Fijian-English Dictionary: with notes on Fijian culture and natural history

340 Pages·2016·18.11 MB·English

by  Gatty R.

The Fijian wooden figurine (matakau) on the
cover of this book is held in the National Museum
of Victoria in Melbourne, item 2530, 62.2 cm in
height, with feet in the form of dowels as if to be
held erect. One arm is missing. Exact significance
to Fijians is not well understood and might vary
with the locality. Matakau were iconic, considered
a spirit but not necessarily worshipped or prayed
to. This matakau is somewhat similar to the
famously named Bui ni Nakauvadra.
Fiji an-E nglish
Di cti ona r y

with notes on
Fijian culture and natural history

Ronald Gatty

Copyright © Ronald Gatty 2009
G.P.O. Box 120
Suva, Fiji

______________________________________________________________

USP Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Gatty, Ronald
Fijian–English Dictionary : with notes on Fijian culture and natural history
Ronald Gatty. – Suva, Fiji : R. Gatty, 2009.

340 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

ISBN 978-982-98047-1-6

1. Fijian language—Dictionaries—English 2. Fijians—Social life and customs
3. Natural history—Fiji I. Title.

PL6235.4.G27 2009 499.5321 499
FIJIAN – ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY

CONTENTS

Foreword by Ratu Kamisese Mara _____ 1
A First Few Words ________________ _ 2
Preface __________________________ 2
Brief Notes on the Language_________ 4
Abbreviations and Notes ____________ 6
Acknowledgements ________________ 7
A ______________________________ 9
B ______________________________ 10
C ______________________________ 37
D ______________________________ 55
E ______________________________ 82
F ______________________________ 83
G _____________________________ 84
I ______________________________ 92
J _______________________________ 94
K ______________________________ 95
L ______________________________ 131
M _____________________________ 149
N _____________________________ 178
O _____________________________ 184
P _____________________________ 188
Q _____________________________ 192
R _____________________________ 201
S _____________________________ 213
T _____________________________ 243
U _____________________________ 281
V _____________________________ 287
W_____________________________ 315
Y _____________________________ 323
Fiji Traditional Calendar ___________ 334
FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY

FOREWORD
by Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara

Fiji is at the same time a new nation and also one rich in cultural heritage and tradition. While adapt-
ing to progress, to economic development, to taking our place as a nation in the modern world, Fijians are
mindful that we are a Pacific Island people, people with a proud tradition with customs, language and a
way of life that gives us our own identity and stability of social structure, ways of living together and shar-
ing in social responsibilities. We do well to respect our own heritage, culture and customs that are so well
reflected in the language of our people.
It is to this purpose that Professor Gatty writes, for an appreciation of our language in the context of
traditional culture, yet showing the adaptability of the language to what is modern in Fiji. English-
speaking people may thus learn much of value in understanding and appreciating the bases of our thought,
our social life, our ways of farming and fishing, our arts, crafts, songs and ceremonies, and our ways of
talking and thinking about what is new or modern.
Fijians too, especially those who live in towns remote from their home villages, may learn and ap-
preciate aspects of their own culture and language that their parents knew better before them. Also they
may improve their English which is a second language to most of us, though it is now the official language
of our country. Certainly it is necessary in most responsible positions of employment.
Ronald Gatty is well qualified to write on this subject. He spent some of his early years in these is-
lands and villages working as a fisherman and diver. Ronald left us as a young man to study in the U.S.,
later becoming a professor. He has returned to us often, exploring further in Fijian traditional culture and
taking a strong interest in Fiji as a developing nation. I am sure his books will be useful to our own Fijian
people, to other citizens and residents of Fiji and also to the many visitors who come to Fiji each year.

K. K. T. Mara

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FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY

