Fiji Hindi Information & Fiji Hindi Links at HealthHaven.com

Fiji Hindī
Spoken in	Fiji, with significant minorities in the Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada
Total speakers	460,000
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian East Central zone Fiji Hindī; ; ;
Writing system	Latin, Devanagari script
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	–
ISO 639-3	hif
	This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Fiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Hindi or Fiji Hindustani^[1], is a language which is spoken in Fiji by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri language or dialects of Hindi and also contains words from other Indian languages. It has also borrowed a large number of words from Fijian and English. The relation between Fiji Hindi and Hindi is similar to the relation between Afrikaans and Dutch. A large number of words, unique to Fiji Hindi, have been created to cater for the new environment that Fiji Indians now live in. First generation Fiji Indians, who used the language as a lingua franca in Fiji, referred to the language as Fiji Baat (Fiji Talk). Recent studies by linguists have confirmed that Fiji Hindi "is a distinct dialect based on Hindi as spoken in India but with its own special grammar and vocabulary suited for Fiji."^[2]

1 History
2 Status
3 Phonology
4 Morphology
- 4.1 Verb
  - 4.1.1 Etymology
5 Fijian loan words in Fiji Hindi
6 Fiji Hindi words derived from English
7 Semantic shift from Hindi to Fiji Hindi
8 Counting in Fiji Hindi
9 Spread of Fiji Hindi overseas
10 Writers in Fiji Hindi
11 See also
12 References
13 Bibliography
14 External links

[edit] History

Indian indentured labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They spoke numerous, mainly Hindi, dialects and languages depending on their district of origin. These have been grouped, into related dialects and summarised in the table below:

**Dialects spoken by indentured labourers from North India**
Language/Dialect	Number	Percentage
Bihari	17,868	39.3%
Eastern Hindi	16,871	37.1%
Western Hindi	6,903	15.2%
Rajasthani	1,111	2.4%
Other Languages	1,546	3.4%
Overseas Colonies	640	1.4%
Unknown	500	1.1%
TOTAL	45,439	100%

Note that Bhojpuri, spoken by 35.4% of north Indian migrants, has been included in the Bihari group and Awadhi, spoken by 32.9%, has been included in the Eastern Hindi group.

A language soon developed in Fiji that combined the common elements of the dialects of Hindi spoken in these areas as well as some Fijian and English words to form a unique language known as Fiji Hindi, which has diverged significantly from the varieties of Hindi and Urdu spoken on the Indian sub-continent. The development of Fiji Hindi was accelerated by the need for labourers speaking different dialects and sub-dialects of Hindi to work together and the practice of young children being left during working hours in early versions of day care centers. Percy Wright, who lived in Fiji during the indenture period wrote:

Indian children born in Fiji will have a mixed language; there are many different dialects amongst the Indian population, and of course much intercourse with the Fijians. The children pick up a little of each language, and do not know which is the one originally spoken by their parents.^[3]

Other writers, who included Burton^[4] (1914) and Lenwood^[5] (1917) made similar observations. By the late 1920s, Fiji Hindi was being learned by all Fiji Indian children born in Fiji becoming the common language of North and South Indians alike.^[6] Fijian= 59.4%

[edit] Status

Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages, were brought from South India. By this time Fiji Hindi was well established as the lingua franca of Fiji Indians and the South Indian labourers had to learn it to communicate with the more numerous North Indians and European overseers. After the end of the indenture system, Indians who spoke Gujarati and Punjabi arrived in Fiji as free immigrants. At present a few Indians in Fiji speak Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati at home but all speak and communicate with each other in Fiji Hindi. The census reports of 1956 and 1966 shows the extent to which Fiji Hindi (named as Hindustani in the census) was being spoken in Fiji Indian households.

Language	Number of households in 1956	Number of households in 1966
Hindustani	17,164	30,726
Hindi	3,644	783
Tamil	1,498	999
Urdu	1,233	534
Gujarati	830	930
Telugu	797	301
Punjabi	468	175
Malayalam	134	47
Other	90	359

Fiji Hindi is also understood by native Fijians in areas of Fiji with large Indian majorities. Following the recent political upheaval in Fiji, a large number of Fiji Indians have migrated to Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada. They have largely maintained their culture and language, Fiji Hindi.

