Fijian language

Fijian
Vosa Vaka-Viti
Native to	Fiji
Ethnicity	Fijians
Native speakers	(339,210 cited 1996 census)[1] 320,000 second-language users (1991)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Central Pacific East Fijian – Polynesian East Fijian Fijian
Dialects	Pidgin Fijian
Writing system	Latin-based
Official status
Official language in	Fiji
Language codes
ISO 639-1	fj
ISO 639-2	fij
ISO 639-3	fij
Glottolog	fiji1243
Linguasphere	39-BBA-a
Fiji ethnic map (2017 census) green is for Fijian
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Fijian (Na vosa vaka-Viti) is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken by some 350,000–450,000 ethnic Fijians as a native language. The 2013 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji, along with English and Fiji Hindi and there is discussion about establishing it as the "national language". Fijian is a VOS language.^[2]

Standard Fijian is based on the Bau dialect, which is an East Fijian language. A pidginized form is used by many Indo-Fijians and Chinese on the islands, while Pidgin Hindustani is used by many rural ethnic Fijians and Chinese in areas dominated by Indo-Fijians.

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The Fijian language was introduced to Fiji c. 3500 years ago by the islands' first settlers. For millennia, it was the only spoken language in Fiji. In 1835, Methodist missionaries from Australia worked in Fiji to develop a written form of the language. By 1840, they had already developed a writing system, and had published various books on the different dialects of the language. After the independence of Fiji in 1970, Fijian has been used in radio, television, books, and periodicals, and has been taught in schools.

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2023)

In May and June 2005, several prominent Fijians sought to promote the status of the Fijian language. Fiji had no official language before the 1997 Constitution, which made the Fijian language co-official with English and Fiji Hindi; however, it was not required to be taught in schools. The minister of education, Ro Teimumu Kepa, has also supported appeals to Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs Ratu Ovini Bokini. Similar appeals have been made by Misiwini Qereqeretabua, Director of the Institute of Language and Culture, and by Apolonia Tamata, a linguistics professor at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. They have stated that recognition of the Fijian language is essential for the basic identity of the nation and acts as a unifying factor for the multicultural society of Fiji.

Mahendra Chaudhry, the leader of the Fiji Labour Party, also supported the cause to make Fijian a national language and a compulsory subject in schools with the same status as Fiji Hindi, a position echoed by Krishna Vilas of the National Reconciliation Committee.

Since 2013, when a new constitution was adopted, Fijian is established as an official language of Fiji alongside Fiji Hindi and English.

The consonant phonemes of Fijian are as shown in the following table:

Fijian consonant phonemes

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	(p)	t	(tʃ)	k	(ʔ)
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	(ⁿdʒ)	ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s		(x)	(h)
	voiced	β	ð
Trill	plain		r
	prenasalized		ᶯɖʳ
Approximant		w	l	j

The consonant written ⟨dr⟩ has been described as a prenasalized trill [ⁿr] or trilled affricate [ⁿdr]. However, it is only rarely pronounced with a trilled release; the primary feature distinguishing it from ⟨d⟩ is that it is postalveolar, [ɳɖ], rather than dental/alveolar.^[3]

The sounds [p] and [f] occur only in loanwords from other languages. The sounds [x] and [h] only occur for speakers from certain regions of the country.

The sounds [tʃ] and [ⁿdʒ] occur as allophones of /t/ and /ⁿd/.

The glottal stop /ʔ/ occurs in the Boumaa Fijian used to illustrate this article, but is not found in the standard language. It descends from an earlier /k/ sound in most Fijian dialects.

Note the difference in place of articulation between the voiced-voiceless fricative pairs: bilabial [β] vs. labiodental [f], and dental [ð] vs. alveolar [s].

The vowel phonemes are:

Monophthongs

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Open			a	aː

Falling diphthongs

		Second component
		/i/	/u/
First component	/e/	ei̯	eu̯
	/o/	oi̯	ou̯
	/a/	ai̯	au̯

In addition, there is the rising diphthong /i̯u/.

