The Language Situation in Vanuatu

One of the smallest nations, Vanuatu is also linguistically the most diverse. In addition to its English-lexifier pidgin national language, English and French are official languages. While local languages are valued symbols of identity, little attempt has been made to promote functional literacy in local languages, while English and French have been promoted by education. Although Bislama is the national spoken language, little attention has been paid to developing its written form. It has been difficult to speak of 'language planning' regarding local languages, the approach having been one of maximum non-involvement, though some changes are now envisaged.

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