Transcript
Section 4: You will hear part of a linguistics lecture about a language called Bislama that is spoken in the Pacific Islands.
Speaker: Good morning and welcome back to this series of Linguistics Lectures.
Speaker: Today I will be talking about the language Bislama, which is a form of Pidgin English.
Speaker: Linguists use the term Pidgin to describe new languages that are created by combining two or more existing languages, often in a simplified form.
Speaker: The study of Pidgin languages is important because it provides us with information about language change and modification.
Speaker: The Pidgin English, known as Bislama, is used in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, a group of islands where 81 first languages are still regularly used by the local people.
Speaker: There are a further 17 local languages that are in danger of dying out, and eight that have been identified as extinct.
Speaker: This gives a total of 106 first languages in all, a very high number for a small country with a population of just 200,000 people.
Speaker: Then, thinking about foreign languages, English is the most important and has official status largely because it is the medium for all education purposes.
Speaker: However, it is Bislama that is the most widely spoken language in the country, used regularly by more than 90% of the population.
Speaker: We should note here that in earlier times some people had negative feelings towards the language.
Speaker: In fact, for many years it was commonly referred to as a broken language and its use was discouraged.
Speaker: But attitudes have changed dramatically and today the people of Vanuatu are very proud of this unique language.
Speaker: It is only when we understand the historical context that we can comprehend just why Bislama developed in Vanuatu.
Speaker: The first form of Pidgin English in this region can be traced to around 1800 when foreign traders arrived and local people were recruited to work as sailors.
Speaker: On board multilingual ships there was an obvious need for a common tongue and Pidgin English was born.
Speaker: This early form of Bislama continued to spread as trade in the Pacific developed in Sandalwood and other local commodities.
Speaker: Then from about 1860 a lot of people from Vanuatu travelled to Australia to work on the new plantations as labourers.
Speaker: Again, because of the multilingual nature of these workplaces it was very important to have a common language.
Speaker: Finally, in modern times there have been other pressures that have maintained the need for a common language.
Speaker: Like many other parts of the world from about the 1950s, Vanuatu experienced a significant migration of its people from small villages into the city and it has been here that Bislama has really established itself as the country’s first language.
Speaker: So then, how can we describe the language itself?
Speaker: In general terms, Pidgin languages can be defined as extremely simple versions of the original language.
Speaker: However, this is not a satisfactory definition in this case and linguists prefer to describe Bislama as a developed Pidgin because it has more rules and ideas than most simple Pidgin languages found in other parts of the world.
Speaker: Let’s think first about the vocabulary.
Speaker: Because Britain was the colonial power, the majority of Bislama’s vocabulary is derived from English.
Speaker: However, some care needs to be taken here.
Speaker: For example, the word from in Bislama can also mean because of, so we need to be aware that words can have a wider range of meanings in Bislama.
Speaker: Indeed, there are numerous other potentially misleading terms and English is not the only contributor to the vocabulary.
Speaker: Again, because of the region’s history there are some words, around 5-10%, that are derived from French.
Speaker: Then, a relatively small number of words have been taken from local, Pacific languages.
Speaker: Usually this is the case where there is no English equivalent for naturally occurring phenomena or to describe some aspect of the culture that is unique to the country.
Speaker: Finally, a word about grammar.
Speaker: Although the vocabulary is based largely on English, it’s important to note that the grammatical structure of Bislama is derived from patterns common in the local languages of Vanuatu.
Speaker: So, for example, there are two distinct pronouns meaning we.
Speaker: One means I and you and another means I and some others but not you.
Speaker: Sounds confusing in English but in the local languages such distinctions are common.
Speaker: A different example concerns the word long.
Speaker: It is almost the only preposition in Bislama and may be used in place of a whole range of English words such as at, to, with, on, in and so on.
Speaker: Well, that is the end of the formal part of the lecture.
Speaker: If you have any questions now I’ll be most happy to answer them.
Speaker: That is the end of section 4.
Speaker: You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Speaker: That is the end of the listening test.
Speaker: You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet.
