Fiji Hindi
Fiji Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Fijians. It is the mother tongue and indigenous language of Indo-Fijians. It is also looked at as a Creole language based on Awadhi that has also been subject to considerable influence by other languages and language families like Bhojpuri, Maithili, English, iTaukei, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi 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 Indo-Fijians in Fiji, who used the language as a lingua franca in Fiji, referred to it as Fiji Baat, "Fiji talk". It is related to and intelligible with the Bhojpuri-Hindustani spoken in Mauritius, South Africa, Caribbean Hindustani but more closely related with Sarnami with the loan words being Dutch instead of iTaukei. It can be interpreted as Hindi-Urdu, but it differs a lot in phonetics and vocabulary from Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu.
History
These are the percentages of each language and dialect spoken by indentured labourers who came to Fiji.| Language/Dialect | Number | Percentage |
| Bihari languages | 17,868 | 39.3% |
| Eastern Indian languages | 16,871 | 37.1% |
| Western Indian languages | 6,903 | 15.2% |
| Rajasthani languages | 1,111 | 2.4% |
| Dravidian languages | 2,186 | 4.8% |
Initially, the majority of indentured labourers came to Fiji from Bengal and districts of central and eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, while a small percentage hailed from North-West Frontier and Madras Presidency places that are now Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana 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 South Asian 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:
Other writers, including Burton and Lenwood, 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
Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of Dravidian languages, 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 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
The phonemes of Fiji Baat are very similar to Standard Hindi & Urdu, but there are some important distinctions. As in the Bhojpuri and Awadhi spoken in rural India, mainly Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh — the consonant is replaced with and replaced with . There is also a tendency to ignore the differences between the consonants and and between and . The consonant is used in Fiji Hindi for the nasal sounds in Standard Hindi/Urdu. 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, rather than monophthongs . For example, bhauji and gaiya.
- Coda clusters are removed with the use of epenthetic vowels. For example, dharm is pronounced as dharam.
- Shortening of long vowels before a stressed syllable. For example, Raajen is pronounced as Rajen.
Morphology
Verb
Etymology
In Fiji Hindi verb forms have been influenced by a number of languages 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.".
While the third person imperfective suffix -e is of Bhojpuri origin.
Example: ई बिल्ली मच्छरी खावे हैं। "Ee billi macchari KHAWE hai.".
The third person perfective suffixes -is and -in are also derived from Awadhi.
Example: किसान गन्ना काटीस रहा। "Kisaan ganna katees raha.".
पण्डित लोगन रामायण पढ़ीन रहा/पण्डित लोगन रामायण पढ़े रहीन। "Pandit logan Ramayan padheen raha/padhe raheen.".
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 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.".
The origin of the imperative suffix -o can be traced to the Magahi dialect.
Example: तुम अपन मुह खोलो। "Tum apan muh kholo.". 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.".
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.",
but is at present going out of use.
Tenses
Fiji Hindi tenses are relatively similar to tenses in Standard Hindi & Standard Urdu. Bhojpuri and Awadhi influence the Fiji Hindi tenses.| Sentence | Fiji Hindi | Standard Hindi |
| To come | ||
| Come! | ||
| am coming | ||
| came | ||
| will come | ||
| was coming | ||
| used to play | ||
| is/are coming | ||
| came | ||
| came |
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" and ee log means "these people". Sabb and dHerr are also used to denote plural. There are some exceptions, however. For example, a boy is larrka but boys are larrkan. Older generations still use a similar form of plural, for example, admian, for more than one man.
- There is no definite article in Fiji Hindi, but definite nouns can be made by adding the suffix wa; for example, larrka and larrkwa. Definite nouns are also created using the suffix "kana"; for example, chhota and chhotkana. Another way of indicating a definite article is by the use of pronouns: ii, uu and wahii.
Fijian words used
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 for mullet (fish) and kumaala for sweet potato or yam. Other examples are:Words derived from English
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 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/Urdu 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 |
| bihaan | tomorrow | tomorrow morning |
| Bombaiyaa | Marathi/Gujaratis | from what is today the former Bombay Presidency |
| fokatiyaa | useless | bankrupt |
| gap | lie | gossip, idle talk, chit chat |
| jaati | race | caste |
| jhaap | shed | temporarily built shed |
| jor | fast, quick | force, strength, exertion |
| juluum | beautiful | tyranny, difficulty, amazing |
| kal | yesterday | yesterday or tomorrow |
| kamaanii | small spear | wire, spring |
| khassi | male goat | castrated animal |
| konchij | what | from kaun chij, literally meaning what thing or what stuff |
| maalik | god | employer/owner or god |
| Mandaraaji | South Indian | original word, Madraasi, meant "from Madras " |
| 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 |
| pipe | tap |
| cabbage | Chinese cabbage or bok choy |
| set | everything is ok |
| right | ok |
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 languages such as Awadhi. The number two, consequently, is दो in standard Hindi/Urdu, while in Fiji Hindi it is dui, 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 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/Urdu is, 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, without any additional morpho-phonological alteration. Similarly, while the number thirty-seven in standard Hindi/Urdu is, for saat aur tiis or "seven-and-thirty", the number would be tiis aur saat, or 'thirty-and-seven' in Fiji Hindi.
Additionally, powers of ten beyond ten thousand, such as lakh and crore, are not used in Fiji Hindi.
| Numeral | English | Hindi/Urdu | Fiji Hindi |
| 21 | twenty-one | bis aur ek | |
| 22 | twenty-two | bis aur dui | |
| 23 | twenty-three | bis aur teen | |
| 31 | thirty-one | tiis aur ek | |
| 32 | thirty-two | tiis aur dui | |
| 33 | thirty-three | tiis aur teen | |
| 41 | forty-one | chaalis aur ek | |
| 42 | forty-two | chaalis aur dui | |
| 43 | forty-three | chaalis aur teen |
Spread overseas
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 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.Jeff Siegel, in his thesis on Plantation languages in Fiji, 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.Raman Subramani, professor in literature at the University of the South Pacific, who wrote the first Fiji Hindi novel, Duaka Puraan, which is the story of Fiji Lal 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. 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, 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''