Syllables can consist of a consonant followed by a vowel (CV) or a single vowel (V).^[4] Word stress is based on moras: a short vowel is one mora, diphthongs and long vowels are two morae. Primary stress is on the penultimate mora of the phonological word. That is, if the last syllable of a word is short, then the penultimate syllable will be stressed, while if the last syllable contains either a long vowel or a diphthong, then it receives primary stress. Stress is not lexical and can shift when suffixes are attached to the root. Examples:

• Stress on the penultimate syllable (final short vowel): síga, 'day';
• Stress on the final syllable (diphthong): cauravóu, 'youth' (the stress extends over the whole diphthong).
• Stress shift: cábe, 'kick' → cabé-ta, 'kick-TR'^[5]

The Fijian alphabet is based on the Latin script and consists of the following letters. There is almost a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes.

Alphabet

Capital	Lowercase	IPA	Others
A	a	[a]
B	b	[ᵐb]
C	c	[ð]
D	d	[ⁿd]	di [ⁿdʒi]
E	e	[ɛ]~[e]
F	f	[f]
G	g	[ŋ]
H	h	[h]~[x]
I	i	[i]
J	j	[tʃ]~[ⁿdʒ]
K	k	[k]
L	l	[l]
M	m	[m]
N	n	[n]	nr [ᶯɖ]
O	o	[ɔ]~[o]
P	p	[p]
Q	q	[ᵑɡ]
R	r	[r]
S	s	[s]
T	t	[t]	ti [tʃi]
U	u	[u]
V	v	[β]
W	w	[ɰ]
Y	y	[j]~[∅]
Z	z	[ⁿdʒ]

In the 1980s, scholars compiling a dictionary added several more consonants and a few consonant clusters to the alphabet. These newcomers were necessary to handle words entering Standard Fijian from not only English, but from other Fijian languages or dialects as well. These are the most important additions: ⟨z⟩ [ⁿdʒ], as in ⟨ziza⟩ 'ginger' and ⟨h⟩ [h], as in ⟨haya⟩ 'hire'.^[6]

For phonological reasons ⟨ti⟩ and ⟨di⟩ are pronounced [tʃi], [ⁿdʒi] rather than [ti], [ⁿdi] (cf. Japanese chi kana, or in standard Brazilian Portuguese). Hence, the Fijian name for Fiji, ⟨Viti⟩, from an allophonic pronunciation of [βitʃi] as [ɸidʒi].

In addition, the digraph ⟨dr⟩ stands for retroflex [ᶯɖ], or a prenasalized trill [^ɳɖr] in careful pronunciation, or more commonly for some people and in some dialects.

The vowel letters ⟨a e i o u⟩ have roughly their IPA values, [a ɛ~e i ɔ~o u]. The vowel length contrast is not usually indicated in writing, except in dictionaries and textbooks for learners of the language, where it is indicated by a macron over the vowel in question; Dixon, in the work cited below, doubles all long vowels in his spelling system. Diphthongs are ⟨ai au ei eu oi ou iu⟩, pronounced [ɛi̯ ɔu̯ ei̯ eu̯ oi̯ ou̯ i̯u].

Note: the examples in this section are from Boumaa dialect. It is not Standard Fijian, which is based on the Bauan dialect.

In order to negate a phrase or clause in Fijian, certain verbs are used to create this distinction. These verbs of negation are known as semi-auxiliary verbs. Semi-auxiliary verbs fulfil the functions of main verbs (in terms of syntactic form and pattern) and have a NP or complement clause as their subject^[7] (complements clauses within negation are introduced by relators ni (which refers to an event, which is generally a non-specific unit) or me (which refers is translated as "should", referring to the event within the complement clause should occur)).^[8] Within a complement clause, the semi-auxiliary verb qualifies the predicate.^[7]

One semi-auxiliary verb used to express negation in Fijian is sega. This semi-auxiliary can be translated as either "there are no-" or "it is not the case that", depending on the subject it relates to.^[9] In terms of numerical expression, sega is also used to express the quantity "none".^[10] This negator can be used in almost all situations, with the exception of the imperative or in a me (classifier) clauses.^[9] When sega takes a NP as its subject, the meaning "there are no-" is assumed:

Predicate clauses can also be negated in Fijian with the semi-auxiliary verb sega. This can only be completed when the predicate is placed into a complement clause.^[9] The subject of sega must also be ni, which introduces the complement clause. It is then translated as "it is not the case that (predicate clause)".^[9] An example of this construction is shown here:

