Viti Levu

1 8.1

The largest island in Fiji made by volcanoes with beaches and coral reefs

proper noun

: Viti Levu

The city of Suva, located on Viti Levu, is the capital of Fiji.

Examples

Tourists flock to Viti Levu for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs.
After the storm, several villages on Viti Levu needed assistance with rebuilding.
I visited Viti Levu last summer.
Have you ever been to Viti Levu?
The city of Suva, located on Viti Levu, is the capital of Fiji.
Tourists flock to Viti Levu for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs.
After the storm, several villages on Viti Levu needed assistance with rebuilding.

Surface Forms

Viti Levu main

Morphology

Viti + Levu

This is a proper name of Fijian origin whose constituent elements are not English words (dictionary entries are missing), so an average B1 learner who only knows English vocabulary would not be able to derive that it denotes the largest island of Fiji. Even though the name may be compositional in Fijian (e.g. Levu = 'big'), that cross-linguistic knowledge and cultural/geographical reference are unlikely to be available to learners, making the expression non-compositional for English learners.

Etymology

Viti Levu comes from the Fijian words Viti and levu. Viti is the Fijian name for Fiji and levu means 'big', so the name literally means 'big Fiji' and fits because it is the country's largest island.