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in Vanuatu
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Vanuatu General Information..... Bislama Plenti samting yu wantem save long Bislama be yu fraet tumas blong askem... (Lots of things you wanted to know about Bislama but were afraid to ask) Vanuatu has over 120 native languages however the national language is Bislama, a pidgen form of English which has a bit of a French and Melanesian influence in some of its words and grammar. Bislama as well as French and English form the three main languages used in Vanuatu today. To English speakers, written Bislama is fairly easy to understand as 85% of the 8000 word vocabulary is English based. However the pronunciation of vowels is different to that used in English and some consonants are absent or unimportant.
A typical sign in English, Bislama and French Most of the time we are able to use English in Port Vila but would probably speak more and better Bislama if we had been based on one of the islands or in a village. Our understanding of Bislama is not bad, although sometimes if the words are spoken quickly or quietly or by someone from another island we can get a little mixed up. We are able to get our message across too if we have to speak in Bislama however because of the differences in phrasing sentences we tend to be be a bit shy about speaking it and making mistakes.
Some common and useful expressions
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