Code: ISBN-BC361
Author: A. Capell (Compiled by)
Country: Fiji
Date Published: 1991
Publisher: Government of Fiji
Pages: 407
Paperback: yes
The first dictionary of the Fijian language was published in 1850. With it was bound the first detailed grammar of the language, together with a list of the islands of the Fiji Group and sundry other information. Since then the language has become better known, and contact with Europeans has produced its inevitable modifications and additions to the language. Fijian has now become a vehicle of literary expression; further study has led to a wider knowledge of the flora and fauna of the country, and of many other connected subjects. These facts have led the Government of Fiji to undertake the revision of the first dictionary. The chief features of the New Fijian Dictionary are as follows: The grammar is no longer bound with the dictionary; to have bound the two together would have resulted in a volume too unwieldy to handle, in view of the increased amount of information that has come to hand. The New Fijian Grammar has been prepared by the Rev. C. M. Churchward, MA, D.Litt., and is issued as a separate volume; references are frequently made to it in this volume, and the method of the references is explained in the list of abbreviations below. It is a really essential volume to every student of Fijian, as a companion to the dictionary. The words entered have been more strictly limited to the Bau dialect, and many of those marked with an asterisk as dialectic in the first dictionary have been omitted. The language taken as the standard in this work has been the normal educated Fijian, taught in schools, and printed in books and magazines.