| Western Fijian | |
| States: | Fiji |
| Region: | western half of Viti Levu, Yasawa Islands and Mamanuca Islands |
| Speakers: | 57,000 |
| Date: | 1977 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian(MP) |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Central Pacific |
| Fam5: | West Fijian – Rotuman |
| Fam6: | West Fijian |
| Iso3: | wyy |
| Glotto: | west2519 |
| Glottorefname: | Western Fijian |
Western Fijian, also known as Wayan 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).
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /m/ pronounced as /mː/ | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | pronounced as /ŋʷ/ | ||||
| Plosive | voiced/pren. | pronounced as /ᵐb/ | pronounced as /ⁿd/ | pronounced as /ⁿdʒ/ | pronounced as /ᵑɡ/ | pronounced as /ᵑɡʷ/ | ||
| voiceless | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /tʃ/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /kʷ/ | (pronounced as /ʔ/) | |||
| Fricative | voiced | pronounced as /β/ | pronounced as /ð/ | |||||
| voiceless | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /h/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /r/ pronounced as /ⁿr/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /w/ | pronounced as /l/ | pronounced as /j/ | |||||
| Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /i/ pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /u/ pronounced as /uː/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /e/ pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /o/ pronounced as /oː/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /a/ pronounced as /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]