Fijian language

Fijian (Na Vosa Vakaviti) is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is more 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. Fijian is a VOS language.

Standard Fijian is based on the language of Bau, which is an East Fijian language.

Phonology

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

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

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.