Fiji Hindi (Devanagari: फ़िजी हिंदी; Kaithi: 𑂣𑂺𑂱𑂔𑂲⸱𑂯𑂱𑂁𑂠𑂲; Arabic script: ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Fijians.
History
These are the percentages of each language and dialect spoken by indentured labourers who came to Fiji.
Initially, the majority of Girmityas 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 South India (Madras Presidency) 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 language. 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[
]
Status
Later, approximately 15,000 Indian indentured labourers, who were mainly speakers of Dravidian languages (
Tamil language,
Telugu language,
Malayalam,
Kannada,
Tulu language,
Gondi language, and
Kodava people), 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 language 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
Devanagri script while the Muslim schools teach the
Nastaliq script.
|
|
| 30,726 |
| 783 |
| 999 |
| 534 |
| 930 |
| 301 |
| 175 |
| 47 |
| 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
of Fiji Baat are very similar to Standard Hindi & Urdu, but there are some important distinctions. As in the Bhojpuri and
Awadhi language spoken in rural
India, mainly
Bihar and Eastern
Uttar Pradesh — the
consonant is replaced with (for example,
saadi instead of
shaadi) and replaced with (for example,
bid-es instead of
videsh). There is also a tendency to ignore the differences between the consonants and (In Fiji Hindi a fruit is
fal instead of
phal) and between and (in Fiji Hindi land is
jameen instead of
zameen). 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 language 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 epenthesis 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.
[ South Asian bilingualism: Hindi and Bhojpuri]
Pronouns
|
| 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 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 language 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 ) -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 kholo." (You open your mouth). Spoken in the Gaya district and Patna districts, which provided a sizeable proportion of the first 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 &
Standard Urdu. Bhojpuri and Awadhi influence the Fiji Hindi tenses.
|
| To come | | |
| Come! | | |
| (I) am coming | | |
| (I) came | | |
| (I) will come | | |
| (I) was coming | | |
| (I) used to play | | |
| (He/she/they) is/are coming | | |
| (He/she) came | | |
| (They) 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" (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 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,
in Fiji Hindi is borrowed from hotel in English. Some words borrowed from English have a specialised meaning, for example, in Fiji Hindi means a playing field,
in Fiji Hindi means a "work gang", particularly a cane-cutting gang in the sugar cane growing districts and in Fiji Hindi specifically means a female teacher. There are also unique Fijian Hindi words created from English words, for example,
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:
|
|
| flooding |
| unemployed, nothing to do, or useless |
| abduct |
| 1 bigha = 1600 square yards or 0.1338 hectare or |
| tomorrow morning (Bhojpuri) |
| from what is today the former Bombay Presidency |
| bankrupt |
| gossip, idle talk, chit chat |
| caste (more often misused/misunderstood as a term to reference a native Fijian) |
| temporarily built shed |
| force, strength, exertion |
| tyranny, difficulty, amazing (Hindustani zalim, meaning "cruel", is metaphorically used for a beautiful object of affection) |
| yesterday or tomorrow |
| wire, spring |
| castrated animal |
| from kaun chij (Awadhi), literally meaning what thing or what stuff |
| employer/owner or god |
| original word, Madraasi, meant "from Chennai (or Tamil Nadu)" |
| shutter |
| native of Punjab, regardless of religion |
English
Many words of English origin have shifted meaning in Fiji Hindi.
|
|
| wallet |
| cinema |
| female teacher |
| locomotive (in addition to usual vehicle/boat engines) |
| tap (faucet) (in addition to artificially made tubes) |
| Chinese cabbage or bok choy |
| everything is ok (used as a statement or question) |
| 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 () in standard Hindi/Urdu, while in Fiji Hindi it is dui (दुइ), just as it is in 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 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 (100,000) and crore (10 million), are not used in Fiji Hindi.
|
| 21 | bis aur ek |
| 22 | bis aur dui |
| 23 | bis aur teen |
| 31 | tiis aur ek |
| 32 | tiis aur dui |
| 33 | tiis aur teen |
| 41 | chaalis aur ek |
| 42 | chaalis aur dui |
| 43 | 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
United Kingdom. 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:
|
|
| Fiji | 313,798[ Fiji - 2007 census ] |
| 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 Puranas (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
-
Surinamese Hindustani, 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.
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links
