Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 350,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji. Fijian is a VOS language.
Spoken as first language on Vanua Levu, the eastern half of Viti Levu, and on the lesser islands of Kadavu, Nayau, Lakeba, Oneata, Moce, Komo, Namuka, Kabara, Vulaga, Ogea and Vatoa. In the rest of Fiji, spoken as a second language.
The 1997 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji, along with English and Hindustani, and there is discussion about establishing it as the "national language," though English and Hindustani would remain official.
Similar calls came from Misiwini Qereqeretabua, the Director of the Institute of FijianLanguage and Culture, and from Apolonia Tamata, a linguistics lecturer at Suva’s University of the South Pacific, who both said that recognition of the Fijianlanguage is essential to the nation’s basic identity, as a unifying factor in Fiji’s multicultural society.
The population of Fiji is divided almost equally between native Fijians, a Melanesian people (51%), and Indo-Fijians (43.7%), descendent of Indian contract laborers brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century.
Three official languages are prescribed by the constitution: English, which was introduced by the former British colonial rulers, Bau Fijian, spoken by ethnic Fijians, and Hindustani, the main language spoken by Indo-Fijians.
Some Fijian dialects, especially in the west of the country, differ markedly from the official Bau standard, and would probably be considered separate languages if they had a codified grammar or a literary tradition.
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