Bislama Totally Explained

Everything about Bislama totally explained

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. While the influence of these vernacular languages is low on the vocabulary side, it's very high in the morphosyntax. Essentially speaking, Bislama can be described as a language with an English vocabulary and an Austronesian 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 archipelago) were recruited 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, Pijin of the Solomon Islands, and 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 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. 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 (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". 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.

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've been to this place before.
Mi stap long stoa: I'm 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's one of the most widely used and versatile words in the language, and can indicate possession, country of origin, defining characteristics, intention, and others.
ť Buk blong mi: The book that belongs to me, my book

Man blong Amerika: Man from America, American.
ť Hemi woman blong saiens. She is a woman of science, She is a scientist.

Man blong dring: Man of drinking for example a drinker

Verbs

Verbs in Bislama don't conjugate. Usually they consist of a stem word borrowed from English, French or indiginous 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:
ť 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") ť Bambae/Bae mi wantem bia ~ I'll 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

mi : I, me
yu : you
hem : him, her

Dual

yumitufala : (you me two fella) - us, inclusive (you and me)

mitufala : (me two fella) - us, exclusive (me and someone else)

yutufala : you two

tufala/tugeta : those two

Trial

yumitrifala : (you me three fella) - us three, inclusive (you two and me)

mitrifala : (me three fella) - us three exclusive (us three)

trifala/trigeta : those three

Plural

yumi : us inclusive (all of us)

mifala : us exclusive (that person and me)

yufala : all you

ol : many of them

olgeta : all of them Pronouns don't decline.

Aspect markers

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

nomo : no/any more (placed before the predicate) ť hem i nomo kakae yam = he doesn't eat (a, the) yam any more

nomo : only / doesn't but ť hem i kakae yam nomo = he only eats yam

neva : never ť hem i neva kakae yam = he never eats yam

jes : shows an action that has just occurred ť mifala i jes wekap = we just woke up

stat : start, commencement of a process ť hem i stat kukum kumala = he/she has started to cook sweet potatoes

stap : ongoing or habitual action ť hem i stap kukum kumala = he/she is now cooking sweet potatoes / he/she usually makes sweet potatoes

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

bin : (been) - completed action ť hem i bin go long Kanal = he's gone to Luganville (principal city in Santo)

finis : finished, past tense (when before object) ť hem i finis kakae = he's finished eating

finis : already (when after object) ť hem i kakae finis = he's already eaten

mas : must ť hem i mas kakae = he must eat

traem : try ť hem i traem singsing = he tries to sing

wantem : want ť hem i wantem go long Kanal = he wants to go to Luganville

save : can, know ť mi save toktok langwis bislama = I can speak Bislama

sapos : (suppose) if ť 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's 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
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.

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're free in this land;
We are all brothers.
   CHORUS
   We have many traditions
And we're finding new ways.
Now we'll be one Person,
We shall be united for ever.
   CHORUS
   We know there's much work to be done
On all our islands.
God helps all of us,
He is our father,
   CHORUS

Further Information

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