People have always used language as a means of communication, long before society, industrialization, and the rise of technology. Language serves as both the main identifier among people of similar ancestry and the initial means of contact with outsiders. Without varying definitional elements, it would be impossible to differentiate between the numerous languages spoken by the world's various ethnic groups. Additionally, a mode of communication may have its roots in one part of the world but exert influence in another, which is why some people assert that the population of certain nations has a specific origin. The analysis of the Fijian language is the goal of this research. Specifically, the study will seek to learn the structure and background information on the language spoken by the people of Fiji.
History of the Fijian Languages
The inhabitants of most countries in the world were immigrants that originated some other place and settled in the new land. According to one the official website for guiding tourists through Fiji, the earliest inhabitants of Fiji arrived 3500 years ago and brought with them the dialect from their homeland of Vanuatu Island or possibly the Solomon ("The Language," 2017). The original inhabitants Fiji had the honor of establishing a nation, but they did not bear the responsibility of determining the direction of the nation’s language. After the occupation, the people scattered leading to different interactions. Consequently, the language also changed over the years and reached around 300 “communalects” All the Fijian ethnicities are from the Austronesian language family. Essentially, the more than 300 languages of Fiji are related to the place of origin and the other places where the original inhabitants spread ("The Language," 2017). Further, the relations between the different dialects are as a result of the different places of interactions by people of Fijian descent. For example, the language of Fiji started to spread 3000 years ago to places such as Malagasy, Aotearoa in New Zealand, South Hawaii, and Northern Taiwan. Consequently, the Fijian Language developed minor languages such as Tagalog of the Philippines, Malay of Malaysia and other Polynesian languages of Maori, Tongan, Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tahitian ("The Language," 2017).
While the locals may understand a form of communication, other people need to officiate the language for learning and recording information for future use. Missionaries were the custodians of preserving the records of most words in third world countries, and Fiji was no different. In 1835, two ministers of the Methodist Church developed a written version of the Fijian language which focused on a spelling system so that by 1840, different books written in various dialects existed in Fiji ("Fiji Language," 2017). However, with the boom of civilization, some people from Britain moved to Fiji and had a profound effect on the oral culture of the nation. For instance, as more Europeans settled in Fiji, English replaced Bao Fijian as the official language. Due to the indigenous nature and deep rooted-origin of Bao Fiji, the language did not lose relevance even in the face of outside influence. In fact, the more the British settled, the more Bao Fijians felt the need to remain original and true to self. The state of seeking self-determination led to the diminishing of other languages like the Pacific Hawaiian that attempted to influence Bao Fiji just as English had done. After Fiji attained independence in 1997, Bao Fiji garnered use in schools, book publishing, radio and newspapers ("Fiji Language," 2017). Fijians were pleased to use Bao for communication as opposed to English which made communication much easier and the entrenchment of culture deeper. Still, Fiji did not become an official national language until it was declared so in the 1997 Constitution, along with English and Hindustan ("Fiji Language," 2017). Some nationalist still pushed for Fiji to be the leading national language and the English and Hindustan to be secondary official languages. For instance, in 2005 some prominent figures in the country petitioned the government to upgrade Bao Fiji into just Fijian language. The upgrade would make the language a necessary subject of study in schools so that politics, economics and social aspects of the Fijians would center wound the Fiji language. For example, Mahendra Chaudhry, the Fiji Labor Party leader, collaborated with Ro Teimumu Kepa, the former Fijian Educational Minister to have Fijian as a teachable subject across all schools in the country ("Fiji Language," 2017).
While Fiji has three official languages in Fijian, English, and Hindustan, around 350000-450000 indigenous Fijians that form 54 % of the population speak Fijian as either the first or second language (William, 2009). Fijians of Hindu descent makeup 37 % of the population and use the Hindi variant of the Fijian known as the Fiji Hindu. Further, the English alternative of the Fijian language is used in business, schools, government and diplomatic relations between the country and other nations. Importantly, Bau dialect, from East Fiji, is the official Fijian language (William, 2009).
