Fiji Hindi

Fiji Hindi (Devanagari: फ़िजी हिंदी; Kaithi: 𑂣𑂺𑂱𑂔𑂲⸱𑂯𑂱𑂁𑂠𑂲; Perso-Arabic: فجی ہندی) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Fijians. It is an Eastern Hindi and Bihari language, considered to be a koiné language based on Awadhi that has also been subject to considerable influence by Bhojpuri, other Eastern Hindi and Bihari dialects, and Standard Hindi-Urdu. It has also borrowed some vocabulary from English, Fijian, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Malayalam. Many words unique to Fiji Hindi have been created to cater for the new environment that Indo-Fijians now live in. First-generation Indians in Fiji, who used the language as a lingua franca in Fiji, referred to it as Fiji Baat, "Fiji talk". It is closely related to Caribbean Hindustani and the Bhojpuri-Hindustani spoken in Mauritius and South Africa. It is largely mutually intelligible with the languages of Awadhi and Bhojpuri, as well as with the Bihari languages of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhesh, Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini, and the dialects of Eastern Hindi of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Lumbini, but differs in phonetics and vocabulary with Modern Standard Hindi and Urdu.

Fiji Hindi
Fiji Baat • Fiji Hindustani
फ़िजी हिंदी (Devanagari script) 𑂣𑂺𑂱𑂔𑂲⸱𑂯𑂱𑂁𑂠𑂲 (Kaithi script) فجی ہندی (Perso-Arabic script)
Fiji Hindi written in the Latin, Devanagari, Perso-Arabic, and Kaithi scripts
Native to	Fiji
Ethnicity	Indo-Fijians and the Indo-Fijian diaspora
Native speakers	(380,000 cited 1991)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central and Eastern Eastern Hindi and Bihari Awadhi and Bhojpuri Fiji Hindi
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Aryan Vedic Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit Ardhamagadhi and Magadhi Prakrit Ardhamagadhi and Magadhan Apabhraṃśa Abahattha Awadhi and Bhojpuri
Dialects	Pidgin Hindustani
Writing system	Devanagari Latin Kaithi Perso-Arabic
Official status
Official language in	Fiji
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hif
Glottolog	fiji1242
Linguasphere	59-AAF-raf

History

These are the percentages of each language and dialect spoken by indentured labourers who came to Fiji.

Language/Dialect	Number	Percentage
Bihari languages (Mainly Bhojpuri as well as Maithili and Magahi)	17,868	39.3%
Eastern Hindi dialects (Mainly Awadhi as well as Bagheli and Chhattisgarhi)	16,871	37.1%
Western Hindi dialects (Hindustani, Bundeli, Braj Bhasha, Haryanvi, etc.)	6,903	15.2%
Rajasthani dialects (Marwari)	1,111	2.4%
Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, etc.)	2,186	4.8%

Indian indentured labourers mainly spoke dialects from the Hindi Belt. Initially, the majority of labourers came to Fiji from districts of central and eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, while a small percentage hailed from North-West Frontier and South India such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Over time, a distinct Indo-Aryan language with an Eastern Hindi substratum developed in Fiji, combining elements of the Hindi languages spoken in these areas with some native Fijian and English. The development of Fiji Hindi was accelerated by the need for labourers speaking different languages to work together and by the practice of leaving young children in early versions of day-care centers during working hours. 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.

Other writers, including Burton (1914) and Lenwood (1917), made similar observations. By the late 1920s all Fiji Indian children born in Fiji learned Fiji Hindi, which became the common language in Fiji of North and South Indians alike.

Status

Pidgin Hindustani
Language family	Fiji Hindi-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	pidg1251

Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu, Gondi, and Kodava), were brought from South India. By this time Fiji Hindi was well established as the lingua franca of Indo-Fijians and the Southern Indian labourers had to learn it to communicate with the more numerous Northern Indians and their European overseers. After the end of the indenture system, Indians who spoke Gujarati and Punjabi arrived in Fiji as free immigrants. A few Indo-Fijians speak Tamil, Telugu, and Gujarati at home, but all are fluently conversant and able to communicate using Fiji Hindi. The census reports of 1956 and 1966 shows the extent to which Fiji Hindi (referred to as 'Hindustani' in the census) was being spoken in Indo-Fijian households. Hindu schools teach the Devanagari script while the Muslim schools teach the Nastaliq script.

Language	Number of households in 1956	Number of households in 1966
Fijian 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 and even spoken by Indigenous Fijians in areas of Fiji where there are large Indo-Fijian communities. A pidgin form of the language is used by rural ethnic Fijians, as well as Chinese on the islands, while Pidgin Fijian is spoken by Indo-Fijians.

