The Fijian of Part-Europeans: a Case Study of Wainunu-I-Caxe
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THE FIJIAN OF PART-EUROPEANS: A CASE STUDY OF WAINUNU-I-CAXE by Ana Akata Kitolelei A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics Copyright © 2013 by Ana Akata Kitolelei School of Language, Arts and Media Faculty of Arts, Law and Education The University of the South Pacific July, 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to acknowledge and thank the following for their most valued assistance and support: my supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Paul Geraghty for his immeasurable guidance and patience. Vaula, sa x levu na noqu vaxavinavinaxa. the people of Wainunu-i-caxe for sharing their knowledge and giving their time to tell stories and answer questions the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education for the sponsorship of study (Graduate Assistant scholarship) and the grant to conduct my field research Dr. Robert Early at Pacific Languages Unit, Emalus Campus, the University of the South Pacific, for reading through the chapters and offering his kind advice and assistance Barbara Hauofa (through the coordination of the FALE Post Graduate committee) for editing all the chapters fellow colleagues for their words of motivation and time in proofreading chapters of my thesis: Alice Rore, Tilisi Bryce, Salesh Kumar and Rajendra Prasad and my family and loved one, you are my source of inspiration and comfort. Faieksia. ABSTRACT Fijian, originally the language of the indigenous race, is now spoken by over half of the population. There are two major dialect groups of Fijian, eastern and western. A Fijian variety that has been the brunt of jokes on local radio, in dailies and in conversation is that spoken by a kailoma. A kailoma (‘others’ in the census classification), also known as a Part-European or half-caste, is “someone descended from a European man married to an Indigenous Fijian or Rotuman woman [from Fijian]” (Macquarie Dictionary of English for the Fiji Islands 2006, p. 307). It is important to note that no linguistic study has been conducted on the Fijian of kailoma. There has also been little or no research conducted on kailoma customs, lifestyles and opinions. This paper will attempt to fill this lacuna by describing the speech of three neighbouring kailoma settlements of Batinivuriwai, Nakabuta and Wainivesi, located in Wainunu, Bua, Vanualevu. The research data was gathered through observation, tape-recording, questioning and generative lexicography over a period of six weeks in December 2007 and January 2008. One of the principle findings of this study is that vocabulary reflects both English and indigenous Fijian cultures. Many terms are borrowed from English and Wainunu-i- ive /x/ is generally used in positions where SF uses /k/. In borrowed words and in religious contexts, /k/ is retained. The past tense marker in Wainunu-i-caxe is ma, whereas it is in Standard Fijian, clearly a borrowing from Wainunu-i- be the beginning of beginning of similar studies in the language of kailoma and it can contribute significantly to contact linguistics. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Contents ii List of tables v List of figures and maps vi List of abbreviations vii Chapter 1: Setting the Scene 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Aims and objectives 4 1.3 Study area 5 1.4 Methodology 8 1.5 Thesis structure 9 Chapter 2: Linguistic and Social Background 11 2.0 Introduction 11 2.1 Previous studies of Fijian 14 2.2 Previous studies of western Vanualevu 16 2.3 The province of Bua, Vanualevu 17 2.3.1 Wainunu district, Bua 22 2.4 Wainunu-i-caxe 26 2.4.1 David Whippy: the ancestor of the Whippy family in 33 Wainunu-i-caxe 2.5 Conclusion 36 Chapter 3: Sociolinguistic Description 37 3.0 Introduction 37 3.1 Traditional ceremonies 39 3.2 Family units 44 3.2.1 Kinship terms 48 3.3 Social domains 55 3.4 Religion 59 3.4.1 Language in religion 61 3.5 Language in the context of village tasks 63 3.5.1 Other economic activities 69 3.5.2 Education and villagers’ responsibility to the school 71 3.5.3 Media 74 3.6 Conclusion 77 Chapter 4: A Sketch Grammar of Wainunu-i-caxe 79 Communalect 4.0 Introduction 79 4.1 Phonology 80 4.1.1 Phonemes 80 4.1.2 Phonotactics 83 4.1.3 Stress 84 4.2 Word classes 84 ii Open and closed word classes 86 4.2.1 Noun and noun phrases 88 4.2.1.1 Pronouns 88 4.2.1.1.1 Independent pronouns 88 4.2.1.1.2 Possessive pronouns 90 4.2.2 Types of nouns 97 4.2.2.1 Common