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Abstract
Among the discourse on racial identity and the role of language in successful racial performances, mixed-race individuals are often overlooked. In their position as in-betweeners they draw on a variety of resources for the construction of a mixed identity which navigates between the established racial categories. Language has been shown to be a key resource for the establishment, performance, and uptake of mixedness and mixed-race identities (Holliday 2016; Reyes 2017, 2020; Narain 2019; Bucholtz 1995). This dissertation seeks to expand this work by examining how linguistic resources are used to construct mixedness in Fiji. In this work I explore how terms for mixed-race classification, both endonyms and exonyms, are unstable in their meanings as they seek to reflect the fluid and shifting social construct of racial mixedness. I also show how certain linguistic resources beyond terms are used to create, preform, and enregister a particular mixed-race identity as a socially salient persona (Agha 2005, 2011; D’Onofrio 2020). Using the data collected from modified sociolinguistic interviews and ethnographic observations during two months of fieldwork in Fiji, I examine the mixed-race terms, and the linguistic practices associated with mixed participants. In this dissertation I analyze the most frequent and observable mixed-race terms in Fiji: Half-caste, Part-European, Part, Kailoma, Mixed, Fruit Salad, Vasu, and Fijian. The terms are discussed using approach which examines their historical trajectory, linguistic form (structure), denotational content, and social meaning, as they fluidly shift to reflect changing attitudes and historical moments, constructing mixed categories. This work also moves beyond the meanings of the terms and discusses how the kailoma, is not just a categorical label but also an enregistered and legible persona that exists between the dominant social categories in Fiji. The findings and analyses in this dissertation illustrate that mixedness in Fiji is constructed through various forms of meaning making between language and race. This work prompts additional research to examine mixed-race populations for their ability to illustrate how race is semiotically constructed and how those between racial categories fit it. Mixed-race individuals continue to play a significant role in language change and shifting racial attitudes and their study can further our understandings of the interactions between language and race.