Unlike Hindustani (an omnibus term covering both Hindi and Urdu), which is mandated in the Constitution of Fiji as one of three official languages, the others being English and Fijian, Fiji Hindi has no formal recognition, and is not used in the Fijian education system or in religious ceremonies or other formal contexts, but is the patois of the people of Indian origin in their day-to-day conversations.

Some writers have begun to use Fiji Hindi, which until recently was used as a spoken language only, as a literary language. The Bible has been translated into Fiji Hindi, and the University of the South Pacific has recently begun offering courses in the language. Fiji Hindi is written using both the Latin alphabet and the Devanagari script.

A Fiji Hindi movie has also been produced depicting Fiji Indian life style and is based on a play by a Fiji Indian writer, Raymond Pillai.^[7]

[edit] Phonology

See Hindi-Urdu phonology

The phonemes of Fiji Hindi are mostly the same as Indian Hindi but there are some important distinctions. As in Bhojpuri and Hindi spoken in rural Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, the consonant "sh" is replaced with "s" (for example, saadi instead of shaadi) and "v" replaced with "b" (for example, bides instead of videsh). There is also a tendency to ignore the difference between the consonants "ph" and "f" (In Fiji Hindi a fruit is fal instead of phal) and between "j" and "z" (In Fiji Hindi land is jamiin instead of zamiin). The consonant "n" is used in Fiji Hindi for the nasal sounds "ṅ", "ñ" and "ṇ" in Indian Hindi. These features are common in the Eastern Hindi dialects.^[8]

[edit] Morphology

[edit] Verb

[edit] Etymology

In Fiji Hindi verb forms have been influenced by a number of Hindi dialects. First and second person forms of verbs in Fiji Hindi are the same, there is no gender distinction and number distinction is only in the third person past tense. The use of the first and second person imperfective suffixes -taa, -at are of Awadhi origin, while the third person imperfective suffix -e is of Bhojpuri origin. The third person perfective suffixes (for transitive verbs) -is and -in are also derived from Awadhi. The third person definite future suffix -ii is found in both Awadhi and Bhojpuri. The influence of Urdu, which was widely used in the urban areas of Eastern India in the late 19th century, is evident in the first and second person perfective suffix -aa and the first and second person future siffix -ega. The origin of the imperative suffix -o can be traced to the Magahi dialect, spoken in the Gaya and Patna districts, which provided a sizeable proportion of the first indentured labourers from Northern India to Fiji. Fiji Hindi has developed its own polite imperative suffix -naa. The suffix -be, from Bhojpuri, is used in Fiji Hindi in emphatic sentences. Another suffix originating from Awadhi is -it, but is at present going out of use.

[edit] Fijian loan words in Fiji Hindi

Main article: Fijian loan words in Fiji Hindi

Fiji Indians use the native Fijian word for those things not found in India but existing in Fiji. These include most fish names and root crops, for example, kanade for mullet (fish) and kumala for sweet potato. Other examples are:

Fiji Hindi Word in Latin Script	Fiji Hindi Word in Devanagari Script	Fijian Origin	Meaning
nangona	नंगोना	yaqona	kava
tabale	तबाले	tavale	wife's brother
bilo	बिलो	bilo	cup made of coconut, used to drink kava

[edit] Fiji Hindi words derived from English

Main article: Fiji Hindi words derived from English

Many English words have been borrowed into Fiji Hindi with sound changes to fit the Fiji Indian pronunciation. For example, hutel in Fiji Hindi is borrowed from hotel in English. Some words borrowed from English have a specialised meaning, for example, garaund in Fiji Hindi means a playing field, geng in Fiji Hindi means a "work gang", particularly a cane-cutting gang in the sugar cane growing districts and tichaa in Fiji Hindi specifically means a female teacher. There are also unique Fiji Hindi words created from English words, for example, kantaap means cane-top.

[edit] Semantic shift from Hindi to Fiji Hindi

Many words of Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani origin have shifted meaning in Fiji Hindi. These are due to either innovations in Fiji or continued use of the old meaning in Fiji Hindi when the word is either not used in Hindi any more or has a different meaning.^[9] Some examples are:

Fiji Hindi word	Fiji Hindi meaning	Original Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani meaning
bigha	acre	1 bigha = 1600 square yards or 0.1338 hectare or 0.3306 acre
Bombaiyaa	from city of bombay (mumbai)	from city of bombay (mumbai)
fokatiyaa	useless	bankrupt
baade	flood	flooding
bakera	crab	Fiji crab (kekra)
jhaap	shed	temporarly built shed
jaati	native Fijian	race
juluum	beautiful	tyranny, difficulty, amazing
kal	yesterday	yesterday or tomorrow
kamaanii	small spear (for prawns)	wire, spring
Mandaraaji	South Indian	original word, Madraasi, meant "from Madras (or Tamil Nadu)"
palla	door	shutter
Punjabi	Sikh	native of Punjab, either Hindu, Muslim or Sikh
kaunchi	what	from kaun cheez literally meaning what thing or what stuff

Even though this, Fiji Hindi from the point of Indo-Fijians is slang language of Hindi in the Fiji Islands.

[edit] Counting in Fiji Hindi

Though broadly based on standard Hindi, counting in Fiji Hindi reflects a number of cross-language and dialectal influences picked up in the past 125 years.

The pronunciation for numbers between one and ten show slight inflections, seemingly inspired by eastern Hindi dialects such as Bhojpuri. The number two, consequently, is do (दो) in standard Hindi, while in Fiji Hindi it is dui (दुइ), just as it is in Bhojpuri. Similarly, the number six in standard Hindi is chhe (छे) while in Fiji Hindi it is pronounced as chhah (छह).

Words for numbers between 10 and 99 present a significant difference between standard Hindi and Fiji Hindi. While, as in other north Indian languages, words for numbers in standard Hindustani are formed by mentioning digits first and then multiples of ten, Fiji Hindi reverses the order and mentions the tens multiple first and the digits next, as is the practice in many European languages and south Indian languages. That is to say, while 'twenty-one' in Standard Hindi is 'ikkiis' (इक्कीस), an internal sandhi of 'ek aur biis', or 'one-and-twenty', in Fiji Hindi it would reverse the order, and simply be 'biis aur ek' (बिस और एक), without any additional morphophonological alteration. Similarly, while the number thirty-seven in standard Hindi is 'saintiis' (सैंतीस), for 'saat aur tiis' or 'seven-and-thirty', the number would be तिस और सात, 'tiis aur saat', or 'thirty-and-seven' in Fiji Hindi.

Additionally, powers of ten beyond ten-thousand, lakh (100,000) and karor (10 million) are not used in Fiji Hindi.

Number in English	Number in Standard Hindi Devanagri Script	Number in Standard Hindi Roman Script	Number in Fiji Hindi Roman Script
twenty-one	इक्कीस	ikkiis	bis aur ek
twenty-two	बाईस	baaiis	bis aur dui
twenty-three	तेईस	teiis	bis aur teen
thirty-one	इकत्तीस	ikatiis	tiis aur ek
thirty-two	बत्तीस	battiis	tiis aur dui
thirty-three	तैंतीस	taintiis	tiis aur teen
forty-one	इकतालीस	ekatalis	chaalis aur ek
forty-two	बयालीस	bayaalis	chaalis aur dui
forty-three	तैंतालीस	taintaalis	chaalis aur teen

[edit] Spread of Fiji Hindi overseas

Main article: Fiji Indian diaspora

With political upheavals in Fiji beginning with the first coup in 1987, large numbers of Fiji Indians have migrated overseas and at present there are significant communities of these Fiji Hindi speaking people in Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada. Smaller communities live on other Pacific islands and Britain.

