowels: /i/, /e/, /a/, /u/, /o/. English words such as sleep and slip are both pronounced as /slip/. Diphthongs are represented by two vowels, e.g., boe "boy," haos "house," naef "knife."

Consonants
Bislama has 15 consonants and 2 semi-vowels.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops (voiceless)	p	.	t	.	.	k	.
Stops (voiced)	b	.	d	.	.	g	.
Fricatives (voiceless)	.	f	s	.	.	.	h
Fricatives (voiced)	.	v	.	.	.	.	.
Affricate (voiceless)	.	.	.	j*	.	.	.
Nasals	m	.	n	.	.	ng	.
Laterals	.	.	l	.	.	.	.
Tap or flap	.	.	r	.	.	.	.
Semi-vowels	w	.	.	.	y	.	.

* pronounced as /ch/.

When English words are borrowed into Bislama, the consonants are often either dropped or vowels are inserted between them, e.g., school becomes sukul.

Click here to listen to Samuel Katipa, a Vanuatan, speak about himself in Bislama.

Grammar

Woman by Volcano

Vanuata Man

Nouns
The plural is formed by ol "all" before the noun, e.g., bia "beer," ol bia "beers."

Pronouns
The pronominal system of Bislama is fairly complex. It features dual, triple, and multiple plural personal pronouns as well as an inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Below is a table of Bislama personal pronouns.

I	mi	1st person singular
you	yu	2nd person singular
he/she/it	*emi*	3rd person singular
we	*yumi*	1st person inclusive multiple
	*yumitu*	1st person inclusive dual
	*yumitri*	1st person inclusive triple
	*mifala*	1st person exclusive multiple
	*mitufala*	1st person exclusive dual
	*mitrifala*	1st personexclusive triple
you	*yufala*	2nd person multiple
	*yutufala*	2nd person dual
	*yutrifala*	2nd person triple
they	*olifala*	3rd person multiple
	*tufala*	3rd person dual
	*trifala*	3rd person triple

Verbs
Most Bislama verbs consist of a stem borrowed from English, French, or a local language plus the ending -em, -im, or -um (from "him") to mark transitivity, e.g., wantem "want." The present progressive tense is expressed by stap, the past tense is expressed by bin, and the future tense is expressed by bambae (from "by and by").

Present	Mi wantem fruit.	I want fruit
.	*Mi stap slip.*	I am sleeping
Past	Mi bin wantem frut.	I wanted fruit
Future	Bambae mi wantem frut.	I will want fruit.

Prepositions
There is a limited number of prepositions. Two of them are especially frequent and have a wide range of meanings.

long
*Mi stap slip long haos.*	I am sleeping in the house.
*Mi bin katem fruit long naef.*	I cut the fruit with a knife.
*Stoa long haos*.	The store is next to the house.
blong
Bambae mi kuk blong yu.	I will cook for you.
Man blong Amerika.	Man from America (i.e., American).
Buk blong mi.	My book.
Emi woman blong sciens.	She is a woman of science (i.e., scientist).

Vocabulary

Bislama vocabulary features words from English, French, and various Vanuatu languages. Most words have a wide range of meanings. When precision is required, the result may be a very long-winded description instead of a single word. This is how the word globalization is rendered in Bislama (example from Wikipedia).

Bislama	English
Wan samting wea ol kantri long world olgeta exchangem sam samting witem ol difren countries, i bekeken ol man oli go long difren ples long wol, oli fri go wok long difren ples, i ol man oli sharem ol difren idia tua bekeken.	A thing where all countries in the world trade things with each other, and people can go all over the world and work in different places and people share all sorts of different ideas too.

Writing

Writing
Bislama was an unwritten language till about 100 years ago. The recent appearance of a dictionary has helped to create a standardized orthography. Today, there are many publications in Bislama, including print and online newspapers. Below is an excerpt from the front page of a Vanuatu newspaper which publishes articles in either English or Bislama.

Vanuata Newspaper

Resources

Bislama study resources
Publications on Bislama
Bislama
Wikipedia article on Bislama