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Fijian
Na vosa vaka-Viti
Spoken in: Fiji 
Region: Spoken as first language on Vanua Levu, the eastern half of Viti Levu, and on the lesser islands of Kadavu, Nayau, Lakeba, Oneata, Moce, Komo, Namuka, Kabara, Vulaga, Ogea and Vatoa; spoken as second language in the rest of Fiji
Total speakers: 350,000 native speakers, 200,000 second-language users
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian (MP)
  Central-Eastern MP
   Eastern MP
    Oceanic
     Central-Eastern Oceanic
      Remote Oceanic
       Central Pacific
        East Fijian-Polynesian
         East Fijian
          Fijian 
Official status
Official language in: Fiji
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: fj
ISO 639-2: fij
ISO 639-3: fij
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Fiji (Matanitu ko Viti फ़िजी officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands (Matanitu Tu-Vaka-i-koya ko Viti फ़िजी द्वीप समूह गणराज्य Vanua Levu (βanua leβu formerly known as Sandalwood Island is the second largest Island of Fiji. Viti Levu (ˈβiti ˈleβu is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji, the site of the nation's capital Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population Kadavu (kandaβu with an area of 411 square kilometers is the fourth largest island in Fiji, and the largest island in the Kadavu Group, a Lakeba (lakemba is an island in Fiji 's Southern Lau Archipelago. Ogea Erima is a Papuan Language spoken by approximately 700 people living in an area 18 kilometers south of the town of Madang, in the Madang Vatoa (βatoa (known as Turtle Island after Cook's visit is an outlier of Fiji's Lau Group. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers The family of Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages. The family of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (EMP languages is a subgroup of the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages The over 200 Central-Eastern Oceanic languages form a branch of the Oceanic Language family within the Austronesian languages. The family of Remote Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. The family of Central Pacific or Fijian-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. The family of East Fijian-Polynesian languages is a subgroup of the Central Pacific languages. The East Fijian languages are a subgroup of the East Fijian-Polynesian languages. Fiji (Matanitu ko Viti फ़िजी officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands (Matanitu Tu-Vaka-i-koya ko Viti फ़िजी द्वीप समूह गणराज्य This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers Fiji (Matanitu ko Viti फ़िजी officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands (Matanitu Tu-Vaka-i-koya ko Viti फ़िजी द्वीप समूह गणराज्य It has 350,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language. The 1997 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji, along with English and Hindustani, and there is discussion about establishing it as the "national language", though English and Hindustani would remain official. The Constitution of Fiji is the supreme law of Fiji. Background The Constitution of the Republic of the Fiji Islands dates from 1997 English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Hindustani ( Hindi: हिन्दुस्तानी is an adjectival form of Hindustan which originally meant people from the whole geographical region of Fijian is a VOS language. In Linguistic typology, Verb Object Subject or Verb Object Agent - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS or VOA - represents the language-classification

Standard Fijian is based on the language of Bau, which is an East Fijian language. Bau (mba u is a small Island in Fiji, off the east coast of the main island of Viti Levu. The East Fijian languages are a subgroup of the East Fijian-Polynesian languages.

Contents

Phonology

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

  Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Dental and
alveolar		 Palatal Velar
Nasal m   n   ŋ
Plosive voiceless (p)   t   k
prenasalized mb   nd   ŋg
Fricative β (f) s   ð   (x)
Trill plain     r    
prenasalized     nr    
Approximant     l j w

The sounds [p] and [f] occur only in loanwords from other languages. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation The sounds [x] and [h] only occur for speakers from certain regions of the country.

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
Diphthongs
Closing
to /i/		 Closing
to /u/
First component is /i/   iu
First component is /e/ ei eu
First component is /o/ oi ou
First component is /a/ ai au

Syllables can consist of a consonant followed by a vowel (CV) or a single consonant (V). In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds [1] Word stress is based on moras; a short vowel counts as one mora, diphthongs and long vowels count as two moras. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word Primary word stress then goes to 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. If the last syllable consists of either a long vowel or a diphthong, the last syllable receives primary stress. Stress is not lexical and can shift when suffixes are attached to the root. The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents Examples:

Orthography

The Fijian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet and consists of the following letters.

A B C D E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y
a b c d e f g i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w y

Among the consonants, there is almost a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes:

  • b = [mb]
  • c = [ð]
  • d = [nd]
  • f = [f]
  • g = [ŋ]
  • j = [x]
  • k = [k]
  • l = [l]
  • m = [m]
  • n = [n]
  • p = [p]
  • q = [ŋɡ]
  • r = [r]
  • s = [s]
  • t = [t]
  • v = [β]
  • w = [w]
  • y = [j]

In addition, the digraph dr stands for postalveolar [n̠d̠], sometimes trilled [n̠d̠r̠] for some people or in careful pronunciation. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the

The vowel letters a e i o u have roughly their IPA values. 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. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound A macron, from Greek el μακρόv ( makrón) meaning "long" is a Diacritic ¯ placed over or under a Vowel which was originally

Syntax

The normal Fijian word order is VOS (Verb Object Subject):

The national language debate

See main article: National language debate in Fiji

In May and June 2005, a number of prominent Fiji Islanders called for the status of Fijian to be upgraded. The national language debate in Fiji concerns the status of the country's three official languages - English, Fijian, and Hindustani (the name Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It was not an official language before the adoption of the 1997 Constitution, which made it co-official with English and Hindustani. The Constitution of Fiji is the supreme law of Fiji. Background The Constitution of the Republic of the Fiji Islands dates from 1997 English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Hindustani ( Hindi: हिन्दुस्तानी is an adjectival form of Hindustan which originally meant people from the whole geographical region of It is still not a compulsory subject in schools, however; the present Education Minister, Ro Teimumu Kepa, has endorsed calls for it to be made so, as has Great Council of Chiefs Chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini. Ro Teimumu Vuikaba Kepa (born 1945) is a Fijian chief and politician The Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga in Fijian) is a now dormant 1997 constitutional body in the Republic of the Fiji Islands. The Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga in Fijian) is a formal assembly of Fiji 's senior hereditary chiefs, along with Ratu Ovini Bokini Ratu (born 3 November 1944) is a Fijian chief and political leader Similar calls came from Misiwini Qereqeretabua, the Director of the Institute of Fijian Language and Culture, and from Apolonia Tamata, a linguistics lecturer at Suva’s University of the South Pacific, who both said that recognition of the Fijian language is essential to the nation’s basic identity, as a unifying factor in Fiji’s multicultural society. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Lecturer is a term of Academic rank. In the United Kingdom lecturer is the name given to University Teachers in their first permanent Suva is the Capital and largest city of Fiji. It is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Central The University of the South Pacific ( USP) is a Public university with a number of locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania.

Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry also endorsed the call for Fijian to be made a national language and a compulsory school subject, provided that the same status be given to Hindi—a position echoed by Krishna Vilas of the National Reconciliation Committee. The Fiji Labour Party (FLP is a political party in Fiji, which holds observer status with the Socialist International. Mahendra Pal Chaudhry (born 9 February 1942) is a Fijian politician and the leader of the Fiji Labour Party. Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is

Notes

  1. ^ Dixon 1988:15.
  2. ^ Dixon 1988:17

Sources

See also

External links

The East Fijian languages are a subgroup of the East Fijian-Polynesian languages. The West Fijian languages are a language family that is part of the West Fijian-Rotuman languages.
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