Following the recent political upheaval in Fiji, many Indo-Fijians have emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, where they have largely maintained their traditional Indo-Fijian culture, language, and religion.

Some writers have begun to use Fiji Hindi, until very recently a spoken language only, as a literary language. The Bible has now been translated into Fiji Hindi, and the University of the South Pacific has recently begun offering courses in the language. It is usually written in the Latin script though Devanāgarī has also been used.

A Fiji Hindi movie has also been produced depicting Indo-Fijian life and is based on a play by local playwright, Raymond Pillai.

Phonology

See also: Hindi–Urdu phonology

The phonemes of Fiji Hindi are very similar to Standard Hindi, but there are some important distinctions. As in the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects of the Hindi Belt spoken in rural India, mainly Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh — the consonant /ʃ/ is replaced with /s/ (for example, saadi instead of shaadi) and /ʋ/ replaced with /b/ (for example, bid-es instead of videsh). There is also a tendency to ignore the differences between the consonants /pʰ/ and /f/ (In Fiji Hindi a fruit is fal instead of phal) and between /d͡ʒ/ and /z/ (in Fiji Hindi land is jameen instead of zameen). The consonant /n/ is used in Fiji Hindi for the nasal sounds /ŋ/, /ɲ/ and /ɳ/ in Standard Hindi. These features are common in the Eastern Hindi dialects. Some other characteristics of Fiji Hindi which is similar to Bhojpuri and Awadhi are:

• Pronunciation of the vowels ai and au as diphthongs /ɐɪ ɐʊ/, rather than monophthongs /ɛː ɔː/ (as in standard Hindi). For example, bhauji (sister-in-law) and gaiya (cow).
• Coda clusters are removed with the use of epenthetic vowels. For example, dharm (religion) is pronounced as dharam.
• Shortening of long vowels before a stressed syllable. For example, Raajen (a common name) is pronounced as Rajen.

Pronouns

Pronoun	Fiji Hindi	Standard Hindi
I	Hum	मैं/हम
You (Informal)	Tum	तुम
You (Formal)	Aap	आप
We	Hum log	हम (लोग)

Morphology

Verb

Etymology

In Fiji Hindi verb forms have been influenced by a number of Hindi dialects in India. 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. Although, gender is used in third person past tense by the usage of "raha" for a male versus "rahi" for a female.

The use of the first and second person imperfective suffixes -taa, -at are of Awadhi origin. Example: तुम मन्दिर जाता हैं / तुम मन्दिर जात हैं। "tum Mandir jaata hai/tum Mandir jaat hai." (You are going to the Temple).

While the third person imperfective suffix -e is of Bhojpuri origin. Example: ई बिल्ली मच्छरी खावे हैं। "Ee billi macchari KHAWE hai." (This cat is eating a fish).

The third person perfective suffixes (for transitive verbs) -is and -in are also derived from Awadhi. Example: किसान गन्ना काटीस रहा। "Kisaan ganna katees raha." (The farmer cut the sugarcane). पण्डित लोगन रामायण पढ़ीन रहा/पण्डित लोगन रामायण पढ़े रहीन। "Pandit logan Ramayan padheen raha/padhe raheen." (The priests read the Ramayana).

The third person definite future suffix -ii is found in both Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Example: प्रधानमंत्री हमलोग के पैसा दई। "Pradhanamantri humlog ke paisa daii" (The prime minister will give us money).

The influence of Hindustani is evident in the first and second person perfective suffix -aa and the first and second person future suffix -ega. Example: हम करा। तुम करेगा। "Hum karaa, tum karega." (I did, you will do).

The origin of the imperative suffix -o can be traced to the Magahi dialect. Example: तुम अपन मुह खोलो। "Tum apan muh khulo." (You open your mouth). 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. Example: आप घर के सफा कर लेना। "Aap ghar ke sapha kar Lena." (You clean the house (polite)).

The suffix -be, from Bhojpuri, is used in Fiji Hindi in emphatic sentences.

Another suffix originating from Awadhi is -it. Example: ई लोगन पानी काहे नहीं पीत हैं। "Ee logan paani kahey nahi peet hai." (Why aren't these people drinking water?), but is at present going out of use.

Tenses

Fiji Hindi tenses are relatively similar to tenses in Standard Hindi. Bhojpuri and Awadhi influence the Fiji Hindi tenses.