[edit] Writers in Fiji Hindi

Rodney F. Moag who had lived in India before joining the University of the South Pacific as a lecturer. He analysed Fiji Hindi and informed the nation that it was a language with its own grammar, rather than "broken Hindi", as it used to be known before. He documented his findings and wrote lessons in Fiji Hindi in the book, Fiji Hindi : a basic course and reference grammar (1977).
Jeff Siegel, in his thesis on Plantation languages in Fiji (1985), his written a detailed account of the development of Fiji Hindi and its different forms as used by Fiji Indians and the native Fijians. Earlier Siegel had written a quick reference guide called Say it in Fiji Hindi (1976).
Subramani, professor in literature at the University of the South Pacific, who wrote the first Fiji Hindi novel, Duaka Puraan (2001), which is the story of Fiji Lal (an old villager) as told by him to a visiting scholar to his village. The book is written in the style of the Puraans but in a humorous way (Puraan being a sacred text also known as Purana; 18 Puraans have come out of India). He received a Government of India award for his contribution to Hindi language and literature for this novel. In June 2003, in Suriname at the Seventh World Hindi Conference, Professor Subramani was presented with a special award for this novel.
Raymond C. Pillai wrote the story for the first Fiji Hindi movie,Adhura Sapna (Incomplete Dream) produced in 2007.
Urmila Prasad, who helped translate the Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John in Fiji Hindi , written in Roman script, known as Susamaachaar Aur Romiyo (2002)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ "Fijian Hindustani". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hif. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
^ Siegel, Jeff (1977). Say it in Fiji Hindi. Sydney: Pacific Publications. ISBN 0-85807-026-X.
^ Wright, Percey (1910). Seventy-two years in Australia and the South Pacific. Sydney: Mitchell Library.
^ Burton, John W. (1910). The Fiji of Today. London: Charles H. Kelly.
^ Lenwood, F. (1917). Pastels from the Pacific. London: Oxford University Press.
^ Hands, W. J. (1929). Polynesia. Westminister: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
^ "Fiji Hindi film set to be released soon". Fijilive. 9 February 2007. http://www.fijilive.com/news/show/news/2007/02/09/09Fijilive09.html. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
^ Barz, Richard K.; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted:the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz. p. 127. ISBN 3447028726.
^ Barz, Richard; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted: the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: Otto harrassowitz. ISBN 3-477-02872-6.

[edit] Bibliography

Siegel Jeff, Plantation Languages in Fiji, Australian National University, 1985 (Published as Language Contact in a Plantation Evironment: A Sociolinguistic History of Fiji, Cambridge University Press, 1987, recently reprinted in paperback).
Siegel, Jeff (1977). Say it in Fiji Hindi. Sydney: Pacific Publications (Aust) Pty Ltd. ISBN 085807026X.
Moag, Rodney F. (1977). Fiji Hindi: A basic course and reference grammar. Canberra: Australian National University. ISBN 0708115748.
R. F. , ', , 1977
Barz, Richard K.; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted:the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz. ISBN 3447028726.

[edit] External links

[0] "Fijian Hindustani". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hif. Retrieved 2007-10-13.

[1] Siegel, Jeff (1977). Say it in Fiji Hindi. Sydney: Pacific Publications. ISBN 0-85807-026-X.

[2] Wright, Percey (1910). Seventy-two years in Australia and the South Pacific. Sydney: Mitchell Library.

[3] Burton, John W. (1910). The Fiji of Today. London: Charles H. Kelly.

[4] Lenwood, F. (1917). Pastels from the Pacific. London: Oxford University Press.

[5] Hands, W. J. (1929). Polynesia. Westminister: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

[6] "Fiji Hindi film set to be released soon". Fijilive. 9 February 2007. http://www.fijilive.com/news/show/news/2007/02/09/09Fijilive09.html. Retrieved 2007-07-10.

[7] Barz, Richard K.; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted:the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz. p. 127. ISBN 3447028726.

[8] Barz, Richard; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted: the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: Otto harrassowitz. ISBN 3-477-02872-6.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

Contents