> <viti> for example is the Fijian name of "Fiji".

OIC.

> Mandarin doesn't, but the native Cantonese name does have it

I know, but my point was that most people in the world would have trouble
learning it.

> although I have read that there's
> a trend among young Cantonese speakers to drop
> the inital /N/ while others tend to overcompensate by actually
> adding it to words that didn't previously have it.

Interesting.

> Yes, optional schwas can be used to buffer consonants.

Ah, good.