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Article published In:
Variation in the Pacific: Part I
Edited by Eri Kashima and Miriam Meyerhoff
[Asia-Pacific Language Variation 6:2] 2020
► pp. 160–195

Borrowing from Bislama into Raga, Vanuatu

Borrowing frequency, adaptation strategies and semantic considerations

| Australian National University
This paper reports on variation among speakers of Raga, an Oceanic language of Pentecost island, Vanuatu, in their use of borrowings from Bislama, the national language of Vanuatu, an English-lexifier contact language. The study measures the frequency of borrowings from Bislama in the speech of 50 speakers, surveys speakers’ strategies in assimilating loanwords into Raga and quantifies speakers’ rate of lexical replacement and insertion. This corpus of natural speech reveals an overall low incidence of borrowing from Bislama at 1.6 Bislama words per 100 recorded words. Women and younger speakers borrow more frequently from Bislama. Young speakers use borrowings in equal measure to add to their vocabulary and replace Raga words, while their elders tend to borrow from Bislama to add to their vocabulary, rather than replace Raga words.
Keywords: borrowing, loanword, Oceanic linguistics, Raga, Vanuatu, variation, Bislama, nativisation, quantitative study, minority language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Code-switching, borrowing and loanwords
  • 2.Bislama, the donor language
    • 2.1Bislama – or English?
    • 2.2Attitudes towards Bislama
    • 2.3Language regulators
  • 3.The data
    • 3.1Speakers: Number, sex, age and mobility
    • 3.2Type of texts
  • 4.Borrowing frequency
    • 4.1Narrative type
    • 4.2Age and sex
    • 4.3Mobility
    • 4.4Regression modelling
  • 5.Nativisation: Phonetic and morphological
    • 5.1Possible contexts for adaptation of Bislama words
    • 5.2Phonetic assimilation
    • 5.3Morphological assimilation
    • 5.4Nativisation across age groups
  • 6.Lexical replacement and insertion
  • 7.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.19015.duh
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