| States | Fiji |
|---|---|
| Region | western half of Viti Levu, Yasawa Islands and Mamanuca Islands |
| Speakers | 57,000 |
| Date | 1977 |
| Ref | e18 |
| Familycolor | Austronesian |
| Fam 2 | Malayo-Polynesian (MP) |
| Fam 3 | Oceanic |
| Fam 4 | Central Pacific |
| Fam 5 | West Fijian – Rotuman |
| Fam 6 | West Fijian |
| Iso 3 | wyy |
| Glotto | west2519 |
| Glottorefname | Western Fijian |
| Altname | Wayan |
Western Fijian, also known as Wayan[1]: 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
| 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.[1]: 212
| 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 . 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/).[1]: 212