The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: HIF
ISO 639-2: inc
| Population | 380,000 (1991 UBS) or 48.6% of the population (1987 Honolulu Star-Bulletin). Population total all countries 380,000. |
| Region | Also spoken in Australia, USA. |
| Alternate names | FIJIAN HINDI |
| Classification | Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, East Central zone. |
| Comments | No significant regional variation. A type of Awadhi, also Influenced by BhojpurI. Spoken by all of Indian ancestry in Fiji, including ethnic Tamil (6,663), Gujarati (6,203), Urdu, Telugu (2,008), Gurmukhi (Panjabi, 1,167), Bengali (17,875), Malayalam. A small Gujarati community speak Gujarati at home, and a few others, mainly older people, speak their traditional languages. Speakers were brought by the British to work as indentured laborers from 1879 until the 1920s. Official language. SOV; verb conjugations have been simplified from Standard Hindi. Literacy rate in second language: 85%. Newspapers, radio programs. Agriculturalists: sugar cane, rice, vegetables; shopkeepers, small businessmen, professional people. Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh. Bible portions. |
