Links!

 • See the Fijian Alphabet and transportantion

• See how Fijians communicate

• See "must have" souvenir and pics of Native Fijians

• Website on Fiji







LANGUAGES

There are three official languages in Fiji. One of the languages is English. It was introduced by the former British colonial rulers. Another language is Bau Fijian. This language is spoken by ethnic Fijians. The third official language is Hindustani. This language is the main language spoken by Indo-Fijians. Citizens of Fiji have the constitutional right to communicate with any government agency in any of the official languages, with an interpreter to be supplied on request.


English is widely spoken by both ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians. English is the main language of communication between the two communities, as well as with the outside world. It is the language in which the government conducts most of its business, and is the main language of education, commerce, and the courts. Fijian belongs to the Austronesian family of languages. Fijian proper is closely related to the Polynesian languages, such as Tongan. There are many dialects, but the official standard is the speech of Bau, the most politically and militarily powerful of the many indigenous kingdoms of the 19th Century.



FIJIAN ALPHABET



In the Fijian alphabet, some of the letters have unusual values. For one, the "c" is a voiced "th" sound, [©£]. (For example, the name of Fiji-born New Zealand rugby player Joe Rokocoko is often mis-pronounced. The correct pronunciation is IPA: [rɒ?kɒ?ˈ'©£ɒ?kɒ?].) Another difference is that the letters "b" and "d" are always pronounced with a nasal before them, [mb, nd], even at the beginning of a word. The "q" is pronounced like a "g" with a nasal "ng" before it, [©¯?g] as in the word "finger", while the "g" is pronounced like the "ng" of the word "singer", [©¯?].






TRANSPORTATION



Railways:
total: 597 km; note - belongs to the government-owned Fiji Sugar Corporation
narrow gauge: 597 km 0.610-m gauge (1995)

Highways:
total: 3,440 km
paved: 1,692 km
unpaved: 1,748 km (1996 est.)


Waterways: 203 km; 122 km navigable by motorized craft and 200-metric-ton barges

Seaports and harbors: Labasa, Lautoka, Levuka, Savusavu, Suva

Merchant marine:
total: 6 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 11,870 GRT/14,787 DWT
ships by type: chemical tanker 2, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll-on/roll-off 1, specialized tanker 1 (1999 est.)

Airports: 25 (1999 est.)

Airports - with paved runways:
total: 3
over 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
914 to 1,523 m: 1 (1999 est.)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 22
914 to 1,523 m: 5
under 914 m: 17 (1999 est.)







COMMUNICATION



Telephones
 - main lines in use 
65,000 (1995)
 

Telephones
 - mobile cellular 
100,000 (2004) 


Telephone system
 
Modern local, interisland, and international (wire/radio integrated) public and special-purpose telephone, telegraph, and teleprinter facilities; regional radio communications center 

            •Domestic: NA 

            •International: Access to important cable links between US and Canada as well as between NZ and Australia; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)
 

Radio broadcast stations
 
AM 13, FM 40, shortwave 0 (1998) 


Radios
 
500,000 (1997) 


Television broadcast stations
 
NA 


Televisions
 
21,000 (1997)
 

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) 

2 (1999) 


Country code
 (TLD) 
FJ




SOUVENIRS

If you visit Fiji you’ll want to bring back souvenirs from your trip. I would suggest purchasing Fijian Tapa (Masi cloth) which is hand made paper with designs that are typically stenciled, stamped, or smoked onto the fabric. There are many Tapa pieces to choose from including handbags, clothing, and décor. Tapa (Masi cloth) is used in traditional Fijian dress. The cloth is used in many of traditional ceremonies and celebrations including Meke, marriage, death, worship and death. According to the website of the Matangi Island Resort Fiji Islands Tapa is created using the following method: The bark of young trees is stripped, and the bark and inner layer soaked and worked by scraping with a shell and pounding on a large log with a special tool to flatten and widen the material. Women generally do the pounding, and you frequently can hear them working in the villages. After the material is initially beaten and worked, it is beaten again onto another piece of bark, or it is dried and glued onto another sheet. It is then dried and the patterns are stenciled onto the newly prepared fabric. Current-day patterns include bures, canoes, flowers and turtles.



FIJIAN NATIVES



















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