Bislama

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Bislama

Spoken in

Vanuatu , New Caledonia
speaker 210,000
Linguistic
classification
  • Creole languages
    English based
    Bislama
Official status
Official language in VanuatuVanuatu Vanuatu
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

bi

ISO 639 -2

to

ISO 639-3

to

Bislama , also Bichelamar , Bêche-de-mer , or Beach-la-Mar , is one of the official languages ​​of the Republic of Vanuatu and at the same time the lingua franca of the 108 languages ​​(the two languages ​​"Aore" and "Ifo" are no longer spoken), spoken in Vanuatu; 90% of the Ni-Vanuatus (as Vanuatu's inhabitants call themselves) use Bislama as a second language, 10% - mostly the young generation from the two cities of Port Vila and Santo - as their first language; it is also spoken by over 1,200 people in New Caledonia . It is one of the Pacific Creole languages based on English . Due to Vanuatu's history, it has many loanwords from French and from Melanesian languages. The syntax is strongly Melanesian. It is partly similar to Pijin ( Solomon Islands ), Tok Pisin ( Papua New Guinea ) and Torres Creole ( Queensland , Australia ).

Bislama as a spoken language (Wikitongues project)

history

The islands of what is now Vanuatu were populated a few thousand years ago by Melanesians who brought various oceanic languages ​​to the islands. Many villages had little contact with one another, so that a great variety of languages ​​developed ( Vanuatu has the greatest linguistic density). Europeans did not arrive until the middle of the 19th century. to the islands - mostly British and French who discovered and cultivated sandalwood there . They recruited many Ni-Vanuatus to work on sugar cane plantations in Queensland. During World War II, many Ni-Vanuatus were employed on American military bases. From this multilingual situation, an English pidgin emerged, which was passed on from generation to generation and developed into today's Creole language Bislama. The name can be derived from Beach-la-Mar , which itself comes from the French biche de mer (German: sea ​​cucumber ). In the 19th century, sea cucumbers were widely harvested and dried on the islands. The pidgin , spoken by the workers at the time, was associated with this activity, so that the language name established itself.

situation

Vanuatu is (next to Haiti ) one of the few states in which a Creole language has been made an official language. One reason was certainly that local politicians had a problem with the non-English or French speaking population. The parliament, radio broadcasts, newspapers mainly use Bislama. It is only now that the country’s primary schools are also starting to teach Bislama.

Lexicons

The lexicon of the Bislama contains around 2,800 words, most of which come from 19th century English.

Examples:

Bislama English German
brij bridge bridge
buluk by bullock Ox
masket musket gun
giaman oldgl. gammon cheat
puscat by pussy cat cat
Tank yu tumas Thank you very much Many thanks
Yu gat ...? Do you have ...? Do you have ...?
Mi wantem velvet long kakae. I am hungry / I want something to eat. I'm hungry.

Due to the influence of oceanic languages, the meaning of words derived from English often changed.

Examples:

Bislama English German
han hand Finger, hand, arm
leg leg Foot or leg
harem hearing Senses (hearing, feeling, etc.)

A large number of the lexicons also come from French.

Examples:

Bislama French German
bonane bonne année New year celebration
cabin cabinet Toilet
pima pimento chili

Examples of Melanesian influence:

  • Nambawan - excellent
  • kakae - food

Due to the limited vocabulary, very floral paraphrases are often used.

Bible text passage Luke 2,6-7  EU :

Tufala i stap yet long Bethlehem, nao i came 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.

(Chapter 2: The Birth of Jesus - While they were there, the days came to pass when she was to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in diapers and put him in a manger because there was no room for she was in the hostel).

Web links

Wikipedia on Bislama