Very interesting phenotype from Fiji.
Wow, she sure is beautiful, eh? I found this photo on Facebook and I know nothing about this young woman except she lives in Australia and she says her family origins are from Fiji. Fiji is a Melanesian island and most of the people there are Melanesians. I am not sure if it was ever a French colony but many islands in that area were colonized by the French and some still are.
There is large population of South Indians living in Fiji. They migrated there about 100 years ago, mostly from the North of India. They now speak a language called Fijian Hindustani. The ISO lists it as a separate language. Apparently it is a result of a number of North Indian languages mixing together in Fiji 100 years ago. Since then, quite a few English and Fijian loans have gone in. Intelligibility with Hindi is not known and it might be interesting to investigate.
I wonder if this woman is of Indian stock. She looks like she could be.
I met an Indian man in town once who told me that he spoke Fijian Hindustani and was from Fiji. He told me that the politics of the island was a mess because the Fijians and Indians were always fighting for power and both were very tribal. If the Fijians got into power, they would lock the Indians out, and if the Indians got in, it was the other way around. Zero-sum game for all concerned.
Feel free to comment on this woman and her possible racial origins.
