Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
roti
round unleavened flat-bread, cooked on a
hot plate
samosa
stuffed pastry cooked in oil
thali
combination of vegetarian and sometimes
meat dishes with chutney, pickles, rice, roti
and dhal; served as a single meal
vindaloo
meat, usually pork, seasoned in vinegar
(hot)
Rotuman
Rotuman
is spoken exclusively by the people of Rotuma, a Polynesian island in the far north
of Fiji. It has a distinctive word structure featuring metathesis (two vowels following each
other but creating two separate quite abrupt sounds) and an extensive use of diphthongs (vow-
el clusters). To confuse matters further, many words have been borrowed or adapted from
Samoan and Tongan. The apostrophe is used between vowels to indicate a glottal stop while
the macron (ā) indicates extended vowels as in Fijian. The use of diaeresis (ä) means that a
vowel should be pronounced apart from the letter which precedes it.
If you're interested in
studying Rotuman
it's worth getting hold of Elizabeth Inia's
A New
Rotuman Dictionary
available from
pacificislandbooks.com
.
Alternatively, the excellent
Rotuman website
rotuma.net
has links to sound files of spoken Rotuman.
BASICS
hello
faiäksia noa'ia
where are you going?
'äe la'se tei?
what is your name?
sei ta 'ou asa?
my name is …
'otou asa le …
what's this?
ka tese te?
please
figalelei
thank you
faiäksia
yes
'i
no
'igka
goodbye
nonoam
USEFUL WORDS
dance
mak
drink
īom
eat
āte
fishing
hagoat
hurry up
rue la mij
