Over time, a distinctIndo-Aryan language with anEastern Hindisubstratum developed inFiji, combining elements of the South Asian Languages spoken in these areas with some native Fijian andEnglish. 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.[3]
Other writers, including Burton[4] (1914) and Lenwood[5] (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.[6]
Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers ofDravidian languages (Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam,Kannada,Tulu,Gondi, andKodava), were brought fromSouth 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 spokeGujarati andPunjabi 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.[citation needed] 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 theDevanagari script while the Muslim schools teach theNastaliq 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, whilePidgin Fijian is spoken by Indo-Fijians.
Following the recentpolitical 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.[citation needed]
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 theUniversity of the South Pacific has recently begun offering courses in the language. It is usually written in theLatin script thoughDevanāgarī has also been used.[7][8]
A Fiji Hindi movie has also been produced depicting Indo-Fijian life and is based on a play by local playwright,Raymond Pillai.[9]
Thephonemes of Fiji Baat are very similar to Standard Hindi & Urdu, but there are some important distinctions. As in theBhojpuri andAwadhi spoken in ruralIndia, mainlyBihar and EasternUttar Pradesh — theconsonant/ʃ/ is replaced with/s/ (for example,saadi instead ofshaadi) and/ʋ/ replaced with/b/ (for example,bid-es instead ofvidesh). There is also a tendency to ignore the differences between the consonants/pʰ/ and/f/ (In Fiji Hindi a fruit isfal instead ofphal) and between/d͡ʒ/ and/z/ (in Fiji Hindi land isjameen instead ofzameen). The consonant/n/ is used in Fiji Hindi for the nasal sounds/ɳ/ in Standard Hindi/Urdu. These features are common in theEastern Hindi dialects.[10]Some other characteristics of Fiji Hindi which is similar toBhojpuri andAwadhi are:
Pronunciation of the vowelsai andau as diphthongs/ɐɪɐʊ/, rather than monophthongs/ɛːɔː/ (as in standard Hindi). For example,bhauji (sister-in-law) andgaiya (cow).
Coda clusters are removed with the use ofepenthetic vowels. For example,dharm (religion) is pronounced asdharam.
Shortening of long vowels before a stressed syllable. For example,Raajen (a common name) is pronounced asRajen.[11]
In Fiji Hindiverb forms have been influenced by a number of languages in India. First andsecond person forms of verbs in Fiji Hindi are the same. There is nogender distinction andnumber distinction is only in thethird 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 personimperfective suffixes-taa,-at are ofAwadhi 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 ofBhojpuri origin. Example: ई बिल्ली मच्छरी खावे हैं। "Ee billi macchari KHAWE hai." (This cat is eating a fish).
The third personperfective suffixes (fortransitive 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 ofHindustani 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 theMagahi dialect. Example: तुम अपन मुह खोलो। "Tum apan muh kholo." (You open your mouth). Spoken in theGaya andPatna districts, which provided a sizeable proportion of the firstindentured 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.[citation needed]
Fiji Hindi does not have plurals. For example, one house isek gharr and two houses isdui gharr. In this example, the number is used to denote plurality. Plurals can also be stated with the use oflog. For example,ee means "this person" (singular) andee log means "these people" (plural).Sabb (all) anddHerr (many) are also used to denote plural. There are some exceptions, however. For example, a boy islarrka (single) but boys arelarrkan (plural). Older generations still use a similar form of plural, for example,admian, for more than one man (singular:admi).[citation needed]
There is no definite article ("the") in Fiji Hindi, but definite nouns can be made by adding the suffixwa; for example,larrka (a boy) andlarrkwa (the boy). Definite nouns are also created using the suffix "kana"; for example,chhota (small) andchhotkana (the small one). Another way of indicating a definite article is by the use of pronouns:ii (this),uu (that) andwahii (the same one).[citation needed]
Indo-Fijians now use 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 formullet (fish) andkumaala forsweet potato or yam. Other examples are:
Many English words have also been implemented 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 andtichaa 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.
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/Urdu anymore or has evolved a different meaning altogether.[12] 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
1bigha = 1600 square yards or 0.1338 hectare or 0.3306-acre (1,338 m2)
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 languages such as Awadhi. The number two, consequently, isदो (do) in standard Hindi/Urdu, while in Fiji Hindi it isdui (दुइ), just as it is in Awadhi, Bhojpuri & Nepali.
Words for numbers between 10 and 99 present a significant difference between standard and Fiji Hindi. While, as in other Indo-Aryan languages, words fornumbers 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/Urdu is (ikkīs), an internalsandhi ofek aur biis, or "one-and-twenty", in Fiji Hindi the order would be reversed, and simply bebiis aur ek, without any additional morpho-phonological alteration. Similarly, while the number thirty-seven in standard Hindi/Urdu is (saintīs), forsaat aur tiis or "seven-and-thirty", the number would betiis aur saat, or 'thirty-and-seven' in Fiji Hindi.
Additionally, powers of ten beyond ten thousand, such aslakh (100,000) andcrore (10 million), are not used in Fiji Hindi.[citation needed]
With political upheavals in Fiji, beginning with the firstmilitary 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 otherPacific Islands andBritain. 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:
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 onPlantation 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 calledSay it in Fiji Hindi (1976).
Raman Subramani, professor in literature at theUniversity 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 thePuraans (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 asSusamaachaar Aur Romiyo (2002)[19]
Mauritian Bhojpuri, spoken by descendants of Girmityas in Mauritius. This is more likeBhojpuri because Mauritius' Indian population contains a larger number of those whose forefathers came from the Bhojpuri speaking districts ofIndia.
Fiji Hindi films, a few Fiji Hindi films became popular in the last decade, including Adhura Sapna, Ghar Pardes,Langha Phobia.
Siegel Jeff,Plantation Languages in Fiji, Australian National University, 1985 (Published asLanguage 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.ISBN0-85807-026-X.
Moag, Rodney F. (1977).Fiji Hindi: A basic course and reference grammar. Canberra: Australian National University.ISBN0-7081-1574-8.
Barz, Richard K.; Jeff Siegel (1988).Language transplanted: the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz.ISBN3-447-02872-6.
