Fiji English: phonology

Fiji is a group of over 300 islands in the southern Pacific Ocean, straddling the International Date Line. The islands were first settled about 3,000 years ago by speakers of Austronesian languages whose ancestors had come from South-East Asia, sweeping through Melanesia to the eastern islands of Polynesia. Sporadic contact with Europeans initiated through exploration was followed by the arrival of marooned sailors and deserters. Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century came sundry beachcombers, traders in sandalwood and bêche-de-mer (sea-cucumber). They were followed in the 1830s by missionaries, and in the next three decades by land-hungry settlers from nearby Australia and New Zealand on whose plantations worked Pacific island laborers recruited through blackbirding (kidnapping). In 1874 a group of Fijian chiefs, through a Deed of Cession, signed over the Fiji islands to the British. The colony had to pay for itself and about 60,000 indentured laborers were brought from India between 1879 and 1916 to work on plantations, mostly of sugarcane. In 1920 all indenture contracts expired and most Indians stayed on to farm small land parcels leased from Fijian landowners, or ventured into trades or small businesses. Fiji became independent in 1970 and has since suffered two major coups d’état, in 1987 and again in 2000.

Fiji has a population of nearly 800,000, about 51% of whom are indigenous Fijians and 44% Indo-Fijians (or ‘Fiji Indians’). The remainder comprise small groups of other Pacific islanders, Chinese, ‘Europeans’ (i.e. Caucasians or ‘Whites’) and ‘part-Europeans’ (i.e. people of mixed Fijian and European descent). In spite of its small population, Fiji has a rich mix of languages and cultures. Fijian is spoken not only by indigenous Fijians but also by many part-Europeans, Chinese, Rotumans and other Pacific islanders. The major language among Indo-Fijians is Fiji Hindi (or Fiji Baat), a koiné (an admixture of related dialects) which developed during the indenture period from the contact between the various dialects of Hindi spoken by most of the laborers from North India. Dravidian languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam are spoken by small and ever dwindling numbers of descendants of laborers from South India, while Gujarati and Punjabi were introduced after indenture by free migrants. There are also small groups of speakers of Rotuman, Kiribati, Tuvaluan and other Pacific languages, as well as several Chinese languages and dialects.

The first tokens of presence of English in Fiji were probably borrowings introduced into Fijian by Tongans, who had a long history of trade with Fiji and had contact with English speakers earlier. Beachcombers and traders, who often became fluent in Fijian, were another vector for borrowings, while Methodist missionaries introduced religious terms, although they evangelized in Fijian. After Cession, English became the working language of the colonial administration. Catholic schools spearheaded the use of English in education and by the 1890s it had spread to all schools, including those that Indians had to establish themselves for their children. In the 1930s the promotion of English was spurred by the colonial authorities’ belief that a “neutral” lingua franca or a “link/bridging” language was needed to allow Fijians and Indo-Fijians to live together in harmony. English was seen as the appropriate, if not the only, language to fulfil that role. The local languages were considered linguistically deficient and unable to fill this need, as shown by this pronouncement about Fijian by Cyril Cato, a prominent educator at the time:

In a country where many races and languages mingle as they do in Fiji, a common language is essential. Fijian can never become this, for its poverty of ideas and expressions is such that it cannot meet the modern demands upon such a language (cited in Geraghty 1984: 41).

During this time, Fiji’s education system came under the control of the New Zealand education authorities. The influx of New Zealand teachers meant that English had to be the sole medium of instruction, as few were prepared to learn Fijian or Hindi. English is now the sole official medium of instruction after the first three years of primary school, although code switching is frequent both in the classroom and on the playground.

English is a second language for nearly all Fiji Islanders, with speakers’ proficiency ranging from rudimentary to very high. Only 1% to 3% of the population speak English as their first language. Nevertheless, English has a high profile and fairly widespread use, especially in urban areas. Thanks to its colonial past, English remains an official language, along with Fijian and Hindi. While the 1997 Constitution states that the three languages “have equal status”, English prevails in most official spheres. In Parliament, for instance, it is the language of debate and record, although members of both Houses occasionally speak in Fijian or Hindi. English also predominates in the media, particularly on television and now online, in print, and to a lesser extent, on the radio. English has also been the major medium of expression in literature so far. Another major role of English in Fiji is as a lingua franca, particularly between native speakers of Fijian and of Fiji Hindi, although significant numbers of both groups know each other’s language or a pidginized variety thereof.

The variety of English that operates as the official reference point in Fiji is an external standard. Traditionally it was British English, which continues to be seen by many speakers as the model to aspire to, although the local varieties which approximate to standard metropolitan varieties of English have incorporated features from Australian, New Zealand and, increasingly, American English.

English in Fiji is characterized by a great deal of variation, which can be ascribed to two major factors: differences in exposure through education and the media, and the speaker’s first language. Someone from a low socio-economic group or living in a rural area or an outer island will typically hear and read far less English – and have far less need to use it – than a middle-class urban professional. As for the first language of English users, the two major groups, native speakers of Fijian and of Fiji Hindi, are of nearly equal size. The influence of the first language is most noticeable in the phonology of Fiji English, particularly in what is sometimes called the “basilect” (the variety most removed from the norm), where one can arguably distinguish between “Fijian English” and “Indo-Fijian English”. Differences in grammar and vocabulary are not nearly as great, and most borrowings from Fijian and Fiji Hindi are common to Fijian and Indo-Fijian speakers of English. Differences between the two groups shade off at the “acrolectal” (prestige) end of the continuum, but while the speech of many “educated”’ people tends to approximate a metropolitan standard, the influence of the first language is to some extent independent of education and exposure.

