It is not difficult to find grammatical and lexical markers of Fiji English. But are
there any phonological features that identify an individual as a speaker of this regional
variety of English? For the vast majority of Fiji Islanders, English is their
second (or third) language, and their accents clearly identify their linguistic background
(e.g., indigenous Fijian or Indo-Fijian). However, one pronunciation feature
seems to be shared by a vast majority of speakers of English in Fiji: the deletion of
yod in non-primary stressed 0Cju0 syllables. This article considers variation in yod
pronunciation according to ethnicity, age, gender, and education and examines
whether yod deletion is a phonological shibboleth of Fiji English or merely a feature
of L2 English.