Is Fijian A Dying Language?

Currently around 2,900 of the world’s 7,000 languages are at risk of dying out. Is Fijian one of them?

This post will cover if Fijian is a dying language and how many people currently speak it.

Table of Contents

Is Fijian A Dying Language?

No, Fijian is not a dying language.

UNESCO regularly publishes a list of endangered languages – Fijian does not feature on the list.

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use because there is little transmission of the language to younger generations. If a language loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language.

Languages can be considered endangered or dying out for many different reasons. I’ve summarised the main characteristics of a dying language below.

The language is not widely spoken
Other more dominant languages are being spoken instead
Children are not learning the language

Fijian doesn’t fit any of the above criteria of a dying language.

How Widely Spoken Is Fijian?

There are currently roughly 600,000 speakers of Fijian, most of which live in Fiji.

Of these, around 300,000 speak Fijian as a first language and another 300,000 speak it as a second language.

Fijian is one of the official languages of Fiji alongside English and Fiji Hindi.

56.8% of Fiji’s population are native Fijians. Most native Fijians speak Fijian as their first language and most know English as a second language.

37.5% of Fiji’s population are Indo-Fijians and usually speak Fiji Hindi as their first language. Of this group, most know English as a second language and some also speak Fijian.

It’s estimated that around 66% of the population of Fiji speak Fijian as either a first or second language so this means it’s quite widely spoken there, especially amongst native Fijians.

Are There Any Other Dominant Languages In Fiji?

This is a common reason why languages tend to die out.

Often another language may be spoken within a country and over time people start using it more and more and stop learning their mother tongue e.g. in Hawaii, very few Hawaiians speak Hawaiian, instead they speak English.

There are other dominant languages used in Fiji, the main one being English.

English is used in government, businesses and in school. Despite this, Fijian is still commonly used in everyday language and by Fijians at home. Fijian is also often using in business situations especially away from the main cities and towns.

English is known as a second language by most people in Fiji and not a first language. English is not currently forcing the Fijian language to an endangered status as people are still mainly speaking Fijian at home.

Fiji Hindi is also commonly spoken in Fiji with 37.5% of the Fiji population speaking it. Fiji Hindi is the language spoken by people in Fiji of Indian origin. The language itself evolved from Hindi.

Fiji Hindi is mainly used at home by the Indo-Fijian population and is currently not a threat to Fijian as it’s not as widely spoken as Fijian or English in Fiji.

Are Children Learning The Language?

Another reason why languages often die out is that children grow up speaking another language and don’t learn their mother tongue. Languages die out when they’re not passed to the next generation.

Fijian children do grow up speaking Fijian, it’s not just the older generation that speak it.

They are taught in English at school however most Fijian children do grow up speaking Fijian in the home. This means there’s no risk that the language will not be passed on to the next generation.

As you can see, Fijian is being passed onto future generations and is widely spoken amongst the Fijian people so there’s no risk of it dying out anytime soon.

How Can I Learn Fijian?

Fijian is not a dead language so it’s worth learning as there’s hundreds of thousands of people out there to practice with.

By learning Fijian you would be able to communicate with 600,000 people and enjoy their vibrant and interesting culture.

Unfortunately resources for learning Fijian are very limited, even popular language learning platforms like Duolingo don’t have a Fijian course.

The online platform uTalk does offer a Fijian course. They focus on game-based learning and state that their course uses native speakers and features more than 2,500 everyday words.

The Lonely Planet Fijian Phrasebook & Dictionary is another fantastic resource and reference point for the Fijian language. This is a great book for beginners that will teach you all the basics.

The website Digital Dialects also has some fun online games which teach Fijian words. They don’t cover a ton of content but will get you familiar with some basic words in Fijian.

The best part is that each word has a recording by a native speaker so it’s a great place to begin your Fijian language learning journey.

How Many People Speak Fijian?

Fijian currently has about 600,000 speakers around the world.

It is spoken as a first language by indigenous Fijians who mostly reside in Fiji. Indigenous Fijians make up around 56.8% of the population of Fiji.

Some Fijians have moved across the globe with the largest numbers being in Australia, the US and Canada.

Indigenous Fijian Populations Across The Globe:

Fiji – 475,000
Australia – 97,000
United States – 40,000
Canada – 18,000
New Zealand – 7,000
Netherlands – 6,000
France – 5,000
Germany – 5,000
United Kingdom – 4,500

It has been reported that Fijians who live outside of Fiji are much less likely to know the Fijian language and younger generations are often not taught the language.

There are some groups which know Fijian as a second language – it’s thought that this number could be up to 300,000 people.

These are mainly the other groups that live in Fiji including the Indo-Fijians and the Rotumans. There are also small populations of Chinese, European and other Pacific island people living in Fiji, some of which also speak Fijian.

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If you’re interested in learning Fijian then check out our Fijian posts here.

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