An ode to the Fijian language

As a speechie I feel its imperative that I explain the pronunciation of the written Fijian language so as to prevent further incorrect readings of my blog and other important Fijian literature (namely maps, my blog and travel books). Here goes:

The vowels:
a - pronounced as 'ar' as in 'father' for example - "Ba" (aka "the hood")
e - pronounced as 'e' as in 'let' for example - "Viti levu" (the mother island)
i - pronounced as 'i' as in 'it' for example - "vinaka" (thank you, good, very much and almost any other meaning you wish)
o - pronounced as 'o' as in 'hot' for example - "lovo" (supposedly delicious ground oven, tho still not sure about the tinned meat (mutton) that is a favourite component)
u - pronounces as 'oo' as in 'flute' for example - "sulu" (a very becoming man skirt)

The tricky ass consonants: (as a side note I believe these have come about as Fijians have an aversion to consonant clusters thus by combining 2 sounds into 1 letter they technically don't have consonant clusters in their language... pft)
b - pronounced as 'mb' as in 'remember' for example - "bula" (to live, life, hello, how are you and any other word that is not covered by vinaka as mentioned above) (also as in Ba - the hood)
c - pronounced as 'th' as in 'mother' for example - "Caqelai" (which you are still not pronouncing correctly just yet, a supposed tropical paradise which I shall be frequenting next week, will report back on this claim so as to keep this blog accurate and well researched)
d - pronounced as 'nd' as in 'and' for example - nadi (tourist hotspot and gateway to Fiji and the fake Fiji aka Denerau)
g - pronounced as 'ng' as in 'sing' for example - "ruasagavulu" (the number 20. no wonder everyone counts in English)
and finally the most interesting:
q - pronounced 'ng' as in 'linger' for example - "yaqona" (aka kava, grog, dirty dish water)

So hopefully you now know how to pronounce Caqalai and Namaqumaqua and Malololailai and Nananu-i-Cake and Beachcomber Island, and all the other wonderful places I will be posting about!

Vinaka Vakalevu!