Fiji Hindi
Encyclopedia
Fiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Hindi or Fijian Hindustani, is the language spoken by most Fiji
an citizens of India
n descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri varieties of Hindi
. It has also borrowed a large number of words from Fijian
and English
. The relation between Fiji Hindi and Standard 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 it as Fiji Baat (Fiji talk).
d labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh
, Bihar
, North-West Frontier
and South India
such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu
. 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:
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 Hindi dialects spoken in these areas with Fijian, Arabic, and English words; this 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:
Other writers, who included Burton (1914) and Lenwood (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.
, Tamil
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 Fijian Hindi. The census reports of 1956 and 1966 shows the extent to which Fiji Hindi ('Hindustani' in the census) was being spoken in Fiji Indian households.
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 Fijian 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 script 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.
The phoneme
s of Fiji Hindi are mostly the same as in Standard 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 Fijian Hindi for the nasal sounds "ṅ", "ñ" and "ṇ" in Indian Hindi. These features are common in the Eastern Hindi dialects.
Some other characteristics of Fiji Hindi which is similar to Bhojpuri are:
forms have been influenced by a number of Hindi dialects. First and second person
forms of verbs in Fijian 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 verb
s) -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 indenture
d labourers from Northern India to Fiji. Fijian Hindi has developed its own polite imperative suffix -naa. The suffix -be, from Bhojpuri, is used in Fijian Hindi in emphatic sentences. Another suffix originating from Awadhi is -it, but is at present going out of use.
and kumala for sweet potato
. Other examples are:
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 Fijian Hindi it is dui (दुइ), just as it is in Bhojpuri. Similarly, the number six in standard Hindi is chhe (छे) while in Fijian Hindi it is pronounced as chhah (छह).
Words for numbers between 10 and 99 present a significant difference between standard and Fijian 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, Fijian Hindi reverses the order and mentions the tens multiple first and the units 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 Fijian 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 Fijian Hindi.
Additionally, powers of ten beyond ten-thousand, lakh
(100,000) and karor
(10 million) are not used in Fijian Hindi.
, New Zealand
, United States
and Canada
. Smaller communities live on other Pacific islands and Britain
. The last census in each of the countries where Fiji Hindi is spoken (counting people of Indian origin born in Fiji) provides the following figures:
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
an citizens of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri varieties of Hindi
Hindi languages
The Hindi languages, also known as Madhya and the Central Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages, is a subset of the varieties of Hindi spoken across northern India that descend from the Madhya prakrits, and includes the official languages of India and Pakistan, Hindi and Urdu...
. It has also borrowed a large number of words from Fijian
Fijian language
Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. The relation between Fiji Hindi and Standard Hindi is similar to the relation between Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
. 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
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in Fiji, referred to it as Fiji Baat (Fiji talk).
History
Indian indentureIndenture
An indenture is a legal contract reflecting a debt or purchase obligation, specifically referring to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, an instrument used for commercial debt or real estate transaction.-Historical usage:An indenture is a...
d labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, North-West Frontier
North-West Frontier (military history)
The North-West Frontier was the most difficult area, from a military point of view, of the former British India in the Indian sub-continent. It remains the frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the...
and South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. 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:
| Language/Dialect | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Bihari Bihari languages Bihari is a name given to the western group of Eastern Indic languages, spoken in Bihar and neighboring states in India. Angika, Bajjika, Bhojpuri, Magahi, and Maithili are spoken in Nepal as well. The Angika, Bajjika, Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili speaking population form more than 21% of Nepalese... |
17,868 | 39.3% |
| Eastern Hindi | 16,871 | 37.1% |
| Telugu Telugu language Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu... |
6,903 | 15.2% |
| Rajasthani Rajasthani language Rajasthani Rajasthani Rajasthani (Devanagari: , Perso-Arabic: is a language of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide... |
1,111 | 2.4% |
| Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore... |
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 Hindi dialects spoken in these areas with Fijian, Arabic, and English words; this 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:
Other writers, who included Burton (1914) and Lenwood (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.
Status
Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of TeluguTelugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
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
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
and Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
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 Fijian Hindi. The census reports of 1956 and 1966 shows the extent to which Fiji Hindi ('Hindustani' in the census) was being spoken in Fiji Indian households.
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 Fijian Indians have migrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. They have largely maintained their culture and language, Fiji Hindi.
Unlike Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
(an omnibus term covering both Hindi and Urdu), which is mandated in the Constitution of Fiji
Constitution of Fiji
The 1997 Constitution of Fiji was the supreme law of Fiji from its adoption in 1997 until 2009 when President Josefa Iloilo purported to abrogate it. It was also suspended for a period following the 2000 coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama....
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
Patois
Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant...
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
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
has been translated into Fiji Hindi, and the University of the South Pacific
University of the South Pacific
The University of the South Pacific is a public university with a number of locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. It is an international centre for teaching and research on Pacific culture and environment. USP's academic programmes are recognised worldwide, attracting students...
has recently begun offering courses in the language. Fiji Hindi is written using both the Latin script 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.
Phonology
- See Hindi–Urdu phonology
The phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s of Fiji Hindi are mostly the same as in Standard Hindi but there are some important distinctions. As in Bhojpuri and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
spoken in rural Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
and Eastern Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, the consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
"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 Fijian Hindi for the nasal sounds "ṅ", "ñ" and "ṇ" in Indian Hindi. These features are common in the Eastern Hindi dialects.
Some other characteristics of Fiji Hindi which is similar to Bhojpuri are:
- Pronunciation of the vowels ai and au as diphthongs, rather than monophthongs (as in standard Hindi). For example bhauji (sister-in-law) and gaiya (cow).
- Coda clusters are removed with the use of vowels. For exampe dharm (religion) is pronounced as dharam.
- Shortening of long vowels before a stressed symbol. For example Ra:jen ( a common name) is pronounced as Rajen.
Etymology
In Fijian Hindi verbVerb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
forms have been influenced by a number of Hindi dialects. First and second person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
forms of verbs in Fijian Hindi are the same, there is no gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
distinction and number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
distinction is only in the third person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
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 verb
Transitive verb
In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
s) -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
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, 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
Gaya District
Gaya is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India. The district is having a common boundary with the Jharkhand state in the south. Gaya city is its largest city and the district headquarters.-History:...
and Patna
Patna
Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...
districts, which provided a sizeable proportion of the first indenture
Indenture
An indenture is a legal contract reflecting a debt or purchase obligation, specifically referring to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, an instrument used for commercial debt or real estate transaction.-Historical usage:An indenture is a...
d labourers from Northern India to Fiji. Fijian Hindi has developed its own polite imperative suffix -naa. The suffix -be, from Bhojpuri, is used in Fijian Hindi in emphatic sentences. Another suffix originating from Awadhi is -it, but is at present going out of use.
Grammatical features
- Fiji Hindi does not have plurals. For example, one house is ek ghar in Fijian Hindi and two houses is dui ghar in Fijian Hindi. In this example the number is used to denote plural. Plurals can also be stated with the use of log. For example, ii means "this person" and ii log means "these people". Sab (all) and dher (many) are also used to denote plural. There are some exceptions, for example a boy is larrka and boys in larrkan. Older generations still use a similar form of plural, for example, admian, for more than one man (singular: admi)
- The is no definite article (the) in Fiji Hindi, but definite nouns can be made by adding the suffux 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 definite article is by the use of pronouns: ii (this), uu (that) and wahii (the same one).
