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".^[10] 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.^[11]

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'."^[12] 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.^[13]

"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 normally be copied into the transitive suffix – however, there are rare exceptions. For all other stem vowels, the transitive suffix has its default form /-em/:^[16]

Exceptions exist, such as lukim ("look").

Examples of transitive verbs which exceptionally don't take this suffix include: kakae 'eat, bite'; trink 'drink'; save 'know'; se 'say'.

Verbs do not conjugate. The tense, aspect and mood of a sentence are indicated with markers such as stap, bin and bae that are placed in the sentence.

Mi stap kakae taro

I'm eating taro

Mi bin kakae taro

I have eaten taro

Bae mi kakae taro

I will eat taro

Nouns

The plural is formed by putting ol before the word. For example, 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

Pronouns on warning signs in Vanuatu

The personal pronouns of Bislama closely resemble those of Tok Pisin. They feature four grammatical numbers (singular, dual, trial and plural) and also encode the clusivity distinction: 1st person non-singular pronouns (equivalent of English 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 third person singular hem, also written em lacks gender distinction, so it can mean either he, she or it. The predicate marker i – a particle which is placed before the verbal phrase of a sentence – is sometimes merged with the third person pronoun, giving the words hemi and emi, respectively, in singular, and oli in plural.^[17]

Tense/aspect/mood markers

• stap + V : (progressive) ongoing or habitual action

  hem i stap kukum kumala

  or:

hemi stap kukum kumala

he/she is cooking sweet potatoes

• bin + V : past tense (with implication that the state is no longer true)

  hem i bin sik long fiva

  she was sick with fever [but is no longer sick]

• V + finis : (perfective) "already" (when placed at the end of a phrase; elsewhere it means "finish")

  hem i kakae finis

  she has already eaten

• bae + V (occasionally bambae): (irrealis) future or hypothetical actions (though, like in English, generally not used in conditional sentences)

  bae mi go long Santo

  I will go to Santo

  sipos plen i no bin fulap, bae mi go long Santo

  If the plane hadn't been full, I would have gone to Santo

• no + V : negative, "not"

  hem i no wantem yam

  he doesn't want yam

• nomo + V: "no longer" (when placed after the predicate; elsewhere it means "only")

  hem i nomo kakae yam

  he no longer eats yam

  hem i kakae yam nomo

  he only eats yam

• neva + V : never

  hem i neva kakae yam

  he's never eaten yam

• jes + V : (<"just") an action that has recently occurred

  mifala i jes wekap

  we just woke up

• In a future context, jes entails a delay, rendered in English as "eventually":

  bae mi pem

  I will buy it / Let me buy it

  bae mi jes pem, be noyet

  I will buy it (eventually), but not yet

• V + gogo : continued action

  hem i kukum kumala gogo

  he keeps on cooking sweet potatoes

• mas + V : "must", be obliged to

  hem i mas kakae

  he must eat

• traem + V : "try to"; also sometimes used for politeness in requests

  hem i stap traem katem

  he's trying to cut it

  traem soem long mi

  could you show it me? (request)

• wantem + V : "want to"

  hem i wantem go long Santo

  she wants to go to Santo

• save + V : be able to, or be in the habit of doing

  mi save rid

  I can read

  mi no save dring suga

  I don't take sugar in drinks

  fish ia i save kilim man

  this fish can kill a person

Some of these markers also have lexical meanings. For example, save can mean "be able to" but it is also a verb "know".

Yumi, Yumi, Yumi