Kranki

Kranki comes from cranky, but it doesn’t mean ‘angry’. If you are angry about something in Bislama, you are kros (cross).


Kranki actually means ‘crazy’ in both the sense that someone is a bit mental:


“he is one kranki dude!”


and also to be crazy about something:


“I am totally kranki for Switi mango icecream”.


Nearly everyone in Vanuatu is kranki for reggae music. At the moment there is a huge music festival happening in Port Vila called Fest Napuan. Bands from all over the region are here to play for 4 days. It is a free festival and the turnout is massive – thousands of people gathering every night to listen to some groovy reggae tunes, as well as the ubiquitous string band music, which is kind of a pacific rock-steady type music. String bands usually comprise about 4 guys with guitars and one guy who plucks a taught string attached to an empty drum – hence the ‘string’ in string band. All members sing, and the songs are usually about things like eating hamburgers with your girlfriend or sitting on beaches enjoying the breeze.

Pikinini

Hello!


And welcome to Bislama Word-A-Week. Are you ready to learn one of the greatest languages on earth???

Yeah!!!  So let's get started.
As the spiel down the right-hand side of the page says, Bislama is one of the three constitutional languages of Vanuatu; the other two being French and English.

The reason why French and English are constitutional languages is because Vanuatu was jointly governed by France and Britain until it gained independence in 1980. Today school kids in Vanuatu are either educated in English or French with the split being around 70/30. Most Francophones speak English well and the Anglophones are generally pretty good at French too.

The reason why Bislama is an official language is because life should be easy. Vanuatu is one of the most language-dense countries on earth, with a separate language for every 2000 or so people. Ni-Vanuatu (the inhabitants of Vanuatu) are also incredibly linguistically talented as most people speak their local language, the local language of their father and mother (often different), the local language of their spouse AND French or English. At some point, it was decided that life would be easier if everyone spoke a common language and Bislama became that language.

And that brings us to this blog. Not only is Bislama a very fun language to learn and speak, we figured if everyone in Vanuatu is speaking around 5-6 different languages, including ours, it was only fair if we learned a bit of Bislama too!

We are going to start this blog with one of our favourite Bislama words, describing one of our most favourite things in Vanuatu: Pikinini.

Now this is by no means a ‘typical’ Bislama word. Bislama words are mostly of English origin (95 %) and sometimes French, as you will discover if you sign in regularly to get your weekly dose of Bislama. Pikinini, however, is one of only five or so words in Bislama that is of Portugese origin. Apparently it comes from the Portugese word pequenino meaning ‘little’.

Some people say the word pikinini (or piccaninny) can have derogatory undertones in English. This is absolutely NOT the case in Bislama.

Pikininis in Vanuatu are just adorable and always up for a game or discussion about the best technique to skip stones on the water. And with 40 % of the population in Vanuatu being under 15 years (compared to around 20 % in France and Australia) there are plenty of stone-skippin' pikininis to love in this country!

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Salut tout le monde et bienvenue au mot de Bislama de la semaine. Etes-vous prêts à apprendre l’une des langues les plus amusantes du monde ? Hipipip, ouai. Pas de soucis.


Le Bislama est l’un des 3 langues officielles du Vanuatu avec le français et l’anglais du fait que le pays était administré conjointement par la France et les Angliches. L’éducation se fait donc dans ces deux langues. La plupart des francophones (30 % de la population) parlent bien anglais et inversement.

Le Bislama est langue officielle pour rendre la vie plus facile. Le Vanuatu est l’un des pays ayant la plus forte densité linguistique au monde avec un ratio d’environ une langue pour 2000 habitants. Les habitants du pays, les ni-Vanuatu sont également particulièrement doués en langues étant donné que chaque personne parle en principe sa langue locale, celles de son père et mère (souvent différentes) et le langage de son époux/se. Donc pour rendre les choses plus faciles, il a été décidé à un certain moment de choisir une langue commune qui est le Bislama.

Et c’est donc ceci qui nous amène à notre blog. Non seulement parce que le Bislama est une langue fun à apprendre et parler, nous avons pensé que si tout le monde parle nos langues respectives au Vanuatu, il serait juste d’apprendre leur langue en retours !

Nous allons débuter notre blog par l’un de nos mots préférés (enfin, surtout Kala), qui décrit l’un de nos sujets préférés (ouaip, Kala encore une fois) au Vanuatu : Pikinini.

Bon ok, ce n’est pas un mot ‘typique’ du Bislama. 95% des mots en Bislama sont d’origine anglaise avec une petite dose de français par-ci par-là, comme vous allez le découvrir si vous êtes assidus chaque semaine. ‘Pikinini’, en revanche, n’est que l’un des 5 mots du Bislama qui soit d’origine portugaise. Il semble qu’il vienne du mot pequenino, ce qui veut dire comme chacun sait (. ?.) petit

Les pikininis du Vanuatu sont juste des petites têtes blondes (parfois, ils le sont vraiment) qui sont toujours prêt à discuter la meilleure technique de ricochet ou qu’elle est la meilleure façon de plonger. Et comme 40% de la population du Wanouatou a moins de 15 ans, il a plein de pikinis pour peaufiner sa technique à travers le pays.