A FIRST FEW WORDS

This book is written both for Fijians, and for foreigners. So many Fijian youngsters speak a jargon that
could hardly be understood by earlier generations of Fijians. And being raised and living in towns, our
youngsters know little of the older customs, and little of their heritage of animal and plant life that is
briefly described in this book. Their English too, is often limited at best, as a second language, with a
rudimentary vocabulary – though English is necessary for employment and advancement in the modern
world. This book should help them.
Similarly, few foreigners understand much of Fijian language, though they live here for years and some
settle permanently. Virtually all Fijians have a working knowledge of English so knowledge of the Fijian
language is not absolutely necessary. But there is no easy way for foreigners to relate to Fijians more
completely without understanding local language. The Alliance française offers courses to the general
public that along with this book should help with a closer understanding. Both University of Fiji and Uni-
versity of the South Pacific offer accredited courses. But the Fijian heritage involves more that just words
of the language. It includes the natural environment and native custom, ethnology and social psychology.
Tourists and visitors are often impressed with the apparent open friendliness with which they are
greeted. If visitors stay long enough they will come to learn that relationships are not nearly so simple and
open. The ways of the Fijian, the social context, the thinking and feeling can be vastly more complex than
they ever dreamed – but that at first is not revealed. People think they understand when they understand
nothing. This book is a first, very small step trying to demystify the enigma that is the Fijian. It is only a
beginning on a journey of understanding that is never-ending.
The Nature Garden (and Spice Garden) at Wainadoi, near Suva, show off many of the trees, bushes,
fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants, dye plants, and scented flowers that have been important to Fijians
(and spices to the Indians). Both for overseas visitors and locals, especially schoolchildren, there are
demonstrations of how these traditional plants have been used and much of the lore that has been lost.
A tour of the forest canopy can take visitors around tree-tops of the jungle where they experience the
view and the sight and sound of birds. Colourful parrots are always an attraction. You call and sometimes
they will answer. In wonderment, you view the dancing streams and thick, dense jungle down below.
This has been my home for thirty years, following the early and formative years of youth in these islands.
The Nature Garden and Spice Garden at Wainadoi have been featured on television in Australia, New
Zealand and Canada with demonstrations of how to use the plant materials. This is an effort to preserve
and promote what has been useful in Fijian culture. People from other lands can learn something from
Fijians. And young Fijians might come to appreciate more of their own heritage and with this dictionary,
learn a little English at the same time.

PREFACE

This is a handbook for practical understanding of Fijian language, as commonly understood speech
one might hear around Suva. Words from Fiji’s regional languages or dialects are listed only if they have
become part of the common vocabulary that many Fijians understand. Included also are notes on natural
history and brief explanations of Fijian customs and culture where they may be important.
The only other readily available dictionary has been Capell’s with many obsolete entries and a lack of
modern words and idioms. This dictionary tries to present the language as it is now. Capell’s so-called A
New Fijian Dictionary was first published almost seventy years ago, compiled mostly from missionaries’
notes of much earlier generations. Revisions of 1957 and 1968 added or corrected scientific names for
plants, fishes and birds without much change in any of the rest. That is archaic! So a new dictionary is
needed.
Fijian language is particularly rich in emotion, feelings, the physical senses, social and family relations,
and the context of village life and subsistence farming. It is strained and much less useful in coping with
the multitude of foreign contexts, employment, urban living, technology, and novel artefacts that pervade
modern life almost everywhere. Anglicisms and borrowed words, so-called “loan words”, dominate in
many situations that begin to sound artificial. To turn on a light or turn it off, you on-taka or off-taka in-
stead of Me waqa or Me boko.
As spoken around towns the new Fiji-speak has often hurt my ears. Just as well, perhaps, that deafness
with age has faded my hearing almost completely. Fijian begins to sound like English in translation with
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FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY
many English words pronounced in a Fijian style. The context of life is very different from ancient times.
The old life-style and old languages barely survive anywhere but in remote villages. Already 100 years
ago Basil Thompson wrote a book entitled The Fijians: A Study in The Decay of Custom. And the lan-
guage and culture have changed a very great deal more since that time.
This dictionary has many gaps, omissions and no doubt a number of errors. There was no methodical
checking for completeness. Words and expressions were gathered and noted them down as a quiet pastime
of evening hours. I have been a scavenger of words and languages. I was raised partly in Fiji, with my
family owning Katafaga Island and a home in Suva. Fijian studies then became an idle and casual pursuit
in my adult life as a scientist and professor, and later years, as a horticulturist with a tropical garden and a
small collection of horses in Fiji. My formal training in language has only been French, German and Latin.
(My wife of fifty seven years has been a classical philologist, steeped in Greek, Latin and medieval lan-
guages from the Sorbonne, and Cornell University.) I had been admitted directly to the Graduate Pro-
gramme at Cornell University without the benefit of undergraduate training. This set an academic record
that has since been matched by several other students during the passing years.
My interest in language has been a sideline to a deep interest in cultural anthropology and social psy-
chology. Language is an approach to understanding a culture. For a doctorate at Cornell University, I
minored in Anthropology with the distinguished scholar A. Holmberg and tried to help Charles Hockett,
professional linguist who at the time was struggling with his interest in Fijian language. For me Fijian was
a language learned during youth without any formal instruction.
Fijian conversation is very sensitive as to who is talking to whom. Relationships of regions, tribes,
clans, extended families and nuclear families are all relevant but usually invisible to outsiders. There are
privileges, courtesies and taboos that depend on those relationships. Some people may not speak with
certain others, brothers and sisters for example or in some cases, children and a parent. Virtually everyone
is related to everyone in some way that determines the conditions of mutual speech. Formal Fijian speech
has an overload of verbiage with protocol and politesse. It may border on a mannered preciosity that can
be quite boring.
Still today, though, Fijian patterns of thinking and feeling are very different from anything foreigners
might expect. Fijian culture and social interconnections are difficult if not impossible for an outsider to
penetrate. Fijian openness is never as open as it would seem. Questioning a Fijian on any sensitive issue is
rather like peeling an onion. Layers are removed but nothing much is revealed at the inside.
Fijians usually pretend their thoughts and feelings are congruent with those of a stranger or a foreigner.
They avoid disclosing potential discord of their different motivation, different social aims, very different
manners and private behaviour. And some can be masters at hiding their self-interest. The Fijian smile
presents a disarming front. The smile serves to charm, disarm, and put the visitor at ease. Sometimes it is a
mask for dissimulation and manipulation. More often perhaps, it may be genuine, especially in the case of
children.

