A profile of the Fiji English lexis

The vocabulary of Fiji English is one of its most distinguishing features. English has a profound influence upon the lives of all Fiji Islanders — it is the principal language of government, the judiciary, education and commerce. This paper examines some of the sources and features of the Fiji English lexis, the most common of which include: borrowings, reborrowings, calques, new coinages, semantic shifts, archaisms, and hybrid compounds. It also outlines some of the lexical affinities with and divergences from other varieties of English.