Datapoint Bislama/Ordinal numerals

Generally, ordinal numbers are namba + cardinal number. First as an option is socially marked as more ‘English’ or possibly more ‘educated’, but we need corpus/fieldwork to determine this.
Nambawan as an ordinal ('first') may also be increasingly blocked by its colloquial meaning of 'best'. The more natural sense of
Samting ia i nambawan is 'That's great', not 'That's the first (in a series)'.

Values

All ordinal numerals are synchronically derived from cardinal numerals, but ‘first’ may also be suppletive

Example 23-68:
Olgeta i lus afta long fes raon blong kompetisen nomo.
Olgeta
3pl
i
agr
lus
lose
afta
after
long
loc
fes
first
raon
round
blong
poss
kompetisen
competition
nomo.
only
They lost after only the first round of the competition.
Example 23-69:
taem we i kasem fes poen nambawan poen i talem se "oi!"
taem
time
we
rel
i
agr
kasem
catch
fes
first
poen
point
nambawan
number.one
poen
point
i
agr
talem
tell
se
comp
"oi!"
exclam
When he got to the first point he said "Oi!"

Source: Meyerhoff nd

Example 23-70:
i flae go kasem nambatri poen
i
agr
flae
fly
go
go
kasem
catch
nambatri
number.three
poen
point
He flew till he reached the third point.

Source: Meyerhoff nd

Confidence:
Very certain