Sentence	Fiji Hindi	Standard Hindi
To come	आना Aana आना Aana	आना ānā आना ānā
Come!	आओ Aao! आओ Aao!	आओ! āo! आओ! āo!
(I) am coming	हम Ham आत aat (आवत) (aawat) हैं hai हम आत (आवत) हैं Ham aat (aawat) hai	मैं ma͠i आ ā रहा rahā हूँ hū̃ मैं आ रहा हूँ ma͠i ā rahā hū̃
(I) came	हम Ham आया aaya रहा raha हम आया रहा Ham aaya raha	मैं ma͠i आया āyā मैं आया ma͠i āyā
(I) will come	हम Ham आयेगा aayega हम आयेगा Ham aayega	मैं ma͠i आऊंगा āūṅgā मैं आऊंगा ma͠i āūṅgā
(I) was coming	हम Ham आत aat (आवत) (aawat) रहा raha हम आत (आवत) रहा Ham aat (aawat) raha	मैं ma͠i आ ā रहा rahā था thā मैं आ रहा था ma͠i ā rahā thā
(I) used to play	हम Ham खेलत khelat रहा raha हम खेलत रहा Ham khelat raha	मैं ma͠i खेला khelā करता kartā था thā मैं खेला करता था ma͠i khelā kartā thā
(He/she/they) is/are coming	ऊ oo आवे aawe हैं hai / / ऊ oo लोगन logan आत aat हैं hai ऊ आवे हैं / ऊ लोगन आत हैं oo aawe hai / oo logan aat hai	वो vo आ ā रहा rahā है hai / / वह vah आ ā रही rahī है hai / / वे ve आ ā रहे rahe हैं ha͠i वो आ रहा है / वह आ रही है / वे आ रहे हैं vo ā rahā hai / vah ā rahī hai / ve ā rahe ha͠i
(He/she) came	ऊ Oo आईस Aais ऊ आईस Oo Aais	वह vah आया āyā / / वह vah आई āī वह आया / वह आई vah āyā / vah āī
(They) came	ऊ Oo लोगन logan आईन Aain ऊ लोगन आईन Oo logan Aain	वे ve आये āye वे आये ve āye

Grammatical features

• Fiji Hindi does not have plurals. For example, one house is ek gharr and two houses is dui gharr. In this example, the number is used to denote plurality. Plurals can also be stated with the use of log. For example, ee means "this person" (singular) and ee log means "these people" (plural). Sabb (all) and dHerr (many) are also used to denote plural. There are some exceptions, however. For example, a boy is larrka (single) but boys are larrkan (plural). Older generations still use a similar form of plural, for example, admian, for more than one man (singular: admi).
• There is no definite article ("the") in Fiji Hindi, but definite nouns can be made by adding the suffix wa; for example, larrka (a boy) and larrkwa (the boy). Definite nouns are also created using the suffix "kana"; for example, chhota (small) and chhotkana (the small one). Another way of indicating a definite article is by the use of pronouns: ii (this), uu (that) and wahii (the same one).

Fijian loan words

Indo-Fijians now use native Fijian words for those things that were not found in their ancestral India but which existed in Fiji. These include most fish names and root crops. For example, kanade for mullet (fish) and kumaala for sweet potato or yam. Other examples are:

Fiji Hindi
Latin Script	Devanāgarī 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
marama	मरामा	marama	wife

Words derived from English

Many English words have also been borrowed into Fiji Hindi with sound changes to fit the Indo-Fijian 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 Fijian Hindi words created from English words, for example, kantaap taken from cane-top means slap or associated with beating.

Semantic shifts

Indian languages

Many words of 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 Standard Hindi anymore or has evolved a different meaning altogether. Some examples are:

Fiji Hindi word	Fiji Hindi meaning	Original Hindustani meaning
baade	flood	flooding
bekaar	bad, not good, useless	unemployed, nothing to do, or useless
bhagao	elope	abduct
bigha	acre	1 bigha = 1600 square yards or 0.1338 hectare or 0.3306-acre (1,338 m2)
bihaan	tomorrow	tomorrow morning (Bhojpuri)
Bombaiyaa	Marathi/Gujaratis (Indians)	from what is today the former Bombay Presidency
fokatiyaa	useless	bankrupt
gap	lie	gossip, idle talk, chit chat
jaati	race	caste (more often misused/misunderstood as a term to reference a native Fijian)
jhaap	shed	temporarily built shed
jor	fast, quick	force, strength, exertion
juluum	beautiful	tyranny, difficulty, amazing (Hindustani zalim, meaning "cruel", is metaphorically used for a beautiful object of affection)
kal	yesterday	yesterday or tomorrow
kamaanii	small spear (for prawns)	wire, spring
khassi	male goat	castrated animal
konchij	what	from kaun chij (Awadhi), literally meaning what thing or what stuff
maalik	god	employer/owner or god
Mandaraaji	South Indian	original word, Madraasi, meant "from Madras (or Tamil Nadu)"
palla	door	shutter
Punjabi	Sikh	native of Punjab, regardless of religion

English

Many words of English origin have shifted meaning in Fiji Hindi.