nouns 97 4.2.2.2 Proper nouns 99 4.2.2.3 Locative nouns 100 4.2.2.4 Temporal nouns 102 4.2.3 Articles 103 4.2.4 Demonstratives 103 4.2.5 Relative clause 105 4.2.6 Quantifiers 107 4.2.7 Prepositions 110 4.3 Verbs 113 4.3.1 Categories of verbs 113 4.3.1.1 Intransitive verbs 113 4.3.1.2 Transitive verbs 115 4.3.1.2.1 Transitive only verbs 116 4.3.1.2.2 Active transitive verbs 117 4.3.1.2.3 Passive transitive verbs 118 4.3.2 Verb phrase structure 119 4.3.2.1 Conjunction 119 4.3.2.2 Subject marker 123 4.3.2.3 Tense/aspect marker 126 4.3.2.4 Other preverbal markers 128 4.3.2.5 Verbal prefixes 135 4.3.2.5.1 Vei- 135 4.3.2.5.2 Vaxa- 138 4.3.2.5.3 Other prefixes: ta-/xa-/ra-/ca- and lau- 140 4.3.2.6 Verb suffixes: transitivity markers 144 4.3.2.6.1 One syllable suffixes 144 4.3.2.6.2 Two syllable suffixes 150 4.3.2.7 Incorporated noun 152 4.3.2.8 Adverb 1 153 4.3.2.9 Postverbal particles 155 4.3.2.10 Adverb 2 157 4.4 Syntax: sentence types 158 4.5 Reduplication 162 Chapter 5: Conclusion 167 5.1 Findings summarised 167 Bibliography 170 Appendices 178 Appendix A: Glossary 178 iii Appendix B: A wordlist 183 Appendix C: Lexicon (in different domains) 210 Appendix D: Text 1: Na tei 212 Text 2: <: O Daucina, kei na qari ‘A story 216 of an ancestral spirit: Daucina and the crab’ Appendix E: 228 Sketch map 1: Batinivuriwai 228 Sketch map 2: Nakabuta 229 Sketch map 3: Wainivesi 230 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Fiji census 2007 10 Table 2.2 Estimated figures of Fijian speakers 13 Table 2.3 Population of Bua in the 2007 census 21 Table 2.4 Major religions and their adherence in Fiji 21 Table 2.5 Number of households and population in 27 Wainunu-i-caxe (census) Table 2.6 Number of households and population of 27 Wainunu-i-caxe (fieldwork) Table 3.1 Batinivuriwai kinship terms 50 Table 3.2 Families of different Christian 60 denominations in Batinivuriwai Table 3.3 Families of different Christian 61 denominations in Nakabuta Table 3.4 Families of different Christian 61 denominations in Wainivesi Table 4.1 Consonant phonemes in Wainunu-i-caxe 81 Table 4.2 Independent pronouns 89 Table 4.3 Possessive pronouns suffixes 91 Table 4.4 Demonstratives 104 Table 4.5 Prepositions 111 Table 4.6 Forms pronouns take as subject markers 124 v LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS Figure 1.1 The Fiji Islands 6 Figure 1.2 Vanualevu 6 Figure 1.3 Wainunu-i-caxe (bracketed) in Wainunu 7 district Figure 2.1 Wainunu-i-caxe 29 Figure 2.2 Wainunu tea estate employees 30 Figure 2.3 The first Dyer family house 33 Figure 3.1 Three generations of women 48 Figure 3.2 At the wavu ‘jetty’ beside a bilibili, 71 Wainunu river Figure 3.3a Adi Elaine Primary School at Kaciwaqa 73 Figure 3.3b The current Adi Elaine Primary School 73 Figure 3.4 A sign of change 75 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS I have followed abbreviations used by Geraghty in persons and numbers (The History of the Fijian Languages, 1983), some are standard (e.g. adv, adj), while some are my own (e.g. that2, that3, etc). I first person II second person III third person 1 singular incl inclusive excl exclusive 2 dual 3 paucal + plural adv adverb adj adjective anaph anaphoric apr appearance asp aspect art article bgn beginning caus causative verb coll collective marker comp complementizer conj conjunction cont continuous marker des desiderative dem demonstrative dir directional marker ev existential verb exc exclamation ext extreme FE Fiji English hab habitual imm immediately ind individual int interjection intr intransitive verb ints intensive ite iterative k a kind of L Latin lim limitation lit literally loc locative n noun vii neg negator nom nominaliser non-ev non existential verb NP noun phrase num numeral part particle pas passive post-v post-verbal particle pst past pre-v pre-verbal particle prox proximate rec reciprocal redup reduplication SF Standard Fijian stat stative prefix sub subordinator sug suggestion ten tentative that2 that (near addressee) that3 that (away from speaker and addressee) there2 there (near addressee) there3 there (away from speaker and addressee) tr transitive vverb VP verb phrase Ø null viii CHAPTER 1: SETTING THE SCENE 1.1 Introduction Generally speaking, while most native speakers of English are monolingual, inhabitants of South Pacific island groups such as Tonga and Samoa of Polynesia, and Kiribati of Micronesia, which are largely homogeneous societies, speak their vernacular and English but use the former more; the latter is by and large used for official purposes.