Editing Vanuatu (section)

===Languages===
{{Main|Languages of Vanuatu}}

The national language of the Republic of Vanuatu is [[Bislama]]. The [[official language]]s are Bislama, [[English language|English]], and [[French language|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.<ref name="Francophonie">{{cite journal |last1=Miles |first1=William F. S. |date=June 1994 |title=Francophonie in Post-Colonial Vanuatu |journal=The Journal of Pacific History |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=49–65 |doi= 10.1080/00223349408572758|jstor=25169202 }}</ref>

Bislama is a [[creole language|creole]] spoken natively in urban areas. Combining a typical Melanesian grammar and phonology with an almost entirely English-derived vocabulary, Bislama is the [[lingua franca]] of the archipelago, used by the majority of the population as a second language. The growth of Bislama as a first language has considerably encroached on the indigenous languages, whose use receded from 73.1% to 63.2% of the population between 1999 and 2009.{{sfn|François|2012|p=104}}

In addition, 113 [[languages of Vanuatu|indigenous languages]], all of which are [[Southern Oceanic languages]] except for three outlier [[Polynesian languages]], are spoken in Vanuatu.<ref name="tourism" /> The density of languages per capita is the highest of any nation in the world,{{sfn|Crowley|2000}} with an average of only 2,000 speakers per language. All [[vernacular]] languages of Vanuatu (i.e., excluding Bislama) belong to the [[Oceanic languages|Oceanic]] branch of the Austronesian family.