After Fiji had been settled, the flow of population continued north and east. By the time of the British administration, much of the Fijian nobility were able to comprehend basic English. As most islanders speak English, you should have no trouble communicating on your trip—and you might even get the opportunity to learn! Translate your sentences and websites from English into Fijian. Indian indentured labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, North-West Frontier and South India such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu. Inward migration of free Gujarati and Punjabi settlers further contributed to Fiji Hindi. It has 300,000 first-language speakers, which is almost one-third of the population of Fiji, but another 300,000 speak it as a second language. Click on a coloured area to see an article about English in that country or region, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of countries by English-speaking population, List of countries where English is an official language, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Languages_of_Fiji&oldid=984950419, Articles needing additional references from October 2015, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 October 2020, at 02:06. The family includes such important national languages as Tagalog (Philippines) and Malay. By this time Fiji Hindi was well established as the lingua franca of Fiji Indians and the South Indian labourers had to learn it to communicate with the more numerous North Indians and European overseers. Donna Heiderstadt is a travel writer and editor who has focused on the beautiful islands of the South Pacific in print and online publications. This occurred up to the point that many Bauan words entered many western Fijian languages. The iTaukei language is spoken either as a first or second language by most indigenous Fijians who make up around 54% of the population. They were given Rabi Island in North-Eastern Fiji as a new homeland and number 2000–3000. Fiji is one of the major island groups in the South Pacific, and while almost everyone in Fiji speaks English, the country's official language, many locals still use the Fijian language. Bauan was selected not only because of its prestige but also because it was the language of the then politically dominant island of Bau and the Mataiwelagi chiefs (and claimed King of Fiji). Rotuman, also referred to as Rotunan, Rutuman or Fäeag Rotuma, is an Austronesian language spoken by the indigenous people of the South Pacific island group of Rotuma, an island with a Polynesian-influenced culture that was incorporated as a dependency into the Colony of Fiji in 1881 and later chose to remain with Fiji in 1970 upon independence and in 1987, when Fiji became a republic. Considerable business is also done in Fijian, especially away from larger town centre. The rotuman language is spoken by more than 2000 people on the island of Rotuma and a further 10,000 people who live or work in the Republic of Fiji. Many Chinese settlers, especially from southern China speak Cantonese, which is quickly incorporating many Fijian and English words. Fiji has three official languages under the 1997 constitution (and not revoked by the 2013 Constitution): English, iTaukei and Hindi. Fijians of Indian descent make up a further 37%, mainly speaking a local variant of Hindi, known as Fiji Hindi. The following idiosyncrasies apply to pronouncing most words in Fijian: Additionally, any word with a "d" has an unwritten "n" in front of it, so the city Nadi would be pronounced "Nah-ndi." In 1835, two Methodist missionaries developed a written version of the language, and by 1840, missionaries had invented a Fijian spelling system and had published various books in different dialects of the language. They spoke numerous, mainly Hindi, dialects and languages depending on their district of origin.

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