Consonants Fricatives

1. The dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ are generally realized as dental stops, with the first being aspirated .

2. Fiji Hindi does not contrast between /ʃ/ and /s/, which have merged as /s/, and many English words with /ʃ/ have been nativised into Fiji Hindi with /s/, e.g. masīn < ‘machine’, sabal < ‘shovel’, burūs < ‘brush’. Pure Indo-Fijian English does not contrast between /ʃ/ and /s/ either, resulting in homophonous pairs such as self and shelf. A nice example of this in print is:

(6) Wanted to buy: Old chicken mess wire. (Advertisement from an Indo-Fijian in Daily Post, 5/9/1998)

3. Final /z/ is often realized as [s] or devoiced [z], e.g. dolls > [dols], shoes > [sus], please > [plis].

4. The voiced palato-alveolar fricative /Ʒ/ is realized as [z], [s] or [ʃ] : measure > [mezə] ~ [mesə], confusion > [konfjuʃən].

These last two features are the same as in Fijian Fiji English.