A Fijian individual living in a traditional Fijian context exists within a social system that is much more
structured than a European usually experiences. Within Fiji, the system leaves little room for an individual
to act independently of the group. At the same time, for the individual, that system can be helpful and
supportive emotionally. Emphasis is on human relationships, extended family, and clan, and to a lesser
extent, the tribe and territory, and quite importantly, their church with their own Fijian versions of Christi-
anity. But these social involvements and committments can be preoccupations that limit an individual’s
development as an individual and dissipate the personal resources. Social demands can exact enormous
amounts of time, effort, energy, even money, food and other consumables.
Commoners have been restrained by their elders and by their chiefs who with very few exceptions,
have little education, and all too often, are marked by self-interest. Young people are discouraged from
expressing opinions or openly asserting themselves as individuals. Still now, Fijians hardly dare “talk up”
directly. Many men, especially, have been very considerably repressed. From early childhood all Fijians
are taught severely not to ask questions and not to speak their minds. It is understandable that Fijians
might become secretive about their own feelings and thoughts. They have had so little personal privacy.
It is not easy to understand Fijians and the common fallacy of foreigners is to think they do. Perhaps this
modest dictionary will help with a little understanding of the language and some of its cultural context.
That would be a beginning.

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FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY

BRIEF NOTES ON THE LANGUAGE

I have wanted to write this book as a dictionary with very little grammar, syntax or other formal as-
pects of language that might be boring to read. Al Schutz’s The Fijian Language covers those aspects
only, exhaustively and exhaustingly in something like a thousand pages. (Univ. of Hawaii, 1985.)
Originally Fijian had no written language and spelling has varied considerably since writing was intro-
duced. There have been differences as to how words or letters should be combined or separated – such as e
daidai or edaidai (meaning “today”). The word for “the knife” has been seen as nai sele or na i sele or na
isele. That little letter “i” transforms the root-word of the verb sele into a noun. On 11 March, 2008, the
Fiji Cabinet has determined that all should follow a newly imposed Government system, and I try to
oblige, reluctantly. Along with imposing a few other rules, they insist we attach that little “i” to the noun.
Thus na isele is “correct” by Cabinet decision.
Government officials are trying to enforce rules of spelling that differ from common practice. Teachers,
most of all, resist the change. I believe writers of dictionaries should follow what people do, as the people
write and like to read, rather than trying to dictate a scheme for “proper” spelling. George Bernard Shaw
tried to rationalise English spelling with absolutely no success.
Fijians’ compound words are made up from simple words but it has not always been clear if they are to
be written joined together as one word or to be separated by a space. To make things easier for the novice,
I have sometimes placed spaces between the little component words, or in a few cases I have used a hy-
phen to separate them. It will be easier for foreigners to follow the meaningful parts. But in fact, Fijians
virtually never use a hyphen, and most often run words together when they write. Some Fijians may find
my hyphens annoying, and my spacing of words to be awkward. My apologies for that.
A problem arises with the alphabetic arrangement. Readers may have to search about to find the word
they want. I tend to put compound words close to the root-word that is their base, rather then in strict al-
phabetical order.
Glottal stops may replace “t” or “k” in some areas but locals are not much bothered by this. In Fiji we
are accustomed to the fact the the “v” of mainland Fiji is likely to be replaced in Lau by an “f”, and a “b”
replaced by a “p” and a “t” replaced by a “j”, these changes being an influence of Tonga. In the western
part of Viti Levu, the “d” might be replaced by a “t”. We take that in our stride because in Fijian lan-
guage, unlike English, it is the vowels mainly that give meaning to a word, not the consonants.
Some teachers of Fijian language have thought it useful to invent Fijian words for the vocabulary of
formal grammar. Abaca (pronounced “Ambatha”) refers to the ABCs, the alphabet. A sentence is re-
