Ra

Ra

Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...

is one of the fourteen provinces of Fiji

Provinces of Fiji

The Provinces of Fiji , , are the 14 administrative units into which the country is divided, particularly in relation to the provision of resources and services to the indigenous Fijian population by the Fijian Affairs Board...

. Occupying the northern area of Viti Levu

Viti Levu

Viti Levu is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji, the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population.- Geography and economy :...

, the largest island, it is one of eight Viti Levu-based Provinces. With a land area of 1341 square kilometers, it had a population of 29,464 at the 2007 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, the last to date. The main urban centre is at Vaileka

Vaileka

Vaileka is an urban centre in Fiji, in the Rakiraki region of Ra Province. It had a population of 3,361 at the 1996 census, the last to date. It is not officially a "town," however: that term is legally reserved for urban centres with organized municipal governments. The status of the area may...

, with a population of 3,361 in 1996.

The province includes the districts of Nalawa, Nakorotubu

Nakorotubu

Nakorotubu is a district in Fiji's Ra Province. It is made up seven sub-districts or Tikina makawa, namely,Kavula, Nakorotubu, Navitilevu, Bure-i-wai, Bure-i-vanua, Mataso, and Nakuailava.-Geography:...

, Rakiraki

Rakiraki

Rakiraki is a district in Fiji's Ra Province. It is located about halfway between Suva and Nadi when travelling along the Kings Road, on the northern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island....

, and Saivou.
These four districts have their own paramount chiefs unlike other provinces where there is paramount chief governing the whole province.The four paramount chiefs are the : Tui Nalawa, Tui Naivitilevu, Ratu ni Natauiya and Turaga na Gonesau

Turaga na Gonesau

The Turaga na Gonesau is a chiefly title of the Fiji Islands and is viewed as a Paramount Chief of Fiji residing in the Nakorotubu District in the Ra Province on the Main Island of Viti Levu.-In Translation:...

.

Ra is governed by a Provincial Council, currently chaired by Ratu Meli Bolobolo,Paramount chief of the tikina Rakiraki.

The Ra dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of Fijian

Fijian language

Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...

 is distinctive in that the consonant /t/, pronounced elsewhere in Fiji, is pronounced as a glottal stop

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...

.