Here's an example of some Bislama taken from tapes I made in the Santo/Malo region when I was doing fieldwork (supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, grant #5742). This particular recording was made in March 1995.

The speakers: Alis [A], a woman in her 20s; Marshal [M], a 5yr old boy; Saemon [S], a 11 yr old boy; Petre [P], a 12 yr old boy; Leipakoa [L], the children's mother; Mesek [M], the children's father (and Miriam [Mi] - whose Bislama you should ignore) were talking about some turtles they had recently found and brought home. One of the children had asked about the way turtles bury their eggs in the sand.

A translation of each line follows the Bislama. These translations and the transcription were checked by Sharon Tabi in Santo. My unending thanks to her.

A: [totel] i mas wokbaot

[the turtle] has to walk

long graon longwe

on the ground very far

blong go daon long solwota

to go down to the sea

M:go daon long solwota

go down to the sea

S:blong go long eg

to lay on eggs

L:i no olsem blong olgeta faol

it's not like [eggs] of chickens

be yu tingbaot

but can you imagine

hem i stap insaed long graon a?

it's in the ground eh

Mi: mm

L:hem i kamaot

it has to come out

P:hadwok

hard work

L:sore a?

poor things eh

Mi:smol nus blong hem a

M:uhnuh

Mi:yu luk se i brekem eg blong hem

S:ol smolsmol totel blong oli kamaot

for the little turtles to come out

L:brekem eg

break the egg

afta oli stap long graon

then they're in the ground

afta hemia nao

then that's it

nus ya nao i mas stikim graon

so it's nose has to work its way through the ground

stikim stikim

afta mekem bigfala hol

then it makes a big hole

smol hol nomo

no a small hole

ale wan i go fastaem

so one goes first

tri fo

3, 4

S:[laughs]

M:(olsem wanem ?)

A:ti

tea's ready

S:blong yumitu stap (pleplei/ples ya ?) Naone Ban

our turtles were ?? at NB

P:hemia ating mama blong olgeta i digim hol ya godaon

right, I think their mother dug the hole deep down