Fijian language


Fijian 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.
Standard Fijian is based on the speech of Bau, 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.

Phonology

The consonant phonemes of Fijian are as shown in the following table:
The consonant written has been described as a prenasalized trill or trilled fricative. However, it is only rarely pronounced with a trilled release; the primary feature distinguishing it from is that it is postalveolar,, rather than dental/alveolar.
The sounds and occur only in loanwords from other languages. The sounds and only occur for speakers from certain regions of the country.
The sounds and occur as allophones of and.
Note the difference in place of articulation between the voiced-voiceless fricative pairs: bilabial vs. labiodental, and dental vs. alveolar.
The vowel phonemes are:
In addition, there is the rising diphthong.
Syllables can consist of a consonant followed by a vowel or a single vowel.
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:
The Fijian alphabet is based on the Latin script and consists of the following letters.

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

Among the consonants, there is almost a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes:
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, as in ziza 'ginger' and h, as in haya 'hire'.
Note that for phonological reasons ti and di are pronounced, rather than, . Hence, the Fijian name for Fiji, Viti, from an allophonic pronunciation of as.
In addition, the digraph dr stands for postalveolar, or a prenasalized trill 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,. 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 and iu, pronounced.

Morpho-syntax

Negation

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 and have a NP or complement clause as their subject or me ). Within a complement clause, the semi-auxiliary verb qualifies the predicate.

Semi-auxiliary verbs

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. In terms of numerical expression, sega is also used to express the quantity "none". This negator can be used in almost all situations, with the exception of the imperative or in a me clauses. 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. The subject of sega must also be ni, which introduces the complement clause. It is then translated as “it is not the case that ”. An example of this construction is shown here:
Hence, the only way a verb can be negated in Fijian is when it forms part of the construction. However, in Fijian the head of a predicate phrase may belong to almost any word class. If another word is used, the structure of negation alters. 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:
Additionally, sega can also work with relator se which introduces interrogative clauses. This combination creates a form translatable as "or not":
Another common negator is ‘ua~waa’ua, which is translatable as “don’t, not”. 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. ‘Ua and waa’ua semantically have the same meaning, however waa’ua may be regarded as having a higher intensity or stronger sense; in most instances either semi-auxiliary verb can be used. ‘Ua~waa’ua can take a NP as its subject, but most commonly takes the ni complement as a subject, which is demonstrated below:
An example of ua~waa’ua used in imperative structure can be seen here:
It is important to note that in the case of pronouns, they can only be negated when they form part of the NP, when acting as the predicate head. Therefore, pronouns cannot be the NP subject of semi-auxiliary verbs sega or ‘ua~waa’ua in the way that general nouns can
Combining semi-auxiliary verbs
Sega and ‘ua~waa’ua can be combined with other auxiliary verbs to produce diverse constructions. Both sega and ‘ua~waa’ua can connect with semi-auxiliary rawa to negate the concept of possibility which is attached to the verb 'can'.

Modifiers in negation

Two main modifiers, soti and sara play key roles in negation in Fijian, and work in conjunction with semi-auxiliary verbs. Soti is added after negators sega and ‘ua~waa’ua, and functions as an intensity marker. The construction sega soti is translatable as ‘not a lot of, not very’. The sega soti construction requires an adjective, and must take ni as its subject in order to function. 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. The primary construction is shown below:
Similarly, to soti, the modifier sara can also be used in conjunction with sega and ua~waa’ua. This combination is used to stress the negative sense and aspect of a phrase:

Pronouns and person markers

The pronominal system of Fijian is remarkably rich. Like many other languages, it recognises three persons; first person,
second person, and third person. There is no distinction between human, non-human, animate, or inanimate.
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.

Forms and function

Each pronoun can have five forms, but some person-number
combinations may have the same form for more than one function, 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 and above: 'era' and 'au', and 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.

Use

The major clausal structure in Fijian minimally includes a
predicate, which usually has a verb at its head. 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.

Possession

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 whether the possessor is described by a person or placename; a pronoun; or a common noun and also on whether the possessed is a free noun or a bound noun.

Possessor

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. 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.

Possessed

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- and tina- 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- when the noun is something edible and we- when the referent of the possessed noun is personal property.

Fijian possessive pronominal suffix markersSchütz 1985: 449

Possessive constructionsDixon 1988: 120

The word order of a possessive construction for all except inanimate possessors is possessed NP-classifier + possessive marker + possessor NP.
For an inanimate possessor, the word order is possessed NP + ni + possessor NP.
POSSESSEDPOSSESSED
POSSESSORbound nounfree noun
personal or place namesuffix -i classifier plus suffix -i; or suffix -i
pronounpronominal suffix; or suffix -i classifier plus possessor pronoun
human nounpronominal suffix, expanded by post-head possessor NP; or suffix -i; or NP ni NP classifier plus possessor pronoun, expanded by post-head possessor NP
animate nounNP ni NP ; or pronominal suffix, expanded by post-head possessor NPNP ni NP; or classifier plus possessor pronoun, expanded by post-head possessor NP
inanimate nounNP ni NP NP ni NP

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

Examples

  1. a liga-i Paula
  2. : ART Hand-POSS Paula
  3. : "Paula's hand"
  4. a waqona me-i Paula
  5. : ART kava CLF.DRINK-POSS Paula
  6. : "Paula's kava"
  7. # a tama-mudrau
  8. #: ART father PRON.SUFF.2DUAL
  9. #: "The father of you two"
  10. # a liga-qu
  11. #: ART hand – PRON.SUFF.1SG
  12. #: "My hand"
  13. # a me-na ti
  14. #: ART CLF.DRINK-POSS.PRON.3SG tea
  15. #: "His / her tea"
  16. # a 'e-mu uvi
  17. #: ART CLF.EAT-POSS-PRON.2SG yam
  18. #: "Your yam."
  19. a liga-na
  20. : ART Hand- PRON.3SG
  21. : His / her hand
  22. a we-irau waqa o yau ei Jone
  23. : ART CLF.PROPERTY-POSS.PRON.1DUAL boat I and John
  24. : John's and my boat.
  25. na yaca ni waqa
  26. : ART name POSS.PART boat
  27. : The name of the boat
  28. a vale ni kana
  29. : ART house POSS.PART eat
  30. : "A house of eating " = "A restaurant"

    Syntax

The normal Fijian word order is VOS :
  • E rai-c-a na no-na vale na gone.
  • 3-sg.-sub. see-trans.-3-sg.-obj. the 3-sg.-poss. house the child.
  • (The child sees his house.

    Grammatical abbreviations

National language debate

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, 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. 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 and as a unifying factor in Fiji's multicultural society.
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 be given to Fiji Hindi, a position echoed by Krishna Vilas of the National Reconciliation Committee.