Fijian/Alphabet and pronunciation
Fijian language uses the same Latin alphabet as English. The official Fijian alphabet consists of the same letters as English does.
The Fijian alphabet consists of 23 letters in the order as it follows:
A B C D E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y
Letter H is also used, but only in loanwords and foreign proper names, and therefore is not included in the Fijian alphabet.
Letters X and Z are not used in the Fijian language. Dr and nr are used as well.
Fijian pronunciation is not very difficult for the English speakers to learn. The Fijian vowels are pronounced as they are written. However, some consonants are pronounced differently from English:
- B is pronounced "mb" as in 'bamboo'.
- C is a lisped "th" as in 'feather'.
- D is pronounced "nd" as in 'candy'.
- J is pronounced "nj" as in 'conjunction'.
- G is pronounced "ng" as in 'sing'.
- Q is pronounced "ng" as in 'mango'.
- DR and NR is pronounced "ndr" as in Andrew and are both considered a single letter.
The vowels and diphthongs are pronounced the same as those of Spanish. And the diphthongs are {|Ai|au|ei|Eu|oi|ou|}. The long vowels are marked with the only diacritic in the language, a . And, the stress goes on the ultimate if it is short, and the penultimate if it is long or a diphthong.