English word	Fiji Hindi meaning
purse	wallet
theatre	cinema
teacher	female teacher
engine	locomotive (in addition to usual vehicle/boat engines)
pipe	tap (faucet) (in addition to artificially made tubes)
cabbage	Chinese cabbage or bok choy
set	everything is ok (used as a statement or question)
right	ok (used as a statement)

Counting

Though broadly based on standard Hindi, counting in Fiji Hindi reflects a number of cross-language and dialectal influences acquired 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 दो (do) in standard Hindi, while in Fiji Hindi it is dui (दुइ), just as it is in Bhojpuri.

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

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

Numeral	English	Hindi	Fiji Hindi
21	twenty-one	इक्कीस (ikkīs)	bis aur ek
22	twenty-two	बाईस (bāīs)	bis aur dui
23	twenty-three	तेईस (teīs)	bis aur teen
31	thirty-one	इकत्तीस (ikattīs)	tiis aur ek
32	thirty-two	बत्तीस (battīs)	tiis aur dui
33	thirty-three	तैंतीस (taintīs)	tiis aur teen
41	forty-one	इकतालीस (iktālīs)	chaalis aur ek
42	forty-two	बयालीस (bayālīs)	chaalis aur dui
43	forty-three	तैंतालीस (taintālīs)	chaalis aur teen

Spread overseas

Main article: Fiji Indian diaspora

With political upheavals in Fiji, beginning with the first military coup in 1987, large numbers of Indo-Fijians have since migrated overseas and at present there are significant communities of Indo-Fijian expatriates in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Smaller communities also reside on other Pacific Islands and Britain. The last census in each of the countries where Fiji Hindi is spoken (counting Indo-Fijians who were born in Fiji) provides the following figures:

Country	Number of Fiji-born Indo-Fijians
Fiji	313,798
New Zealand	27,882
Australia	27,542
United States	24,345
Canada	22,770
Tonga	310

Writers

• Rodney F. Moag, who had lived in India before joining the University of the South Pacific as a lecturer. He analysed Fiji Hindi and concluded that it was a unique language with its own distinct grammar, rather than "broken Hindi", as it had been previously referred to. Moag documented his findings and wrote lessons using the Fijian Hindi dialect in the book, Fiji Hindi: a basic course and reference grammar (1977).
• Jeff Siegel, in his thesis on Plantation languages in Fiji (1985), has written a detailed account of the development of Fiji Hindi and its different forms as used by Indo-Fijians and Indigenous Fijians. Earlier, Siegel had written a quick reference guide called Say it in Fiji Hindi (1976).
• Raman Subramani, professor in literature at the University of the South Pacific, who wrote the first Fiji Hindi novel, Duaka Puraan (Devanagari: डउका पुरान, 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 (sacred texts) but in a humorous way. 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.
• Vimal Reddy wrote the story for the first Fiji Hindi movie, Adhura Sapna (Devanagari: अधूरा सपना, "Incomplete Dream"), produced in 2007.
• Urmila Prasad, who helped translate the Biblical Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John into Fiji Hindi, written using Roman script, known as Susamaachaar Aur Romiyo (2002)

See also

• Girmityas, the descendants of late 18th and early 19th century labourers who were brought or emigrated to Fiji from India
• Hindustani language
• Caribbean Hindustani, a similar language developed under similar conditions in the Caribbean
• Sarnami, spoken by people of Indian origin in Suriname.
• Mauritian Bhojpuri, spoken by descendants of Girmityas in Mauritius. This is more like Bhojpuri because Mauritius' Indian population contains a larger number of those whose forefathers came from the Bhojpuri speaking districts of India.
• Fiji Hindi films, a few Fiji Hindi films became popular in the last decade, including Adhura Sapna, Ghar Pardes, Langha Phobia.

Bibliography

• Siegel Jeff, Plantation Languages in Fiji, Australian National University, 1985 (Published as Language Contact in a Plantation Environment: 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 0-85807-026-X.
• Moag, Rodney F. (1977). Fiji Hindi: A basic course and reference grammar. Canberra: Australian National University. ISBN 0-7081-1574-8.
• Barz, Richard K.; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted: the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-02872-6.

External links

• Fiji Hindi Dictionary (archived)
• The first novel written in Fiji Hindi (archived)
• Fiji Hindi version of the Gospels and Romans
• Adhura Sapna – Movie in Fiji Hindi (archived)
• Ghar Pardes – Another movie in Fiji Hindi, 2009 (archived)
• Trailer of Ghar Pardes
• Fiji Hindi-to-Hindi Dictionary
• MyFijiGuide.com (archived)
• Fiji Hindi words on Wiktionary. Archived 23 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine.
• Texan talks the talk (archived)
• Fiji Hindi: A basic course and reference grammar.