Fijian leid

**Fijian** is an Austronesien leid o the Malayo-Polynesien faimily spoken in Fiji. It haes 450,000 first-leid speakers, which is mair nor hauf the population o Fiji, but anither 200,000 speak it as a seicont leid. The 1997 Constitution established Fijien as an offeecial leid o Fiji, alang wi Inglis an Hindustani, an thare is discussion aboot establishin it as the "naitional leid", tho Inglis an Hindustani wad remain offeecial. Fijien is a VOS leid.

Staundart Fijien is based on the leid o Bau, which is an East Fijien leid.

## Phonology
The consonant phonemes o Fijian are as shawn in the follaein table:

The consonant written ⟨nr⟩ haes been describit as a prenasalized trill  or trilled fricative . Houivir, it is anly rarely pronoonced wi a trilled release; the primary featur distinguishin it frae ⟨nd⟩ is that it is postalveolar, , rather than dental/alveolar.

The soonds  an  occur anly in loanwirds frae ether leids. The soonds  an  anly occur for speakers frae certaint regions o the kintra.

Note the asymmetry atween the fricative pairs: bilabial  vs. labiodental , an dental  vs. alveolar .

The vowel phonemes are:

In addition, thare is the risin diphthong .

Syllabs can conseest o a consonant follaeed bi a vowel (CV) or a single vowel (V). 
Wird stress is based on moras; a short vowel coonts as ane mora, diphthongs an lang vowels coont as twa moras. Primary wird stress then gangs tae the penultimate mora o the phonological wird. That is, if the last syllab o a wird is short, then the penultimate syllab will be stressed. If the last syllab consists o aither a lang vowel or a diphthong, the last syllab receives primary stress. That is, stress is on the penultimate mora. Stress is nae lexical an can shift whan suffixes are attached tae the ruit.
Examples:
*Stress on the penultimate syllab (final short vowel): *síga*, "day";
*Stress on the final syllab (diphthong): *cauravóu*, "youth" (the stress extends ower the whole diphthong).
*Stress shift: *rábe*, "kick" → *rabé-ta*, "kick-TR"

## Orthografie
The Fijian alphabet is based on the Laitin script an consists o the follaein 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

Amang the consonants, thare is almaist a ane-tae-ane correspondence atween letters an phonemes:

Note that for phonological reasons **ti** an **di** are pronoonced ,  rather than ,  (cf. Japanese chi kana). Hence, the Fijian name for Fiji, **Viti**, frae an allophonic pronunciation o  as .

In addeetion, the digraph **dr** staunds for postalveolar , or a prenasalized trill  in careful pronunciation, or mair commonly for some fowk an in some dialects.

The vowel letters **a e i o u** hae roughly thair IPA values, .  The vowel length contrast is nae uisually indicatit in writin, except in dictionaries an textbeuks for learners o the leid, whaur it is indicatit bi a macron ower the vowel in quaisten; Dixon, in the wirk citit belaw, doobles aw lang vowels in his spellin seestem. Diphthongs are *ai au ei eu oi ou* an *iu,* pronoonced .

## Syntax
The normal Fijian wird order is VOS (verb–object–subject):
*E rai-c-a (1) na no-na (2) vale (3) na gone (4).
*3-sg.-sub. see-trans.-3-sg.-obj. (1) the 3-sg.-poss. (2) hoose (3) the bairn (4).
*(The bairn sees his hoose.)

## The naitional leid debate

In Mey an Juin 2005, a nummer o prominent Fiji Islanders cried for the status o Fijian tae be upgradit. It wis nae an offeecial leid afore the adoption o the 1997 Constitution, which made it co-offeecial wi Inglis an Hindustani. It is still nae a compulsory subject in schuils, houiver; the present Eddication Meenister, Ro Teimumu Kepa, haes endorsed caws for it tae be made sae, as haes Great Cooncil o Chiefs Chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini. Similar caws came frae Misiwini Qereqeretabua, the Director o the Institute o Fijian Leid an Cultur, an frae Apolonia Tamata, a lingueestics lecturer at Suva’s Varsity o the Sooth Paceefic, who baith said that recognition o the Fijian leid is essential tae the naition’s basic identity, as a unifyin factor in Fiji’s multicultural society.

Fiji Labour Pairty leader Mahendra Chaudhry an aa endorsed the caw for Fijian tae be made a naitional leid an a compulsory schuil subject, providit that the same status be gien tae Hindi&mdash;a poseetion echoed bi Krishna Vilas o the Naitional Reconciliation Committee.

## Notes

## Soorces
*
*

## See also

*East Fijian leids
*Leids o Fiji
*Wast Fijian leids

## Freemit airtins

*Ethnologue on Fijian
*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