For the sake of not explaining Fijian pronunciation in every blog post I make, I'm going to give a quick lesson on the key lanaguage elements I've discovered so far...
The vowels are pronounced as they're written. Hurrah!
However...
The letter c is pronounced 'th'. For example, the Fijian word for goodbye, moce, is pronounced mo-the.
The letter q is pronounced like 'ng', as in mango. To make matters confusing, the letter g is also pronounced 'ng'- but with a more silent g, as in 'sing'. For example, the Suva suburb of Vatuwaqa becomes Vatuwanga...whereas the Coral Coast town of Sigatoka is pronounced Sing-atoka...
The letter combination 'ai' is pronounced 'ay', like in Mumbai (I know this isn't a Fijian word...)
So, this might go some way to explaining why Calaquai Island is pronounced Thangalay Island.
Here are some more interesting pronunciations, just discovered from good ol' Wiki...
The vowels are pronounced as they're written. Hurrah!
However...
The letter c is pronounced 'th'. For example, the Fijian word for goodbye, moce, is pronounced mo-the.
The letter q is pronounced like 'ng', as in mango. To make matters confusing, the letter g is also pronounced 'ng'- but with a more silent g, as in 'sing'. For example, the Suva suburb of Vatuwaqa becomes Vatuwanga...whereas the Coral Coast town of Sigatoka is pronounced Sing-atoka...
The letter combination 'ai' is pronounced 'ay', like in Mumbai (I know this isn't a Fijian word...)
So, this might go some way to explaining why Calaquai Island is pronounced Thangalay Island.
Here are some more interesting pronunciations, just discovered from good ol' Wiki...
- B is pronounced "mb" as in 'bamboo'.
- D is pronounced "nd" as in 'Andrew'.
- Dr is pronounced "ndr" as in 'laundry'.
- V is always pronounced bilabially (For those, like me, who have no clue what 'bilabially' means, it means 'a consonant that is articulated using both lips'. Am still trying to work out how one says 'v' with both lips...and how I haven't noticed this yet...)
No comments:
Post a Comment