Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The rotuman language is spoken by more than 2000 people on the island of Rotuma and a further 10,000 people who live or work in the Republic of Fiji. Other Indian languages are spoken in Fiji. After the indenture system, Indians who spoke Gujarati and Punjabi arrived in Fiji as free immigrants.
The Fijian language was introduced to Fiji c. 3500 years ago by the islands' first settlers. For millennia, it was the only spoken language in Fiji. In 1835, Methodist missionaries from Australia worked in Fiji to develop a written form of the language.
The Tongan influence brought Polynesian customs and language into Fiji. The empire began to decline in the 13th century. Across 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from east to west, Fiji has been a nation of many languages. Fiji's history was one of settlement but also of mobility and over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed.
Siegel Jeff, Plantation Languages in Fiji, Australian National University, 1985 (Published as Language Contact in a Plantation Environment: A Sociolinguistic History of Fiji, Cambridge University Press, 1987, recently reprinted in paperback). Siegel, Jeff (1977). Say it in Fiji Hindi. Sydney: Pacific Publications (Aust) Pty Ltd. ISBN 0-85807-026-X.
The culture of Fiji is a tapestry of native Fijian, Indian, European, Chinese and other nationalities. Culture polity traditions, language, food costume, belief system, architecture, arts, craft, music, dance, and sports will be discussed in this article to give you an indication of Fiji's indigenous community but also the various communities which make up Fiji as a modern culture and living.
Although South Indians were used to working overseas, most found it difficult to adjust to the Fiji Indian society already established in Fiji. Language was a major problem as they had to learn Hindustani, the language of the plantation. During indenture, there was a high suicide rate amongst South Indians.
The National Language Debate in Fiji concerns the status of the country's three official languages: English, Fijian, and Hindustani (the name used in the 1997 constitution for Fiji Hindi). From colonial times , the sole official language was English, but the 1997 Constitution gave equal status for the first time to Fijian and Hindustani on the ...
Pidgin Fijian (also known as Jargon Fijian, Fijian Pidgin, Broken Fijian) was a plantation language used by iTaukei (Indigenous) Fijians and foreigners in Fiji's plantations. [ 1 ] History