ferred to as a yatuvosa; a letter of the alphabet is matanivola, a capital letter is a matanivola levu, while a
lower case is matanivola lailai. A full stop (a “period” in USA) is digo, a comma koma, a colon koloni, a
question mark a cegu taro, and ikovu a bracket. A noun is a nauni, a kilanauni an adjective, a root-form or
verb is vu, but a vuwale the intransitive form of a verb, and dewa indicates the transitive form of a verb. A
prefix is ikuri liu. An acute accent as itoqa cabe and a grave accent might be itoqa siro. Et cetera will
appear as kei na so tale. A number of these words are known to very few Fijians and it would seem to me
much simpler just to use the English expressions without creating new Fijian words for them.
Fijian language as spoken today is a modern Anglicised Fijian, because the context of Fijian life today
corresponds closely to the European context of schools, and sports, and jobs and urban life in a money
economy. That is remote from village life that was more the context of my youth. So many youngsters
today are susu madrai, literally raised on European bread in the urban context, and know little of village
culture or their own heritage. Many have never visited the village of their father and a fair percentage
have never been “written down” as belonging to a certain tribe, clan, and village. A relationship to the
parental village is often no longer relevant. It can even be an unwanted burden. Mixed marriages, with
Europeans, Indians, Chinese and Polynesians lend to this trend, and there has been an enormous amount of
inter-breeding over the last couple of centuries. That may well bode well for future of Fiji society to give
stability with more homogeneity. But what evolves as Fiian language become a polyglot mixture of an-
cient Austronesian, Proto-Central Pacific language of the Fiji, Samoa, Tonga complex, indigenous Mela-
nesian, with later Polynesian, and European overlay and a few Hindi words thrown in. The loan words
from English are so many and so obvious that I omit most of them from this dictionary. I try to retain the
original or ancient root-words, many that go back to Proto-Polynesian sources. In a few cases I show the
Tongan or Samoan cognates. It is the earlier, indigenous cultures that interest me, far more than the mod-
ern aspects.

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FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY

Verb-forms
Verbs are not conjugated in Fijian. For verb-forms, a word is shown in this dictionary in its basic form,
and then the suffix or suffixes attached that make it transitive. For instance, the word sele, seleva is listed.
That is sele for the root verb-form meaning “cut”, made transitive as seleva for “cut it” (some say seleta.
There are lots of local variations in the languages of Fiji.) Another listed verb is moku, mokuta; this is
the basic verb moku “hit” with its added suffix to become mokuta “hit something or someone” or “hit it”,
as a transitive form of the verb. A suffix may also include an implied preposition, meaning “for” or
“with”, for example. Cicivaka na isele means to run with the knife. Ciciva means to run for the knife.
The suffix –raka or –laka make a verb more forceful. Repeated syllables also may emphasise the ef-
fect of a verb. And a verb may serve equally as a noun or adjective.
Common prefixes are vaka, creating an adverb, or vei or veivaka or dau that precede a verb-form.
These are not all listed but when they do appear, they are normally found next to the root word they mod-
ify. Listing them all separately would burden the volume with too many pages of fairly obvious material.

Noun-forms
There are no different genders for nouns and no different plural forms for all but a very few adjectives.
The only general plural is one that implies a set or group, formed by placing vei before the noun. Thus
kau plant, veikau forest. loga ni dalo taro planting-bed, veiloga ni dalo taro garden as a set of dalo
planting-beds.
Some nouns have a suffix that indicates a possessive pronoun. For clarity here (but not in everyday
writing) I separate the suffix with a dash. Liga-na means “its/his/her hand”. My hand would be ligaqu,
your hand ligamu, etc. I leave the details for grammarians to explain.
Adjectives normally follow the noun. Thus na koli the dog, na koli loaloa the black dog. And there
are just a very few adjectives that differ in the plural. lalai small, is the singular, and lalai is the plural.
levu is big, with lelevu as a plural. balavu is long or tall, with babalavu the plural, leka is small in the
singular, leleka small in the plural, applied to more than one thing.

