Bislama

This article is about the language. For the food, see sea cucumber (food).

Bislama
Region	Vanuatu
Native speakers	10,000 (2011) 200,000 L2 speakers
Language family	English Creole Pacific Bislama
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Vanuatu
Language codes
ISO 639-1	bi
ISO 639-2	bis
ISO 639-3	bis
Glottolog	bisl1239
Linguasphere	52-ABB-ce

Bislama (English /ˈbɪsləmɑː/; Bislama: [bislaˈma]; also known under its earlier name in French Bichelamar [biʃlamaʁ]) 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 much 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. While the influence of these vernacular languages is low on the vocabulary side, it is very high in the morphosyntax. Bislama can be basically described as a language with an English vocabulary and phonology and an Oceanic grammar.

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 (now Vanuatu) 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 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 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 survivors of Blackbirding began to come back to 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 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 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 been published, and this has helped to create a uniform spelling of Bislama.

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, 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 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 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'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.

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 verbs add to this a transitive suffix. The form of that suffix is /-em/, /-im/, or /-um/, depending on vowel harmony. If the last vowel of the verb’s stem is either -u- or -i-, then that vowel will be copied into the transitive suffix. For all other stem vowels, the transitive suffix has its default form /-em/:

Morphology of transitive verb endings

English	Bislama
etymon	stem	verb
dig	dig-	digim
clean	klin-	klinim
kiss	kis-	kisim
put	put-	putum
pull	pul-	pulum
cook	kuk-	kukum
want	wand-	wandem
hear	har-	harem ‘hear, feel’
tell	tal-	talem ‘tell, say’
sell	sal-	salem
shut	sat-	sarem
catch	kas-	kasem ‘get, reach’
carry	kar-	karem ‘carry, bring’
ready	rere ‘ready’	rerem ‘prepare’
take	tek-	tekem
find	faen-	faenem
call	kol-	kolem
hold	hol-	holem
follow	fol-	folem
show	so-	soem
look out	lukaot-	lukaotem ‘search’
pay	pe-	pem ‘buy’

Verbs do not conjugate. 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, from the English "been")

Bambae/Bae mi wantem bia ~ I will want beer. (Bambae/Bae=future tense marker, from English "by and by")

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

The personal pronouns of Bislama feature four grammatical numbers (singular, dual, trial and plural). They also encode the clusivity distinction: 1st person non-singular pronouns (equivalent of Eng. we) are described as inclusive if they include the addressee (i.e. {you + I}, {you + I + others}), but exclusive otherwise (i.e. {I + other people}). Bislama pronouns do not decline.

The personal pronouns of Bislama

	singular	dual	trial	plural
first person (inclusive)	—	yumitu	yumitri	yumi
first person (exclusive)	mi	mitufala	mitrifala	mifala
second person	yu	yutufala	yutrifala	yufala
third person	hem hemi	tufala tugeta	trifala trigeta	ol / oli olgeta

Aspect markers

no : not

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

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

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

nomo (placed after the predicate): only

hem i kakae yam nomo = he eats only 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

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

gogo : continual action

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

bin : (been) - completed action

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

finis : finished, past tense (when before object)

hemi kakae finis = 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; from the English use of 'savvy', but originally from Portuguese.

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	ane / ne / an / a
the	__ ia / ya	__ ia	dispela __	dha / dhemtu / dhem
this	__ ia / ya	__ ia	dispela __	dhis __ (ia) / dhemtu __ ia / dhem __ ia
he / she / it / him / her	hem	hem	em / en	em
for	from	fo	long	po
(adjective marker)	-fala	-fala	-pela	-Ø when attributive (em i big man ‘he's a big man’) -wan when predicative (man i bigwan ‘the man's big’)
woman	woman	woman / mere	meri	uman / oman (dialect difference)

Literature and samples

The longest written work in Bislama is the Bible completed in 1998.

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 kavremap gud long kaliko, nao i putum hem i slip long wan bokis we oltaim ol man ol i stap putum gras long hem, blong ol anamol ol i kakae. Tufala i mekem olsem, from we long hotel, i no gat ples blong tufala i stap."

Yumi, Yumi, Yumi

Main article: 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. But we are all one 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

• 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.
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• Crowley, Terry. 2004. Bislama Reference Grammar. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 31. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
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• Darrell T. Tryon and Jean-Michel Charpentier. 2004. Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, Growth and Development. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004. xix + 559 pp. Hardcover ISBN 3-11-016998-3.

External links

• Bislama.org, a portal of resources about the Bislama language.
• Bislama Translator & Spelling Dictionary for Microsoft Word English - Bislama online translator and MS Word dictionary
• Bislama at DMOZ
• Vanuatu Daily Post - news in English and Bislama
• A bibliography of Bislama, from an Australian National University website
• Peace Corps in Vanuatu - Bislama Language Lessons
• Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Bislama Preabuk long Bislama
• Book of Mormon in Bislama