Fijian loan words
Fijian 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)Mullet (fish)
The mullets or grey mullets are a family and order of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and in some species in fresh water. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since Roman times...
and kumala for sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
. Other examples are:
| Fijian Hindi in Latin Script | Fijian Hindi in Devanagari Script | Fijian origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| nangona | नंगोना | yaqona | kava Kava Kava or kava-kava is a crop of the western Pacific.... |
| tabale | तबाले | tavale | wife's brother |
| bilo | बिलो | bilo | cup made of coconut Coconut The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word... , used to drink kava Kava Kava or kava-kava is a crop of the western Pacific.... |
Words derived from English
Many English words have been borrowed into Fijian Hindi with sound changes to fit the Fijian Indian pronunciation. For example, hutel in Fijian Hindi is borrowed from hotel in English. Some words borrowed from English have a specialised meaning, for example, garaund in Fijian Hindi means a playing field, geng in Fijian Hindi means a "work gang", particularly a cane-cutting gang in the sugar cane growing districts and tichaa in Fijian Hindi specifically means a female teacher. There are also unique Fijian Hindi words created from English words, for example, kantaap means cane-top.Semantic shifts from Indian Languages to Fijian Hindi
Many words of Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani origin have shifted meaning in Fijian Hindi. These are due to either innovations in Fiji or continued use of the old meaning in Fijian Hindi when the word is either not used in Hindi any more or has a different meaning. Some examples are:| Fijian Hindi word | India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... ns) | from city of Mumbai Mumbai Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million... |
|---|---|---|
| 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 (Zalim (Arabic,Farsi, Hindi/Urdu) meaning "cruel" is metaphorically used for beautiful object of affection) |
| 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 |
| taharo | stroll | wait |
| bhagao | elope | abduct |
| maalik | god | employer/owner |
| bekaar | bad, not good, useless | unemployed, nothing to do |
| gap | lie | gossip, idle talk, chit chat |
| jor | fast, quick | force, strength, exertion |
| khassi | male goat | castrated animal |
Semantic shift from English to Fijian Hindi
Many words of English origin have shifted meaning in Fijian Hindi.| English word | Fijian 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 |
Counting
Though broadly based on standard Hindi, counting in Fijian 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 Fijian Hindi it is dui (दुइ), just as it is in Bhojpuri. Similarly, the number six in standard Hindi is chhe (छे) while in Fijian Hindi it is pronounced as chhah (छह).
Words for numbers between 10 and 99 present a significant difference between standard and Fijian 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, Fijian Hindi reverses the order and mentions the tens multiple first and the units 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
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
of 'ek aur biis', or 'one-and-twenty', in Fijian 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 Fijian Hindi.
Additionally, powers of ten beyond ten-thousand, lakh
Lakh
A lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand . It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and is often used in Indian English.-Usage:...
(100,000) and karor
Crore
A crore is a unit in the Indian number system equal to ten million , or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan....
(10 million) are not used in Fijian Hindi.
| Number in English | Number in Standard Hindi Devanagri Script | Number in Standard Hindi Roman Script | Number in Fijian 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 |
Spread overseas
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 AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Smaller communities live on other Pacific islands and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The last census in each of the countries where Fiji Hindi is spoken (counting people of Indian origin born in Fiji) provides the following figures:
| Country | Number of Fiji born Indians |
|---|---|
| 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 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), has written a detailed account of the development of Fijian Hindi and its different forms as used by Fijian 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 PacificUniversity of the South PacificThe University of the South Pacific is a public university with a number of locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. It is an international centre for teaching and research on Pacific culture and environment. USP's academic programmes are recognised worldwide, attracting students...
, who wrote the first Fijian 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 Fijian Hindi movie,Adhura Sapna (Incomplete Dream), produced in 2007.
- Urmila Prasad, who helped translate the Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John into Fijian Hindi, written in Roman script, known as Susamaachaar Aur Romiyo (2002)
See also
- FijiFijiFiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
- PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
- IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- UrduUrduUrdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
- HindustaniHindustani languageHindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
- Indo-Fijian
External links
- Fijian Hindi Dictionary
- The first novel written in Fijian Hindi (archive link)
- Fijian Hindi version of the Gospels and Romans
- Hindustani, Fijian
- Adhura Sapna - Movie in Fijian Hindi
- Ghar Pardes - Another movie in Fijian Hindi, 2009
- Trailer of Ghar Pardes
- Fijian Hindi-to-Hindi Dictionary
- MyFijiGuide.com
- Fijian Hindi words on Wiktionary
- Urban dictionary
- Texan talks the talk