Fijian Alphabet & Phrases

Fijian, vosa vakaviti in Fijian itself, is written in the Latin alphabet with a spelling system first devised in Tonga in 1835 by the Methodist missionaries David Cargill and William Cross, before they arrived at Lakeba in the Lau Islands. Their rule was one letter for one sound, so instead of writing combinations like th or ng they gave each Fijian sound a single letter, even where that meant using a letter in a way English does not. The alphabet as it is taught today runs A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z, twenty-five letters with no X. The core of native Fijian words uses fewer: f, h, j, p and z appear mostly in loanwords, names and some regional dialects.

Fijian syllables always end in a vowel and consonants do not cluster, apart from the pair dr. That is why English loanwords grow vowels in Fijian: a motor car is a motoka, a store a sitoa, and Jesus is Jisu. Standard Fijian, the one used in schools, newspapers, radio and the Bible, is based on the dialect of Bau, the small island off Viti Levu that was the seat of the most powerful chiefdom in the nineteenth century; the dialects of the west and of the outer islands can differ a good deal.

Fijian alphabet pronunciation: b, d, q, c, g and dr

The vowels a e i o u sound roughly as in Spanish or Italian, never as in English name or time. Most consonants sound as English speakers expect, r is rolled, and v is softer than the English one, made with both lips. Six letters surprise visitors because they appear on every map and menu.

b is said mb, with a nasal before it: Bula sounds like "mbula" and Beqa island like "Mbengga". d is said nd: Nadi, the international airport town, is "Nandi". q is ngg, as in English finger: yaqona, kava, is "yanggona". g alone is the ng of singer, so Sigatoka is "Singatoka". c is the soft th of that and this: moce, goodbye, is "mothe", and the chief Seru Cakobau, who ceded Fiji to Britain in 1874, appears in English books as Thakombau. dr is ndr, a nasal followed by a rolled r: drua, the great double-hulled sailing canoe that also names the Fijian Drua rugby team, is "ndrua".

Once the six are known, Fijian is read exactly as it is written, with no silent letters. Stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable when the final syllable is short, as in vi-NA-ka; when the final syllable has a long vowel or diphthong, stress falls there instead.

Long vowels and how to type ā ē ī ō ū

Fijian distinguishes short and long vowels, and a word can change meaning with the length of one vowel. Everyday writing, from newspapers to text messages, leaves length unmarked and relies on context. Dictionaries, grammars and many learners' books mark a long vowel with a macron: ā ē ī ō ū, and Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū in capitals. If you are copying from such a book, copy the macrons too; if you are writing an ordinary message, plain vowels are correct.

On a phone, press and hold a vowel and pick the letter with the bar on top. On a Mac, switch to the ABC Extended input source and press Option+A, then the vowel. Windows has no Alt code for these letters; in Word, type the code and press Alt+X: 0101 for ā, 0113 for ē, 012B for ī, 014D for ō and 016B for ū (0100, 0112, 012A, 014C and 016A for the capitals). The Māori keyboard that ships with Windows also types macron vowels and suits Fijian. In HTML they are ā ē ī ō ū.

Punctuation follows English, with “double quotation marks” outside and ‘single ones’ inside; phones turn the straight " and ' into curly ones by themselves. On Windows the Alt codes are Alt+0147 for “, Alt+0148 for ”, Alt+0145 for ‘ and Alt+0146 for ’; on a Mac, Option+[ and Option+Shift+[ for the double pair and Option+] and Option+Shift+] for the single pair. Prices are in the Fiji dollar, written $ or FJ$, with 100 cents ¢ to the dollar.

Common Fijian phrases and greetings

Bula! is the word everyone learns first. It means life, and it serves as hello, cheers and a general wish of good health; the fuller and more polite form is Ni sa bula vinaka. Vinaka means good and is the everyday thank you, vinaka vakalevu is thank you very much, and adding saka, a word of respect, makes it polite to an elder or a chief. Moce is goodbye and also good night, Ni sa yadra is good morning, Io is yes and Sega is no.

Kerekere is please, and it also names a Fijian custom: asking a relative for something you need, which they are expected to give. Lako mai means come here, kana to eat, and a visitor to a village hears bure for a house, koro for the village and turaga ni koro for the village headman. Fiji itself is Viti in Fijian; the English name Fiji came by way of the Tongan pronunciation, Fisi.

Fijian belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian languages, in the same Central Pacific group as Rotuman and the Polynesian languages, which is why Fijian vale (house, in the standard language) and Samoan fale look so alike. See our Samoan collection for a Polynesian neighbour and Bislama for Vanuatu next door.

Where Fijian is spoken

Fijian is the language of the iTaukei, the indigenous Fijians, across Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and the smaller islands. Unicode's CLDR estimates about 370,000 speakers, almost all in Fiji, and many more people, including Rotumans and some Indo-Fijians, speak it as a second language. Fiji's other main languages are English, used in government, courts and schools, and Fiji Hindi, the language of most Indo-Fijians; see our English, Fiji Hindi and Hindi collections for those.

Fijian communities in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom keep the language going in churches, choirs and homes, and New Zealand holds a Fijian Language Week each year in October, around Fiji Day. For the flag 🇫🇯, rugby sevens 🏉, kava, reefs and the rest of the country's emoji, see our Fiji collection.