Hao Blong Toktok smol bislamA -
how to speak a bit of bislama

Vanuatu is known as the country with the most languages spoken per capita in the entire world!

Due to a long history of inter-island and inter village trading, many Ni-Vanuatu speak numerous languages. However, over 113 distinct languages and many more dialects are found throughout the many islands.

When Europeans arrived, a lingua franca evolved. Its name, Bislama, derived from the Beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) traders who developed a form of Pidgin English throughout the Pacific. It began as a simplified form of phonetic English, with Spanish and French colloquialisms added for good measure.

As with all languages, it soon took on a life of its own; borrowing and incorporating new words and evolving over time. Today, although similar to Solomon and New Guinea pidgin, it is nevertheless distinctive.

Bislama, though phonetically English with a broad accent, is grammatically simpler. Everything, including women, is spoken of in the masculine. Being a simpler language means that complex ideas or new concepts must be described functionally. The results are descriptions and stories that can be a great deal longer rather than if told in English.

Spoken Bislama is relatively easy to understand if the speaker is slow and enunciates the phrases. Written Bislama is also relatively easy to comprehend.

However, in the same way that a Welsh barman may have no trouble in understanding spoken English, an Australian or American may have great difficulty understanding the barman due to a strong accent.

There are some key words that are used in most sentences:

Blong: Belong

It is used in reference to any noun which has a possessive relationship with any other noun.

Pikikini blong mi: This child belongs to me
Laet blong trak: The truck light
Finga blong tri: The branches of a tree
Bras blong tut: Toothbrush

Long: From, to, in, on

It is used in association with something, but not in a possessive sense.

Pikinini i go long skul: The child goes to school
truk i kam long hotel: The vehicle came from a/the hotel
tri i foldaon long trak: A tree fell down on a/the vehicle

In vocabulary, most object groupings are simplified. Thus, all motorised vehicles are ‘truks’, all birds are ‘pidjins’ and all creatures in the sea are ‘fis’.

To distinguish the differences in these groupings, their relationship to size or the environment is used, or a description is given, rather than a distinctive name:

Bigfala trak: Large truck or car
Smol trak: Small car
Pidgin blong solwota: Bird from the sea (seagull)
Pidjin blong bus: Bird from the bush
Kaofis: Cow fish (dugong)
Fis i gat naef long tel blong hem: The fish that has a knife on his tail (surgeon fish)

Personal pronouns are simplified: I, me, myself, becomes simply mi: