The people who live in the Boumaa region of the Fijian island of Taveuni speak a dialect of Fijian that is mutually intelligible with Standard Fijian, the two differing as much perhaps as do the American and British varieties of English. During 1985, R. M. W. Dixon--one of the most insightful of linguists engaged in descriptive studies today--lived in the village of Waitabu and studied the language spoken there. He found in Boumaa Fijian a wealth...