Vanuatu’s
Bislama Language Documented
The thrust of UH Press’ Bislama Reference Grammar,
by Terry Crowley is to show that Bislama has a grammar—an
unfamiliar concept for those educated in Vanuatu. Bislama is
the national language of Vanuatu, the world's most linguistically
diverse nation with at least 80 actively spoken Oceanic languages
used by about 200,000 people. Bislama began as a plantation pidgin
based on English in the nineteenth century, but it has since
developed into a unique language with a grammar and vocabulary
very different from English.
 It is one of very few national languages for which there is no readily available
reference grammar. This book aims to fill this gap by providing an extensive
account of the grammar of Bislama as it is used by ordinary Ni-Vanuatu. It
does not, therefore, aim to describe any kind of artificial written norm but
sets out to capture a range of different kinds of ways that Ni-Vanuatu will
say things in various contexts, both written and spoken, formal and informal.
Bislama Reference Grammar is available from the UH Press
Web site.
—Text excerpted from the UH
Press Web site
UH
In Print
UH faculty and staff who had articles or other works published.
• Manoa Astronomer A.
T. Tokunaga, and Research Assistant S.
Dahm, co-authored “H2 Emission Nebulosity Associated
with KH 15D” in The Astrophysical Journal, Jan. 20, 2004.
• Hilo Astronomer Klaus
W. Hodapp and Manoa Astronomer Bo
Reipurth, co-authored “A Disk Shadow around
the Young Star ASR 41 in NGC 1333” in The Astrophysical
Journal, Jan. 20, 2004.
E-mail news about UH faculty and staff who have appeared In
Print to newsatuh@hawaii.edu.
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