Fijian-English Dictionary - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

FIJIAN - ENGLISH DICTIONARY R. GATTY
script. My book, written by me alone, is much more limited, containing far fewer of the “loan words” that
they list very extensively, and fewer regional or local words that are unknown to most Fijians.
My own volume dwells much more on aspects of the culture and natural history and is of course a Fijian
to English dictionary. So the two dictionaries serve different purposes. Again, I have tried to restrict
the scope to common knowledge which is really only my own quite limited knowledge. Only the errors are
mine. I merely arranged the material in a format intended to be useful.
My interest now turns to a series of volumes that I have been writing for more than half a century of
idle evening hours. The Tribes of Fiji is an effort to outline the history of the tribes and clans of Fijians in
several volumes, much of that already completed. One might think of these books as social archeology, for
Fiji has little to show in physical archeology. The first volume concerns Naitasiri Province with focus on
the KaiColo highlanders, the “real Fijians”, as they themselves say: Keitou na kaiViti dina. Tailevu Province
will follow, and then the others. Villages are listed, with tribes and clans, often with comments as to
their origin, their chiefly titles and traditions or specialties, and relationships with other Fijian people and
places.
As with this Dictionary, I began writing the series of volumes Tribes of Fiji a great number of years
ago, only as a set of notes for my own understanding. Perhaps these notes may interest others, though
there are a very great many gaps and certainly some errors. No one person can take account of so much
detail. The hope is that some readers might correct my work and add to the research in years to come. This
could help support a feeling of identity for Fijians in these times of fast-moving change.
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