Fiji Hindi
| Fiji Hindi | |
|---|---|
| फिजी बात Fiji Baat | |
| Native to | Fiji, with significant minorities within Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America |
| Ethnicity | Indo-Fijians and their diaspora |
|
Native speakers
|
400,000 in Fiji (2001) |
| Devanagari, Kaithi, Latin script, Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari Braille, Urdu Braille, English Braille | |
| Signed Hindi | |
| Official status | |
|
Official language in
|
 Fiji
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | fiji1242 |
Fiji Hindi or Fijian Hindi, known locally as "Hindustani", is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent, though a small number speak other languages at home. It is an Eastern Hindi language that has been subject to considerable influence by Awadhi, Bhojpuri and other Bihari languages. It has also borrowed a large number of words from the Fijian and English languages. 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 Indians in Fiji, who used the language as a lingua franca in Fiji, referred to it as Fiji Baat, "Fiji talk". It is closely related to Caribbean Hindustani and the Hindustani spoken in Mauritius and South Africa.
Indian indentured labourers, speaking different regional languages, initially came to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, North-West Frontier and South India such as from 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 native Fijian, Urdu, Arabic, English, and Tamil words. Fiji Hindi therefore diverged significantly from the Hindi languages of the Indian subcontinent. 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:
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Wikipedia