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There are over one hundred local languages spread over the archipelago (listed below), all of them belonging to the Austronesian family of languages.Vanuatu is the country with the highest density of languages per capita in the world: it currently shows an average of about 1,760 speakers for each indigenous language, and went through a historical low of 565; [1] only Papua New Guinea comes close.
Bislama is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" (citizens who live in Port Vila and Luganville) and the second language of much of the rest of the country's residents. The lyrics of " Yumi, Yumi, Yumi ", the country's national anthem, are composed in Bislama.
The national language of the Republic of Vanuatu is Bislama. The official languages are Bislama, English, and French. The principal languages of education are English and French. The use of English or French as the formal language is split along political lines. [192] Bislama is a creole spoken natively in urban areas.
Clark (2009) provides the following classification of the Central Vanuatu languages, divided into geographic areas. [1] Outlier (aberrant) languages identified by Clark (2009) are in italics . Clark's Central Vanuatu branch is wider in scope, [ clarification needed ] including not only the Shepherd–Efate languages, but also the Malakula and ...
Raga (also known as Hano) is the language of northern Pentecost Island in Vanuatu. Like all Vanuatu languages, Raga belongs to the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian languages family. In old sources the language is sometimes referred to by the names of villages in which it is spoken, such as Bwatvenua (Qatvenua), Lamalanga, Vunmarama and Loltong.
Lenakel, or West Tanna, is a dialect chain spoken on the western coast of Tanna Island in Vanuatu. Lenakel is one of five languages spoken on Tanna. The native name for the language is Netvaar, and speakers refer to their language as Nakaraan taha Lenakel ' the language of Lenakel '. [2] Lenakel has been extensively researched and documented by ...
The Espiritu Santo languages (alternatively Santo languages) are a group of North Vanuatu languages spoken on Espiritu Santo Island in northern Vanuatu. Tryon (2010) considers the Espiritu Santo languages to be a coherent group.
Port Vila is home to many languages, reflecting the country's high linguistic diversity. The capital city's daily lingua franca is Bislama, but English and French are also widely spoken. Among Vanuatu's 100 indigenous languages, many are spoken in the capital, as people from rural areas come to live in the city, either temporarily or permanently.