Western Fijian language

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

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

It is distinct from Eastern Fijian (also known as Bauan or Standard Fijian).

Phonology

Western Fijian consonant phonemes^[2]^[3]
		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.	Glottal
Nasal		m mː	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Plosive	voiced/pren.	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Plosive	voiceless		t	tʃ	k	kʷ	(ʔ)
Fricative	voiced	β	ð
Fricative	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

^ Western Fijian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 Blust, R. A; Pacific Linguistics, Australian National University (2009). The Austronesian languages. ISBN 978-0858836020.
^ Geraghty, Paul (2002). "Nadrogā". In Lynch, John; Ross, Malcolm; Crowley, Terry (eds.). The Oceanic Languages. Richmond: Curzon. pp. 833–847.

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[e18-1] Western Fijian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[Blust-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 Blust, R. A; Pacific Linguistics, Australian National University (2009). The Austronesian languages. ISBN 978-0858836020.

[3] Geraghty, Paul (2002). "Nadrogā". In Lynch, John; Ross, Malcolm; Crowley, Terry (eds.). The Oceanic Languages. Richmond: Curzon. pp. 833–847.

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