Pronouns
Pronouns are perhaps the most unusual aspect of Fijian for the foreigner. The words for “you”, “we”, or
“they” vary as to how many people are involved. And the “we” also varies as to whether the people being
spoken to are included or excluded. Readers may learn the details elsewhere.
Possessive pronouns may differ slightly if they refer to foods, or to beverages. Fijians distinguish care-
fully between being the “owner” of food (or beverage), and being the one who will consume it. Na noqu
kakana is food that belongs to me. Na kequ kakana is food that is mine to eat myself. Na noqu ti is tea
that belongs to me but na mequ ti is tea that is mine for me to drink. And curiously, Fijians reckon that
they “drink” melon and some other fruits, ice cream, and medicinal pills.

Stress and accents
Stress is almost always on the second-to-last syllable of a word. A very few important exceptions may
be indicated in this dictionary by underlining the stressed vowel. Some language teachers use what is
called a macron, a line over the vowel, but neither mark is ever used in ordinary writing or printing of
Fijian.
Cawaki is a sea-urchin, for which the first syllable is stressed in pronounciation, not the second to last,
which is customary. Underlining in this book may also indicate the prolonging of a vowel when that af-
fects the meaning. Dredre refers to smiling or laughter. Dredre refers to a difficulty. Such underlining is
done here only as a very occasional aid to pronounciation and meaning. It is not usually done here for long
vowels unless it is thought absolutely necessary. In fact, Fijian is often spoken so fast that there is hardly
any audible difference. Also, words are run together, as in French, and often in English, unlike the clipping
distinction of each word, as can be the case in German speech or even Latin, as I have heard it spoken by
present-day classicists when they are talking to each other in a university atmosphere.
The structure of a Fijian sentence is quite unlike English structure. An English sentence normally runs
from subject to verb to object, as in “The man wrote the book”. A Fijian might put that as “wrote the book
the man”. And Fijian most commonly uses the root-form, the basic, stative or passive form of the verb,
rather than the transitive, active form. But this book avoids the topic of syntax.
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FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY
Fijian is also less direct, more wordy and periphrastic, using allusions rather than bluntness and simple
clarity. Preciosity and politeness are fundamental as they are in Japanese, especially in formal situations.
Traditionally one never mentions a person’s name and rarely mentions the name of a place. These facts

were communicated in a roundabout way, or implied in a context. These things are changing, of course, as
Fijian drop some of the old prohibitions and their syntax begins to mimic the European way of saying
things.
Omitted to save space are a vast number of English words that are pronounced and spelled in Fijian
fashion but can be readily understood and need not be included. For examply, I include basa for bazaar
only because the English equivalent may not be obvious. Archaic words are included only if they have
continuing significant relevance in understanding Fijian culture and history.

ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTES

Some words may be shown as Archaic, Anglicism (a English notion expressed in Fijian), Slang, In-
sults, Vulgar. And a few abbreviations are used:
n. noun-form. v. verb-form. abbrev. abbreviation. adj. adjective. adv. adverb., lit., literally. Eng.
direct copy of an English word. Some words may serve as nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs with little
or no change. But the structure and grammar of Fijian is not directly applicable or comparable to Euro-
pean languages.
Words from various regions, or parts of those regions, are occasionally shown in paretheses. They in-
clude Lau, Rewa, Colo East, LomaiViti, West(ern Viti Levu), Cakau(drove), Vanua Levu, Nadro(ga),
Navosa, Ba, Ra, Kadavu, or words from a few other places or languages: Polyn(esia), Samoa, Tonga,
Hindi. There are significant variations in Fijian language(s) and dialects. Many Tongan or Samoan words
are close cognates of their Fijian equivalent and a few of these words are listed. The contact with Central
Polynesia has been close certainly as early as 1000. For an extended period, the same language was shared
in eastern and northern Fiji, and what later became Samoa and Tonga. One might refer to that as Proto-
Central Pacific and some of that ancient etymology is persists in present-day Fijan language. The Proto-
Polynesian Lapita people were in Fiji some three thousand years ago though most moved on to the east.
The influence of Proto-Polynesians and then Polynesians on Fijian culture has been profound. Much of
what is thought of today as Fijian culture has its origin in Tonga, especially from the last 750 years with
active inter-communications. Samoa but also Rotuma and Futuna have also had effect.

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