English was the sole official language until 1997 and is widely used in government, business, and education as a lingua franca.

English was first encountered from the first explorers and traders and found greater popularity as a lingua franca (albeit mixed with Fijian in an early and now extinct Pidgin Fijian) between frontier settlers and the indigenous people.

The English spoken in Fiji today is very different and has developed significantly over the close to 150 years of usage in the islands.

Very informal Fijian English, or Finglish, is used among all races with family, friends and in general conversations and in any other situation not deemed formal.

Bauan was selected not only because of its prestige but also because it was the language of the then politically dominant island of Bau and the Mataiwelagi chiefs (and claimed King of Fiji).

By the middle to the late 19th century, with the push by missionaries, Bauan had also invaded the Western areas of Viti Levu, which spoke an entirely different set of dialects belonging to the West Fijian language, which is grouped with Polynesian and Rotuman in the West Fijian-Polynesian language family and practiced a different culture.

Indian indentured labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, North-West Frontier and South India such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu.

Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of Dravidian languages (Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam), were brought from South India.

After the indenture system, Indians who spoke Gujarati and Punjabi arrived in Fiji as free immigrants.

Many Chinese settlers, especially from southern China speak Cantonese, which is quickly incorporating many Fijian and English words.

Many of these migrants are farmers and are constantly exposed to the Fijian and Hindi dominated areas of rural Fiji.

Significant among them is Gilbertese, which is the language of the former residents of Ocean Island or Banaba in Kiribati, which was decimated through British phosphate mining.