The Structure of Fijian Language
History and development of any language are significant, but the structure of a language is the primary and ultimate definition of any dialect. Some aspects of the structure are phonology, syntax, pronunciation, and morphology. Phonology is the linguistic discipline that determines the systemic organization of sounds of any language. The first notable phonological aspect of Fijian is that all syllables end in a vowel ("Fijian," 2017). Thus, the syllables are open and consonantal cluster does not occur unlike in other languages like English. Secondly, Fijian has ten vowel sounds, but it has five basic vowels namely "a," "e," "i," "o," and "u." The vowel length, which can be short or long, is only phonemic. For example, one can only determine whether a vowel is long or short when spoken but not notable when written. Therefore, to note the length of a vowel sound in a script, the writer has to mark using the standard linguistic markers ("Fijian," 2017). For example, the learners of Fijian often know the length of the vowel in dictionaries because a macron marks them over the vowel. Thirdly, Fijian has sixteen consonant sounds. Unlike the vowel sounds, the consonant sound system is simple, and it is articulated in only three places namely, velar, labial and dental/alveolar ("Fijian," 2017). The consonantal sounds have prenasalized voice stops that occur in initial and medial position. Of importance to the learner of a new language is how the vowel and consonant sounds mix to form syllables. The syllables of Fijian consist of a consonant followed by a vowel denoted as (CV) or a single vowel (V). The stress on syllables depends on the length of vowels, usually known as moras. A short vowel is one mora while diphthongs and long vowels are two morae. For example, words with a short last syllable stress the penultimate syllable, such as the word “say.” However, the last syllable gets the stress if the last syllable has a diphthong or long vowel. For example, the stress of the word “booth” occurs in the last syllable and therefore, the stress occurs in the entire diphthong.
The second structural component of Fijian is morphology, the formation of words and their relationship to other words like roots, stems, prefixes, and suffixes. Proper nouns in Fijian such as names, places and personal pronouns are preceded by the article ko while the article na precede common nouns ("Fijian," 2017). Personal pronouns distinguish between four forms of person namely singular, dual, paucal and plural. Paucal refers to a small number greater than two but possibly less than between five and ten. Still, the prenominal system of Fijian, just like English, recognizes only three persons namely the speaker, the addressee and everyone else. The speaker is the first person; the addressee is the second person while all others take the third person. To express relations, Fijian attaches a possessive suffix to the base. For example, to show possession of a house, the Fijian morphological structure uses the expression na no-qu vale, which means “my house.” ("Fijian", 2017).
It is pointless to learn the phonological and morphological structures of a language without knowing the syntax. Verb-Object-Subject (VOS) is the standard Fijian syntax. For example, the phrase era ārai-ca na yalewa na gone is Fijian for “the children saw the woman.” Rarely does Fijian follows the VSO order of syntax.
Pronunciation of words is also a crucial structural component. For example, the pronunciation of consonant “b” is “mb” such as in the word member. Further, the pronunciation of c, d, and g is th, nd, ng respectively (“Fiji Language,” 2017). In comparison, the vowel sounds have the same pronunciation as in Spanish, German, and Italian. Evidently, Fijian is a structurally complex language compared to English. For example, the stress on vowel sounds changes according to the length of the syllables while the pronouns take four forms as opposed to three in English.
Conclusion
The numerous dialects of Fijian resulted from the spread of the original language of the inhabitant from Solomons. Fijian has developed over the centuries such as it is spoken around the world. The structure of Fijian differs from English on various forms, which may make the learning of Fijian complex compared to other languages like Spanish. Still, Fijian is a cultural mark of Fiji such that some officials consider making it the leading national language and Hindu and English to be secondary official languages.
References
Fiji Language. (2017). Fiji Travel Guide. Retrieved 7 November 2017, from [www.go fiji.com/language.html].
Fijian. (2017). Language Gulper. Retrieved 7 November 2017, from [www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Fijian.html].
The Language. (2017). Fiji Guide. Retrieved 7 November 2017, from [fijiguide.com/page/the language].
William, M. (2009). Handbook of the Fijian Language. BiblioLife. Print.