Hence, the only way a verb (which is generally the head of a predicate phrase) can be negated in Fijian is when it forms part of the [e sega ni VERB] construction.^[9] However, in Fijian the head of a predicate phrase may belong to almost any word class. If another word (e.g. a noun) is used, the structure of negation alters.^[9] This distinction can be shown through diverse examples of the negating NPs in Fijian. The below examples show the difference between a noun as the head of a NP and a noun as the head of a predicate in a complement clause, within negation:

NP as subject of sega

Ni as the subject of sega

Additionally, sega can also work with relator se which introduces interrogative clauses.^[11] This combination creates a form translatable as "or not":

Another common negator is ꞌua or waaꞌua, which is translatable as "don't, not".^[7] Differently to sega, this semi-auxiliary verb is used for imperatives and in me clauses. Therefore, these semi-auxiliaries are fixed, and cannot be used interchangeably.^[13] ꞌUa and waaꞌua have the same meaning, however waaꞌua may be more intense; in most instances either semi-auxiliary verb can be used.^[13] ꞌua ~ waaꞌua can take a NP as its subject, but most commonly takes the ni complement as a subject,^[14] which is demonstrated below:

An example of ꞌua ~ waaꞌua used in imperative structure can be seen here:

In the case of pronouns, they can only be negated when they form part of the NP, when acting as the predicate head.^[16] Therefore, pronouns cannot be the NP subject of semi-auxiliary verbs sega or ꞌua ~ waaꞌua in the way that general nouns can.^[16]

Sega and ꞌua ~ waaꞌua can be combined with other auxiliary verbs to produce diverse constructions.^[17] Both sega and ꞌua ~ waaꞌua can connect with semi-auxiliary rawa 'can' to negate the concept of possibility which is attached to the verb 'can' (resulting in constructions such as 'can't' and 'shouldn't').^[18]

Two main modifiers, soti 'a lot' and sara 'very; (go) right on, immediately' play key roles in negation in Fijian, and work in conjunction with semi-auxiliary verbs. Soti is added after negators sega and ꞌua ~ waaꞌua, and functions as an intensity marker.^[19] The construction sega soti is translatable as 'not a lot of, not very'. The sega soti construction requires an adjective (or an adverb which results from an adjective), and must take ni (complement clause) as its subject in order to function.^[19] Soti can be found in position immediately after sega, but may also be found after the ni relator without changing the meaning of the phrase.^[20] The primary construction is shown below:

Similarly, to soti, the modifier sara 'very; (go) right on, immediately' can also be used in conjunction with sega and ꞌua ~ waaꞌua. This combination is used to stress the negative sense and aspect of a phrase.^[20]

The pronominal system of Fijian is remarkably rich. Like many other languages, it recognises three persons; first person (speaker), second person (addressee), and third person (all other). There is no distinction between human, non-human, animate, or inanimate.^[21] Four numbers are represented; singular, dual, paucal, and plural—'paucal' refers to more than two people who have some relationship, as a family or work group; if none, 'plural' is used. Like many other Oceanic languages, Fijian pronouns are marked for number and clusivity.^[22]

Boumaa Fijian pronouns^[23]

Person		Number
		singular	dual	paucal	plural
1INCL	subject		(e)taru	tou	(e)ta
	object		ꞌeetaru	ꞌetatou	ꞌeta
	cardinal		ꞌeetaru	ꞌetatou	ꞌeta
1EXCL	subject	au ~ u	ꞌeirau	ꞌeitou	ꞌeimami
	object	au	ꞌeirau	ꞌeitou	ꞌeimami
	cardinal	yau	ꞌeirau	ꞌeitou	ꞌeimami
2	subject	o	(o)mudrau ~ (o)drau	(o)mudou ~ (o)dou	(o)munuu ~ (o)nuu
	object	iꞌo	ꞌemudrau	ꞌemudou	ꞌemunuu
	cardinal	iꞌo	ꞌemudrau	ꞌemudou	ꞌemunuu
3	subject	e	(e)rau	(e)ratou	(e)ra
	object	ꞌea	rau	iratou	ira
	cardinal	ꞌea	(i)rau	(i)ratou	(i)ra

Each pronoun can have five forms, but some person-number combinations may have the same form for more than one function,^[24] as can be seen in the table above.

