Indo-European · ISO 639-3 bis · bi
Bislama Language
Bislama is an Indo-European language spoken by about 270,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Vanuatu. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Bislama is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Bislama
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- North Sea Germanic
- Anglo-Frisian
- Anglic
- Later Anglic
- Middle-Modern English
- Macro-English
- Pacific Creole English
- Early Melanesian Pidgin
- Bislama
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Bislama language
Bislama is spoken by about 270,000 people, which makes it the 516th most spoken language in the world — just behind Ndzwani Comorian (290,000) and ahead of Saafi-Saafi (240,000). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Early Melanesian Pidgin group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Bislama spoken?
Bislama is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Vanuatu (286,206). More than half of the population speaks it in Vanuatu — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Bislama is an official language in 1 country: Vanuatu.
Writing system and status
Bislama is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Tok Pisin, English, Nigerian Pidgin, Krio, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Jamaican Creole English and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 bi, ISO 639-3 bis.
Frequently asked questions about Bislama
How many people speak Bislama?
Where is Bislama spoken?
In which countries is Bislama an official language?
What language family does Bislama belong to?
Is Bislama an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.