Fijian

Austronesian family · Oceanic branch · Papunesia

WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Fijian, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.

On Applicative Constructions, WALS codes Fijian as “Non-benefactive object only; intransitive base only”, a value held by 2 of the 183 languages coded, the other being Wambaya.

On Number of Possessive Nouns, WALS codes Fijian as “Two to four”, a value held by 4 of the 243 languages coded, Chamorro and Paamese among them.

On Case Syncretism, 13 of 14 other Austronesian languages coded have the value “Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal”; Fijian has “Inflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only”.

The order Fijian uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Fijian with Kiribati or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Fijian, rarest first.

'Want' Complement Subjects'Want' is expressed as an uninflected desiderative particle8 of 283
Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has both a maximal and a minimal system21 of 375
Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns and nouns23 of 378
Presence of Uncommon Consonants'Th' sounds40 of 567
Distributive NumeralsMarked by prefix23 of 251
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsSubject pronouns in different position67 of 711
The PerfectPerfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'21 of 222
ReduplicationFull reduplication only35 of 368

Inside the Austronesian family

Fijian matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 79 of the 126 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (63%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 27th from the top.

Where Fijian breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Fijian	Most relatives
Other Roles of Applied Objects	Locative	No applicative construction (5 of 5, Oceanic branch)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Fijian; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Kiribati Austronesian48 of 68
Nung (in Vietnam) Tai-Kadai32 of 45
Maori Austronesian74 of 117
Pipil Uto-Aztecan39 of 59
Acehnese Austronesian40 of 61

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Fijian for 126 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 113 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Fijian shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Syllable Structure	Simple syllable structure	61 of 486
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable	65 of 500
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	Long vowel: long vowels are heavy for stress	65 of 500
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively isolating	16 of 165
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently head-marking	47 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Number of Genders	None	145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	No gender system	145 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	No gender system	145 of 257
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Both orders occur with neither order dominant	62 of 481
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In finiteness: Subtype A/Fin	40 of 297
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Polar Questions	Interrogative intonation only	173 of 955
Predicative Possession	Locational Possessive	48 of 240
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A precedes P	96 of 379
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	78 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593