Talk:Bislama language

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Pidgins do not develop among "local laborers between [sic] themselves", but in interactions among people of two or more native languages. My understanding is that Bislama grew out of a lingua franca developed between English-speaking merchants and (Polynesian?) workers; i don't recall whether the workers were native or imported.

I'm not clear whether such a l.f. is a kind of pidgin, or just resembles a pidgin in becoming a normal language (a creole, as stated, at least in the case of a pidgin) only when a generation grows up speaking it.

Needs research or an expert.
Belated sig for my 03:33, 14 August 2004 edit: Jerzy•t 03:16, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Bislama developed as a means of communication between the "Blackbirders" who took Melanesian men to Queensland to work the sugar cane fields in the 19th century and the men they transported. Each island in the archipelago has at least one distinct language, so Bislama became the language used between the islanders themselves as well. It contains words from the seamen who manned the ships (e.g. Pikanini" meaning small child), english, with a distinct australian bent(e.g. "bagarap" meaning something broken), french (e.g. "lafet" meaning a party comes from "la fete"). Today Bislama is increasingly anglicised, and despite a distinct grammar, changing as the effects of mass media become increasingly available in all areas of the country.

Unsigned contrib from 17:45, 20 February 2005 by 66.248.121.94

On 23-Mar-2005 an anonymous user added, correctly, that "Bislama" has nothing to do with "Islam". This is true, but I believe it lacks relevance. I propose to remove this red herring unless someone can provide a compleeling reason to keep it. Ringbark 17:09, 29 September 2005 (UTC)