lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Western Fijian, also known as Wayan[2]^: 212 is an Oceanic language spoken in Fiji by about 57,000 people.

Western Fijian
Native to	Fiji
Region	western half of Viti Levu, Yasawa Islands and Mamanuca Islands
Native speakers	(57,000 cited 1977)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian(MP) Oceanic Central Pacific West Fijian – Rotuman West Fijian Western Fijian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wyy
Glottolog	west2519

It is distinct from Eastern Fijian (also known as Bauan or Standard Fijian), though it is not taught in schools. Colonial linguists considered Eastern Fijian to be superior, and thus marginalized Western Fijian.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Western Fijian consonant phonemes[3][2]

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	lab.
Nasal		m mː	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Plosive	voiced/pren.	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
	voiceless		t	tʃ	k	kʷ	(ʔ)
Fricative	voiced	β	ð
	voiceless		s				h
Trill			r ⁿr
Approximant		w	l	j

/mː/ is heard in the Wayan dialect.[2]^: 212

Western Fijian vowel phonemes[2]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Low		a aː

Most Fijian languages have a unique prenasalized alveolar trill, transcribed here as ⟨ⁿr⟩. Western Fijian in particular, is unique among Fijian languages for having labialized velar consonants. All vowels come in long and short forms, and so does the bilabial nasal (/m/).[2]^: 212

References

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