The forms are:

Cardinal – used when a pronoun occurs as the head of a NP. A cardinal pronoun is usually preceded by the proper article o, except when preceded by a preposition:

Subject – the first constituent of a predicate, acts as person marking. Examples can be seen in examples (1) and (2) above: era and au, and (3) below: o

Object – follows the -i-final form of a transitive verb:

Possessive suffix – attaches to inalienable nouns, and

Possessive – precedes the NP head of the 'possessed' constituent in a possessive construction.

(For more information on the form and function of these possessive pronouns, see Possession.)

The major clausal structure in Fijian minimally includes a predicate, which usually has a verb at its head.^[25] The initial element in the predicate is the subject form pronoun:

This 'subject marker + verb' predicate construction is obligatory, every other constituent is optional. The subject may be expanded upon by an NP following the predicate:

The subject pronoun constituent of a predicate acts mainly as a person marker.

Fijian is a verb–object–subject language, and the subject pronoun may be translated as its equivalent in English, the subject NP of a clause in Fijian follows the verb and the object if it is included.

The social use of pronouns is largely driven by respect and hierarchy. Each of the non-singular second person pronouns can be used for a singular addressee. For example, if one's actual or potential in-laws are addressed, the 2DU pronoun should be used. Similarly, when a brother or sister of the opposite sex is addressed, the 2PA pronoun should be used, and it can also be used for same-sex siblings when the speaker wishes to show respect. The 2PL pronoun can be used to show respect to elders, particularly the village chief.^[24]

Possession is a grammatical term for a special relationship between two entities: a "possessor" and a "possessed". The relationship may be one of legal ownership, but in Fijian, like many other Austronesian languages, it is often much broader, encompassing kin relations, body parts, parts of an inanimate whole and personal qualities and concepts such as control, association and belonging.

Fijian has a complex system of possessive constructions, depending on the nature of the possessor and of the possessed. Choosing the appropriate structure depends on knowing^[26] whether the possessor is a personal or place name, a pronoun, or a common noun (with human or non-human, animate or inanimate reference), and also on whether the possessed is a free or bound noun.

Only an animate noun may be a possessor in the true possessive constructions shown below, with possession marked on the possessed NP in a number of ways. For personal and place name possessors, the possessive construction may be made by affixing the possessive suffix –i to the possessed noun, bound or free. If the possessor is a pronoun, the possessed noun must be marked by one of the pronominal markers which specify person, number and inclusivity/exclusivity (see table). If the possessor is inanimate, the possessive particle ni is usually placed between the possessed NP and the possessor NP. The particle ni then indicates association, rather than formal possession, but the construction is still regarded as a possessive construction.

Free nouns can stand alone and need no affix; most nouns in Fijian fall into this class. Bound nouns require a suffix to complete them and are written ending in a hyphen to indicate this requirement. Tama- 'father' and tina- 'mother' are examples of bound nouns. The classes of free and bound nouns roughly correspond with the concept, common in Austronesian languages, of alienable and inalienable possession, respectively. Alienable possession denotes a relationship in which the thing possessed is not culturally considered an inherent part of the possessor, and inalienable possession indicates a relationship in which the possessed is regarded as an intrinsic part of the possessor.

Body parts and kin relations are typical examples of inalienable possession. Inanimate objects are typical examples of alienable possession.

The alienable nature of free nouns is further marked by prefixes, known as classifiers, indicating certain other characteristics. Some common examples are me- when the possessed noun is something drinkable, ke- (or ꞌe) when the noun is something edible and we- when the referent of the possessed noun is personal property.

