Fiji Hindi

Fiji Hindi
Hindustani
फिजी बात Fiji Baat
Native to	Fiji, with significant minorities within Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Native speakers	unknown (380,000 in Fiji cited 1990)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central (Hindi) Eastern Hindi Awadhi Fiji Hindi
Writing system	Latin, Devanagari script
Official status
Official language in	Fiji
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hif
Glottolog	fiji1242[2]

Fiji Hindi or Fijian Hindi, known locally as Hindustani, is the language spoken by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent, though a small number speak other languages at home.^[1] It is a form of the Awadhi variety of Hindi, influenced by Bhojpuri and languages spoken in Bihar, not of Hindustani itself. It has also borrowed a large number of words from Fijian and English. A large number of words, unique to Fiji Hindi, have been created to cater for the new environment that Indo-Fijians 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).

History

Indian indentured 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 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They spoke numerous 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, is a Bihari language and Awadhi, spoken by 32.9%, is an Eastern Hindi language.

Over time, a distinct Indo-Fijian language developed in Fiji, which combined the common elements of the Hindi dialects spoken in these areas with native Fijian, Urdu, Arabic, and English, Tamil words; this has diverged significantly from the varieties of Hindi and Urdu spoken on the Indian subcontinent. The development of Fiji Hindi was accelerated by the need for labourers speaking different languages 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]

Status

Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of Dravidian languages (Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam), were brought from South India. By this time Fijian 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 Fijian Hindi. The census reports of 1956 and 1966 shows the extent to which Fijian Hindi (referred to as 'Hindustani' in the census) was being spoken in Indo-Fijian households.

Fiji Hindi is also understood and even spoken by Indigenous Fijians in areas of Fiji where there are large Indo-Fijian communities. Following the recent political upheaval in Fiji, a large number of 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 Fijian Hindi, until very recently a spoken language only, as a literary language. The Bible has now been translated into Fijian Hindi, and the University of the South Pacific has recently begun offering courses in the language. Fijian Hindi is written using both the Latin script and the Devanagari script.

A Fijian Hindi movie has also been produced depicting Indo-Fijian life and is based on a play by local playwright, Raymond Pillai.^[7]

Phonology

The phonemes of Fijian Hindi are very similar to Indian Hindi, but there are some important distinctions. As in Bhojpuri and Hindi spoken in rural India - 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, 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 "j" and "z" (In Fijian Hindi land is jameen instead of zameen). 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.^[8] Some other characteristics of Fijian 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 example 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.^[9]

Morphology

Verb

Etymology

In Fijian Hindi verb forms have been influenced by a number of Indian 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 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. 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

• Fijian Hindi does not have plurals. For example, one house is ek gharr in Fijian Hindi and two houses is dui gharr in Fijian Hindi. 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) and 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 Fijian 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:

Fijian Hindi in Latin Script	Fijian Hindi 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

Words derived from English

Many English words have also been borrowed into Fijian Hindi with sound changes to fit the Indo-Fijian 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 Indian Hindi any more or has evolved to a different meaning altogether.^[10] 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 (1,338 m2)
Bombaiyaa	Marathi/Gujaratis (Indians)	from city of Mumbai
fokatiyaa	useless	bankrupt
baade	flood	flooding
bihaan	tomorrow	tomorrow morning in Bhojpuri
jhaap	shed	temporarily built shed
jaati	native Fijian	caste
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
konchi	what	from kaun cheez literally meaning what thing or what stuff
taharo	stroll	wait
bhagao	elope	abduct
maalik	god	employer/owner or god
bekaar	bad, not good, useless	unemployed, nothing to do, or useless
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
set	everything is ok (used as a statement or question)

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 Indian 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.

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 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 Fijian 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[11]
New Zealand	27,882[12]
Australia	27,542[13]
United States	24,345[14]
Canada	22,770[15]
Tonga	310[16]

Writers

• Rodney F. Moag, who had lived in India before joining the University of the South Pacific as a lecturer. He analysed Fijian 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 Fijian 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).
• Subramani, professor in literature at the University of the South Pacific, 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 Biblical Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John into Fijian Hindi, written using Roman script, known as Susamaachaar Aur Romiyo (2002)

See also

• Girmityas, the descendants of late 19th and early 20th century labourers who were brought or emigrated to Fiji from India
• Urdu
• Hindustani
• Indo-Fijian

References

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. 
• R. F., ', 1977
• Barz, Richard K.; Jeff Siegel (1988). Language transplanted: the development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-02872-6. 

External links

Fiji Hindi edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fiji Hindi test of Wiktionary at Wikimedia Incubator

• Fijian Hindi Dictionary
• The first novel written in Fijian Hindi (archive link)
• Fijian Hindi version of the Gospels and Romans
• 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
• Texan talks the talk

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