Consonants Stops

1. Even though aspiration is present in Fiji Hindi, voiceless stops are unaspirated. Indeed, in Fiji Hindi, as in varieties of Hindi in general, aspiration is phonemic. Phonetically, aspiration in Hindi seems to be more strongly articulated than in English (Bhatia 1995: 14). Perhaps the stops of English are perceived as being unaspirated rather than merely more weakly aspirated than those of Hindi.

2. In word final position, voiceless stops are normally unreleased.

These two features, then, are identical in the Pure Fiji English of Fijians and of Indo-Fijians.