Fijian possessive pronominal suffix markers^[27]

		Single	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st person	exclusive	-qu	-irau	-itou	-imami
	inclusive		-daru	-datou	-da
2nd person		-mu	-mudrau	-mudou	-muni
3rd person		-na	-drau	-dratou	-dra

The word order of a possessive construction for all except inanimate possessors is possessed NP-classifier(CLF) + possessive marker (POSS) + possessor NP. For an inanimate possessor, the word order is possessed NP + ni + possessor NP.^[28]

	POSSESSED	POSSESSED
POSSESSOR	bound noun	free noun
personal/place name	suffix -i (example 1)	classifier plus suffix -i; or suffix -i (example 2)
pronoun	pronominal suffix; or suffix -i (example 3a, b)	classifier plus possessor pronoun (example 4a, b)
human noun	pronominal suffix, expanded by post-head possessor NP; or suffix -i; or NP ni NP (example 5)	classifier plus possessor pronoun, expanded by post-head possessor NP (example 6)
animate noun	NP ni NP ; or pronominal suffix, expanded by post-head possessor NP	NP ni NP; or classifier plus possessor pronoun, expanded by post-head possessor NP
inanimate noun	NP ni NP (example 7, 8)	NP ni NP (example 7, 8)

Note that there is some degree of flexibility in the use of possessive constructions as described in this table.

The normal Fijian word order is VOS (verb–object–subject):

Below are some examples of Fijian greetings.^[29]

Fijian	English	IPA
Au domoni iko.	I love you.	[ɔu̯ ⁿdo.mo.ni i.ko]
bula	hello (literally "life")	[ᵐbu.la]
io	yes	[io]
kerekere	please	[ke.re.ke.re]
moce	goodbye	[mo.ðe]
ni sa bula [vinaka]	hello (formal), welcome	[ni sa ᵐbu.la]
sega	no	[se.ŋa]
sega na leqa	no worries	[se.ŋa na le.ᵑɡa]
sota tale	see you later	[so.ta ta.le]
Vacava tiko?	How are you?	[βa.ða.βa ti.ko]
vinaka	thank you	[βi.na.ka]
yadra	good morning	[ja.ɳɖʳa]

Era sucu ena galala na tamata yadua, era tautauvata ena nodra dokai kei na nodra dodonu. E tiko na nodra vakasama kei na nodra lewaeloma, sa dodonu mera veidokadokai ena yalo ni veitacini.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1

Abbreviations and Constructions

1	first person
2	second person
3	third person
ART	article
ASP	aspect
CLF	numeral classifier
MODIF	modifier
NP	noun phrase
PTCP	participle
PASS	passive voice
PAST	past tense
PL	plural
POSS	possessive
PREP	preposition
PN	pronoun
REDUP	reduplication
SG	singular
TR	transitive

In May and June 2005, a number of prominent Fiji Islanders called for the status of Fijian to be upgraded. It was not an official language before the adoption of the 1997 Constitution, which made it co-official with English and Fiji Hindi. It is still not a compulsory subject in schools^[when?], but then Education Minister, Ro Teimumu Kepa, had endorsed calls for that to change, as had the former Great Council of Chiefs Chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini. Similar calls also came from Misiwini Qereqeretabua, the former Director of the Institute of Fijian Language and Culture, and from Apolonia Tamata, a linguistics lecturer at Suva's University of the South Pacific, both of whom said that recognition of the Fijian language is essential to the nation's basic identity and as a unifying factor in Fiji's multicultural society.

The Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry also endorsed the call for Fijian to be made a national language and a compulsory school subject if the same status was given to Fiji Hindi, a position that was echoed by Krishna Vilas of the National Reconciliation Committee.

• East Fijian languages
• Languages of Fiji
• West Fijian languages

• Dixon, R. M. W. (1988). A Grammar of Boumaa Fijian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-15428-9.
• Schütz, Albert J. (1985). The Fijian Language. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1005-8.
• Schütz, Albert J. (2003). Say it in Fijian : an entertaining introduction to the standard language of Fiji. Textbook Wholesalers. ISBN 1862730385. OCLC 156199054.

• Fijian language, alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot
• Fijian–English / English–Fijian Dictionary
• Na Soqoni Tabu: Na Veitarataravi Ni Noda Veiqaravi Kei Na Kalou Anglican Holy Communion in Fijian
• A collection of open access Fijian recordings in Kaipuleohone.
• Index cards of plant and animal names, labeled 'Fiji [plants]' archived with Kaipuleohone
• Materials on Fijian are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec.
• Paradisec also holds an open access collection of Fijian music Fijian manuscripts in the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau collection,
• George Grace's manuscript collection at the University of Hawai'i includes Fijian