Hindi, Fiji

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A language of Fiji

ISO 639-3
hif
Alternate Names
Fiji Hindustani, “Fijian Hindi” (pej.), “Fijian Hindustani” (pej.)
Population

380,000 in Fiji (1991 UBS).

Location

Also in United States (Fijian Hindustani).

Language Status

3 (Wider communication). Statutory language of national identity (2000, Constitution, Article 4(1)).

Classification
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, East Central zone
Dialects

No significant regional variation. A type of Awadhi [awa], also influenced by Bhojpuri [bho].

Typology

SOV; verb conjugations have been simplified from standard Hindi [hin]

Language Use

Used 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 heritage languages.

Language Development
Literacy rate in L2: 85%. Newspapers. Radio programs. Bible portions.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Hindi, Fiji
Writing
Devanagari script. Latin script.
Other Comments

Brought by British as indentured laborers from 1879 until 1920s. Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh.