Publications
on Bislama
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This
section includes works of a descriptive, comparative or sociolinguistic
nature on Bislama, or works relating to Melanesian Pidgin more generally
which include substantial treatment of Bislama. [The spelling Bichelamar occurs
in many French references to the language.]
Anonymous
N.d. Apprenons le bichlamar: petit lexique français-bichlamar de conversation
courante. Vila:
Imprimerie Hébridaise. * Issued by the French Residency in
the 1970s, this is basically a guide to the language for French people dealing
with "natives", with a fairly idiosyncratic spelling system.
Baker,
Philip 1993. Australian influence on Melanesian Pidgin English.
Te Reo 36:3-67. * A detailed historical account
of the contribution made to Melanesian Pidgin (including Bislama) from Australian
pidgins/creoles or varieties
of English used in Australia. His claim is basically that Melanesian Pidgin
English derives from Queensland Pidgin English, itself a continuation of New
South Wales Pidgin English
Bowden, D.K. 1986. Medical
dictionary in Bislama, English and French. Melbourne: Monash University
Publications Committee. * A dictionary aimed at ensuring
"adequate communication between health worker and patient", this consists
of a main section English-French-Bislama,
French-English and Bislama-English indexes, a brief "comparative"
section (English-Bislama-Tok Pisin-Solomons Pijin), and some useful
phrases for health workers. xi + 398pp.
Camden, Pastor Bill.
1977. A descriptive dictionary: Bislama to English. Vila:
Maropa Bookshop. * The first major dictionary of Bislama, attractively
set out and with plenty of examples, marred only by the fact that there
is no English-Bislama index.
xviii + 138pp.
Camden, Pastor Bill 1979. Parallels in
structure of lexicon and syntax between New Hebrides Bislama and the South Santo
language as spoken at Tangoa. PL, A-57:51-117. *
Provides a strong argument in support of the Oceanic substrate theory by outlining
many syntactic parallels between Bislama and Tangoa.
Camden,
Pastor Bill F/c. The transitives using long in Bislama.
In John Lynch & Fa'afo Pat
(eds.), Oceanic studies: Proceedings of the First International Conference
on Oceanic Linguistics. Canberra: PL. *
Examines a range of verbs in Bislama with, rather than (or as well as) taking the
transitive suffix vowel + m, instead mark the object noun phrase
with the preposition long. Camden shows that this usage is perhaps
much more widespread than had been suspected.
Charpentier, Jean-Michel
1979. Le
pidgin bislama(n) et le multilinguisme aux Nouvelles-Hébrides. Paris:
SELAF [Langues et Civilisations á Tradition Orale 35]. *
In two major parts: one dealing with the history and sociolinguistics
of Bislama and its use in the public domain; the other a discussion of the origin
of the different components of the lexicon. 416pp.
Churchill,
William 1911. The jargon or trade speech of the Western Pacific.
Washington: The Carnegie
Institute. * A general account of pidgin languages with some
reference to "Beach-la-Mar", not Bislama itself but an amalgam of Pacific
pidgins.
Clark, Ross 1977. On the origin and usage
of the term Beach-la-Mar. Te Reo 20:71-82. *
Shows that the term Beach-la-Mar (now Bislama)
probably derived from Portuguese bicho do mar "trepang,
bêche-de-mer", was used in
New Caledonia in the middle of the last century to denote the pidgin variety
of English used there, and was borrowed into French as biche-la-mar
and subsequently into English as Beach-la-mar.
Clark,
Ross 1978. A further note on 'Beach-la-Mar'. Te Reo
21:83-85. * Cites a few additional, and earlier, sources in support
of the arguments given in Clark 1977.
Clark, Ross 1979-80.
In search of Beach-la-Mar:
towards a history of Pacific Pidgin English. Te Reo 22/23:3-64.
* A comparative-historical study of Pacific pidgins and creoles
(including Bislama), with an attempt to show, in family-tree format, the degrees
of relationship between them.
Clark, Ross 1983. Social
contexts of early South Pacific pidgins. In E. Woolford & W. Washabaugh
(eds.), The social context of creolization. Ann Arbor: Karoma;
pp.10-27.
Clark,
Ross 1987. Substratum and the phonology of early Melanesian Pidgin. In
Norbert Boretzky, Werner Enninger & Thomas Stolz (eds.), Beiträge zum
3.Essener Kolloquium über Sprachwandel und seine bestimmenden Faktoren.
Bochum: Studienverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer; pp.77-97.
Crowley, Terry
1987. Grama blong Bislama. Suva: Ekstensen Sevis, Yunivesiti
blong Saot Pasifik. * The first full published grammar
of Bislama, this is written in
that language rather than in English. (Parenthetically, it includes some interesting
attempts at creating a Bislama metalanguage). vi + 239pp.
Crowley,
Terry 1989. Sources and structures in Melanesian Pidgin. [Review
article of Roger Keesing's Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic substrate].
Multilingua 8,4:331-343. * Comments
critically on Keesing's interpretation of material on South Seas Jargon in primary
sources, arguing that he has
probably exaggerated the appearance of modern features in earlier Melanesian
Pidgin.
Crowley, Terry 1989. 'Say', 'c'est' and subordinate
constructions in Melanesian Pidgin. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
4,2:185-210. * A comparative-historical analysis
of the complementiser se, looking at other functions it is acquiring,
and examining possible syntactic-semantic "reinforcement" from English
say and French
c'est.
Crowley, Terry 1989. Referential
and expressive expansion in Bislama. English World-Wide 10,1:85-118.
* A historical treatment of the expansion of Bislama vocabulary,
relating stylistic developments to the development of a national identity
and culture in Vanuatu.
Crowley, Terry 1990. Beach-la-Mar
to Bislama: The emergence of a national language in Vanuatu.
Oxford: Clarendon Press [Oxford
Studies in Language Contact]. * A major contribution
to the history and development of Bislama, this volume looks at the social
history of the language, the sources of its vocabulary, and the development of
various Bislama grammatical constructions. Thoroughly researched, very detailed
and clearly and attractively produced. xxi + 422pp.
Crowley, Terry
1990. An illustrated Bislama-English and English-Bislama dictionary.
Vila: Pacific Languages
Unit and Vanuatu Extension Centre, University of the South Pacific. *
Builds on the work of Camden (1977) and other sources to provide
a very comprehensive modern dictionary of modern Bislama, with large numbers of
useful illustrations, together with a comprehensive English index. [Currently
undergoing revision]. vii + 478pp.
Crowley, Terry 1990.
The position of Melanesian Pidgin in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. In John W.M.
Verhaar (ed.), Melanesian
Pidgin and Tok Pisin. Amsterdam: John Benjamins; pp.1-18. [Studies
in Language Companion Series 20]. * A comparison of
the status of Bislama in Vanuatu and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, with brief
details on the Komiti blong Bislama and the use of the language
in the public domain.
Crowley, Terry 1990. Serial verbs
and prepositions in Bislama. In John W.M. Verhaar (ed.), Melanesian Pidgin
and Tok Pisin. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins; pp.57-89. [Studies in Language Companion Series
20]. * An outline of verb serialisation, and a discussion of
the development of prepositions (like kasem, raonem, bitim etc.)
from serialised verbs.
Crowley, Terry 1991. Pijin long
Melanisa tede ? Melanesian Pidgin today. Vox 5:43-47. *
A general overview of the development and status of Melanesian Pidgin,
written for a lay audience.
Crowley,
Terry 1991. Varieties of Melanesian Pidgin: separate
identities vs. European stereotypes. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia
22:51-65. * Critically examines early sources on
Melanesian Pidgin with a view to establishing their usefulness in deciding how
and when the three national dialects diverged from each other.
Crowley,
Terry 1991. Genesis of a preposition system in Bislama. In Ray
Harlow (ed.), VICAL 2: Western
Austronesian and Contact Languages (Papers from the Fifth International
Conference on Oceanic Linguistics). Auckland: Linguistic Society of New
Zealand; pp.389-415. * Outlines the development of a coherent
set of prepositions out of "a seemingly highly variable syntactic jumble"
in earlier stages of the language's history.
Crowley, Terry
1992. Derivational morphology and structural complexity in nineteenth
century Melanesian Pidgin. Te
Reo 35:3-16. * Shows, contra Mühlhäusler,
that Melanesian Pidgin was probably rather more stabilised in the 1870s than
had previously been thought, and looks at a number of substratum influences
on the language.
Crowley, Terry 1993. Père Pionnier and
late nineteenth century Bislama. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
8,2:207-226. * Using 1890s material, shows that many features
of modern Bislama were
fairly well established by that time. Some features which Mühlhäusler has said
are 20th century innovations were probably earlier developments.
Crowley,
Terry 1993. Practical issues in Bislama lexicography. Language
and Linguistics in Melanesia 24,2:27-53. * Discusses
a range of problems encountered in the compilation of Crowley's dictionary
of the language.
Crowley, Terry F/c. The national drink
and the national language
in Vanuatu. JPS 104. * Looks at the creation of new
terminology in Bislama surrounding the burgeoning urban kava-drinking scene.
Crowley,
Terry (ed.) 1987. Introdaksen long stadi
blong Bislama: Buk blong ridim. Suva: Ekstensen Sevis, Yunivesiti blong
Saot Pasifik. * A set of readings for a course on the history
and structure of Bislama. 139pp.
Guy, J.B.M. 1974. Handbook
of Bichelamar/Manuel
de Bichelamar. Canberra: PL, C-34. * Two
50-page grammatical sketches of Bislama, in English and in French, plus word
lists (Bislama-English-French, English-Bislama and French-Bislama). This handbook
suffers from a number of inadequacies and has largely been superseded by later
publications. iii + 256pp.
Jacomb, Edward 1914. The
English and the French in the New Hebrides. Melbourne: George Robertson;
pp.90-104. *
A short Bislama lexicon with some illustrative sentences.
Keesing,
Roger N. 1988. Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic substrate.
Stanford: Stanford University Press. * Mainly though
not solely dealing with Solomon Island Pijin, this significant work looks at
syntactic congruences between Oceanic languages and Melanesian Pidgin, and has
provided important fuel to the fiery debate about the importance of substrate
influence. xii + 265pp.
Kuki,
Hiroshi et al. 1977.
An introduction to the New Hebridean English pidgin or le bichelamar. Gengo
Kenkyu 72:47-86.
Ligo, Godwyn 1987. Lanwis
long nyus. In Terry Crowley (ed.), Introdaksen long stadi blong Bislama:
Buk blong ridim. Suva: Ekstensen Sevis, Yunivesiti blong Saot Pasifik;
pp.81-84. * A brief survey of language use in the Vanuatu media.
Lynch,
John
1975. Bislama phonology and grammar: a review article. Kivung
8,2:186-204. * A review of Guy 1974 (see above) which points
out numerous analytical and descriptive inadequacies in that work.
Lynch,
John 1987. The French legacy in Bislama. In Donald C. Laycock
& Werner Winter (eds.), A world of language: papers presented to
Professor S.A. Wurm on his 65th birthday. Canberra: PL, C-100:411-420.
*
A classification of the French-derived vocabulary in Bislama into semantic domains,
with some attempt to explain why French rather than some other language was
the source of that vocabulary.
Mühlhäusler, Peter 1985.
The number of Pidgin Englishes in the Pacific. PL, A-72:25-51.
* Looks at the language/dialect issue and the problem of "counting"
the number of separate pidgins/creoles in the Pacific, from both
a historical and a synchronic
point of view.
Mühlhäusler, Peter 1987. Tracing predicate
markers in Pacific Pidgin English. English World Wide 8,1:97-121.
Pionnier,
Jean-Nestor 1913. Pigeon-English ou bichelamar.
Revue de linguistique et de philologie comparée 46:109-117,
184-198. * A grammatical sketch of late nineteenth century Bislama,
with a short vocabulary and some sentences; the spelling of the language
shows decidedly French influence.
Schmidt,
Henri 1957. Le bichelamar. Études Mélanésiennes,
Nouvelle Série 10-11:119-136. * A brief (600-word)
French-English-Bislama word list.
Tim blong Baebol Translesen
blong Kokonas 1984. Fasin blong raetem Bislama. Canberra:
Department of Linguistics (Research School of Pacific Studies), Australian
National University. * An attempt to provide a standardised
spelling system for Bislama,
based on the version used in the New testament translations.
Tryon,
D.T. 1979. Bichelamar (New Hebrides). In Peter Mühlhäusler, J.A.
Bennett and D.T. Tryon, Some English-based pidgins in the Southwestern Pacific,
in S.A. Wurm (ed.), New Guinea and neighbouring areas: a sociolinguistic
laboratory. [Contributions to the Sociology of Language 24].
The Hague: Mouton; pp.72-77. * A brief outline of the development,
use and status of Bislama.
Tryon,
D.T. 1986. Neologisms in Bislama (Vanuatu).
In Joshua A. Fishman et al. (eds.), The Fergusonian impact, vol. 2:
Sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter; pp.305-313.
Tryon, D.T. 1987. Bislama:
an introduction to the national language of Vanuatu. Canberra: PL,
D-72. * A quite thorough course in the language for the
new learner, marred only by
occasional rather colonial conversations. xiv + 261pp.
Tryon, D.T.
1991. Wanem Bislama?. In Robert Blust (ed.), Currents in Pacific
linguistics: Papers on Austronesian linguistics and ethnolinguistics in honour
of George W. Grace. Canberra: PL, C-117: 509-519. *
Looks at some regionalisms in Bislama, and especially at regional
conservatism which may throw light on the history and development of the language.
Tryon,
D.T.
1991. Regionalisms and the history of Bislama. In Ray Harlow (ed.), VICAL
2 - Western Austronesian and contact languages: Papers from the Fifth
International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Auckland: Linguistic
Society of New Zealand; pp.461-471. * A brief comparative
study of regionalisms in Bislama, many of which show more affinity with Tok Pisin
of Papua New Guinea than with standard Bislama.
Tryon, D.T.
N.d.[1985]. Evri
samting yu wantem save long Bislama be yu fraet tumas blong askem. [Singapore]:
Media Masters. * A popular illustrated introduction to
the language.
Tryon, D.T. & J.M. Charpentier 1982.
Functions of Bislama in the New Hebrides and independent Vanuatu. English
World Wide 3,2:147-160.
Walsh, D.S. 1986. The
Oceanic influence on semantic values for personal pronouns, kinship terms, and
some time and space reference
in Bislama. In Chris Corne & Andrew Pawley (eds.), Le coq et le cagou:
essays on French & Pacific languages in honour of Jim Hollyman. Auckland:
Linguistic Society of New Zealand [Te Reo 29]; pp.131-146.
* A semantic comparison of certain semantic fields in Bislama
and the substrate languages, showing that the semantic parallels of the Bislama
terms can be found mainly, though by no means solely, in Oceanic languages rather
than in English.
Wurm,
S.A. 1971. Pidgins, creoles and lingue franche. In Thomas
A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. 8: Linguistics
in Oceania. The Hague: Mouton; pp.999-1021. * A
discussion of pidgins, creoles and contact languages in Southeast Asia and the
Pacific, with a brief mention of "Beach-la-Mar" in Vanuatu, and including
mention of a (non-existent) French-lexifier pidgin.