Nikhat Shameem is a Fijian academic in the field of linguistics. Her research interests include language maintenance and shift of pidgins, creoles and minority languages, language teaching and assessment, and sociolinguistic surveys. [1] Shameem also leads initiatives to preserve and revitalise the Fiji-Hindi language. [2]
Shameem was born and raised in Suva, Fiji, and studied education at the University of the South Pacific. [3] She completed a diploma in teaching English as a second language, and a PhD in applied linguistics, at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She completed a master's degree in business administraion at the University of Cumbria, England, graduating in 2019. [1] [4]
Shammem worked for UNICEF in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Sudan, and returned to Fiji in 2018. [4] In 2019, she was appointed interim director of the Fiji Higher Education Commission. [4]
Shameem speaks Fiji Hindi and is active in preserving and revitalisting the language. [2] In 2019, she published a book of poetry in Fiji Hindi, and is the only person to have written and published poetry in this language. [3]
Telecommunications in Fiji include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Modern Standard Hindi, commonly referred to as Hindi, is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in Devanagari script. It is the official language of India alongside English and the lingua franca of North India. Hindi is considered a Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.
Bihari languages are a group of the Indo-Aryan languages. The Bihari languages are mainly spoken in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, and also in Nepal. The most widely spoken languages of the Bihari group are Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili.
Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bhojpur-Purvanchal region of India and the Terai region of Nepal and. It is chiefly spoken in eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar and western Jharkhand in India as well as western Madhesh and eastern Lumbini in Nepal. Bhojpuri is also widely spoken by the diaspora of Indians descended from those who left as indentured laborers during the colonial era. It is an eastern Indo Aryan language and as of 2000 it is spoken by about 5% of India's population. Bhojpuri is a descendant of Magadhi Prakrit and is related to Maithili, Magahi, Bangla, Odia, Assamese, and other eastern Indo-Aryan languages.
Meg Tilly is a Canadian-American actress and writer.
Donna Jo Napoli is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, as well as a linguist. She currently is a professor at Swarthmore College teaching Linguistics in all different forms. She has also taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The National Language Debate in Fiji concerns the status of the country's three official languages: English, Fijian, and Hindustani. From colonial times, the sole official language was English, but the 1997 Constitution gave equal status for the first time to Fijian and Hindustani on the same level as English.
Blackie & Son was a publishing house in Glasgow, Scotland, and London, England, from 1809 to 1991.
Pamela Munro is an American linguist who specializes in Native American languages. She is a distinguished research professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she has held a position since 1974.
Shaista Shameem is a Fijian lawyer. She was the director of the Fiji Human Rights Commission (FHRC) from 2002 to 2007, and its director and chairperson from 2007 to 2009. A graduate of the University of the South Pacific, she holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Waikato and a Masters in Law from the University of Auckland. She also holds a Doctorate in Juridical Science.
Nazhat Shameem Khan is a Fijian diplomat and former judge who served as the Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations from 2014 to 2022. She was also the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2021. She served as a judge of the High Court of Fiji from 1999 to 2009, the first woman to do so. She is currently a Deputy Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) Fiji is an independent office by virtue of section 117 of the 2013 Constitution of Fiji. The ODPP is motivated by the principle that it is in the interest of justice that the guilty be brought to justice and the innocent are not wrongly convicted.
Scott Thornbury is an internationally recognized academic and teacher trainer in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). Along with Luke Meddings, Thornbury is credited with developing the Dogme language teaching approach, which emphasizes meaningful interaction and emergent language over prepared materials and following an explicit syllabus. Thornbury has written over a dozen books on ELT methodology. Two of these, 'Natural Grammar' and 'Teaching Unplugged', have won the British Council's "ELTon" Award for Innovation, the top award in the industry.
Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa was an I-Kiribati and African-American scholar, poet, activist and mentor. Teaiwa was well-regarded for her ground-breaking work in Pacific Studies. Her research interests in this area embraced her artistic and political nature, and included contemporary issues in Fiji, feminism and women's activism in the Pacific, contemporary Pacific culture and arts, and pedagogy in Pacific Studies. An "anti-nuclear activist, defender of West Papuan independence, and a critic of militarism", Teaiwa solidified many connections across the Pacific Ocean and was a hugely influential voice on Pacific affairs Her poetry remains widely published.
Paul Nation is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of linguistics and teaching methodology. As a professor in the field of applied linguistics with a specialization in pedagogical methodology, he has been able to create a language teaching framework to identify key areas of language teaching focus. Paul Nation is best known for this framework, which has been labelled The Four Strands. He has also made notable contributions through his research in the field of language acquisition that focuses on the benefits of extensive reading and repetition as well as intensive reading. Nation's numerous contributions to the linguistics research community through his published work has allowed him to share his knowledge and experience so that others may adopt and adapt it. He is credited with bringing « legitimization to second language vocabulary researches » in 1990.
FijiFirst was a liberal political party in Fiji. The party was formed in March 2014 by then Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama. It was deregistered on 1 July 2024.
Jessica Coon is a professor of linguistics at McGill University and Canada Research Chair in syntax and indigenous languages. She was the linguistics expert consultant for the 2016 film Arrival.
Ashleigh Young is a poet, essayist, editor and creative writing teacher. She received the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in 2017 for her second book, a collection of personal essays titled Can You Tolerate This? which also won the Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non-Fiction. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
Fiji does not recognise same-sex marriage, civil unions or any other form of recognition for same-sex couples.
Geoffrey O'Neill Cochrane was a New Zealand poet, novelist and short story writer. He published 19 collections of poetry, a novel and a collection of short fiction. Many of his works were set in or around his hometown of Wellington, and his personal battles with alcoholism were a frequent source of inspiration.