Siegel (1989, 1991) recognizes that ‘Fiji English’ constitutes a continuum, and notes that it is in the basilect that most of the distinctive features are found. Lynch and Mugler (1999) observe that within Fiji, the term tends to refer only to the basilectal end of the spectrum, perhaps because only that lect is recognized as distinctive. The following citation confirms this:

“Their English [that of pupils at a local primary school] is perfect too. They don’t speak that Fijian English urban students use: ‘us gang, me ga, trues up.’ I’m very proud of that,” Mr X [head teacher] said. (Fiji Times, 9/7/1997)

Kelly (1975), who pioneered the study of Fiji English with recordings of schoolgirls, refers to this lect as “the dialect”, Moag and Moag (1977) as “Colloquial Fiji English”, Geraghty (1975, 1977, 1984, 1997) as “Fiji Pidgin English”, and Siegel (1986, 1987, 1989, 1991) as “Basilectal Fiji English”. Kelly’s “dialect” is too vague, while Geraghty’s “Fiji Pidgin English” is inaccurate, since the lect exhibits only a few of the lexical and grammatical features of pidgins in general or of Melanesian Pidgin English in particular. Moreover, there is no historical evidence that the lect was ever a stable pidgin (Siegel 1987: 237–238). Moag and Moag’s “Colloquial Fiji English” is too general, as it could be applied to a wide range of lects within the Fiji English spectrum. Siegel’s “Basilectal Fiji English” is probably the most accurate but its negative connotation is unfortunate.

Siegel (1987: 238) suggests that the lect can be classified as a “creoloid” (i.e. a language which exhibits creole-like features although it did not develop from a pidgin) akin to Colloquial or Basilectal Singapore English, since:

– it displays some creole-like grammatical features;

it shows “substratum” influences, mostly from Fijian and Fiji Hindi; – English (which functions as the standard, superordinate language) is one of the official languages of Fiji; and

it is used for most (but certainly not all) communication between speakers of different native languages

Perhaps the most accurate descriptive label for the English of Fiji would be “Fiji Varieties/Variants of English”. However, for the sake of simplicity, we shall continue to use the expression “Fiji English” as a cover term, in line with Siegel (1989). However, instead of his “Basilectal Fiji English”, we have adopted the term “Pure Fiji English” (after Fox 2003) to refer to the variety most heavily influenced by the substratum languages, and “Modified Fiji English” for the lects which most approximate standard metropolitan English (both at the phonological and morpho-syntactic levels), while still retaining some distinctive local features.

As for variation across speakers of different first languages, the most readily identifiable and widespread varieties are “Fijian Fiji English” and “Indo-Fijian Fiji English”. The Pure Fiji English spoken by part-Europeans and Fijians is essentially a single variety. This is not surprising, since part-Europeans usually identify socially, culturally and ethnically with the Fijian community. Since Independence, part-Europeans have shifted away from their historical identification with colonial European heritage and have moved towards reclaiming their Fijian roots. Part-European speakers of Modified Fiji English, however, still tend to align themselves with the European community, and linguistic features of their English reflect this social association, although many are bi-dialectal in the Pure and Modified varieties. Fiji English is also spoken by Chinese and part-Chinese, Rotumans and other small Pacific islander groups, with each variety having its distinctive features, although their Fiji English tends to be closer to the Fijian than the Indo-Fijian variety.

Certain features of Fiji English are heard in the speech of most Fiji Islanders, regardless of their first language, while others are more specifically characteristic of Fijian and Indo-Fijian Fiji English. Numerous features are also found in the colloquial varieties of English spoken in countries where it is the first language of the majority, while others also exist in other parts of the world where English is a second language, and still others are characteristic of pidgins or creoles. This last group may have developed independently, perhaps as a result of universal tendencies in a restricted language environment. They could be remnants of Melanesian Pidgin English introduced to Fiji by laborers on plantations in the nineteenth century, or both.

Since English is a second (sometimes a third) language for nearly all Fiji Islanders, there is considerable phonological transfer from L1, at both the segmental and suprasegmental levels. The degree of transfer varies substantially, with speakers of Pure Fiji English usually exhibiting the highest degree of transfer. Detailed phonological descriptions of all varieties of Fiji English are beyond our scope, and we shall concentrate on the key characteristics of Pure Fiji English as spoken by Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Even though they share a number of phonological features, these lects are nevertheless still phonologically quite distinct at the Pure Fiji English end of the spectrum. At the Modified end, however, these differences are much less pronounced and the two varieties may at times be almost indistinguishable. Our descriptions are based on personal observation, over 80 hours of recorded interviews, written and printed pronunciation spellings, previously published analyses of Fiji English (particularly Kelly 1975), and the recordings made for this volume. Before each description, brief outlines of the phonologies of Fijian and Fiji Hindi are provided.