A New Bislama Dictionary

A New Bislama Dictionary
Author: Terry Crowley
Publisher: [email protected]
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2003
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9789820203624

"A new Bislama dictionary is a substantially updated version of the first edition, which reflects the ever-changing vocabulary of Bislama, the national language of Vanuatu."--Back cover.

Bislama Reference Grammar

Bislama Reference Grammar
Author: Terry Crowley
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2004-05-31
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780824828806

Bislama is the national language of Vanuatu, the world's most linguistically diverse nation with at least 80 actively spoken Oceanic languages used by about 200,000 people. Bislama began as a plantation pidgin based on English in the nineteenth century, but it has since developed into a unique language with a grammar and vocabulary very different from English. It is one of very few national languages for which there is no readily available reference grammar. This book aims to fill this gap by providing an extensive account of the grammar of Bislama as it is used by ordinary Ni-Vanuatu. It does not, therefore, aim to describe any kind of artificial written norm but sets out to capture a range of different kinds of ways that Ni-Vanuatu will say things in various contexts, both written and spoken, formal and informal. The thrust of this volume is to show that Bislama has a grammar—an unfamiliar concept for those educated in Vanuatu. It also shows that Bislama is a language of considerable complexity, which will come as a surprise to many of its users, who have been taught to view their language as somehow "simple" and even "deficient."

Bislama

Bislama
Author: Darrell T. Tryon
Publisher: Pacific Linguistics
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1987
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Melanesian Pidgin and Tok Pisin

Melanesian Pidgin and Tok Pisin
Author: John W. M. Verhaar
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1990
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9027230234

The First International Conference on Pidgins and Creoles in Melanesia was planned mainly for Tok Pisin, but no predetermined theme(s) had been proposed to the participants. Nevertheless, in this collection of papers several principal themes stand out.One is that of a revived interest in substratology, both for Tok Pisin and for Bislama. Another is what in fact amounts to a change in perspective from universalism, as supposedly competitive with the substratological orientation, towards a generalist approach to typology, which reduces the apparent polarity, from a theoretical point of view. A third is the pervasive interest of contributors in wider language issues in the social and political life of Papua New Guinea.These interests go back to the linguistic and social experience of the participants, most of whom have a long record of living among the people whose languages they have studied on a day-to-day basis, and to the relative remoteness of their inspiration from the more theoretical and perhaps ultimately untestable issues which surround the universalist approach and its claims for a bioprogram foundation for language.

Beach-la-Mar to Bislama

Beach-la-Mar to Bislama
Author: Terry Crowley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1990
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Bislama is the variety of Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides). In this learned study, Crowley traces the history and development of Bislama from the 1840s to the present. Drawing on written records and other historical sources, he examines the language's labor history, and discusses the evolution of its grammatical construction.

Sista, Stanap Strong!

Sista, Stanap Strong!
Author: Mikaela Nyman
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2021-10-01
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1776563948

Sista, Stanap Strong! is an anthology of new writing from Vanuatu by three generations of women—and the first of its kind. With poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, and song, its narrative arc stretches from the days of blackbirding to Independence in 1980 to Vanuatu's coming of age in 2020. Most of these writers are ni-Vanuatu living in Vanuatu. Some have set down roots in New Zealand, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Canada. Some were born overseas and have made Vanuatu their home. One is just twenty; another is an octogenarian. The writers in this anthology have chosen to harness the coloniser's language, English, for their own purposes. They are writing against racism, colonialism, misogyny, and sexism. Writing across bloodlines and linguistic boundaries. Professing their love for ancestors, offspring, and language— Bislama, vernacular, and English. What these writers also have in common is a sharp eye for detail, a love of words, a deep connection to Vanuatu, and a willingness to share a glimpse of their world. Includes a foreword by Viran Molisa Trief. Cover art: Juliette Pita