Fiji Hindi
Language · official in 1 country
Its first speakers called it Fiji Baat, "Fiji talk". Fiji Hindi is an Eastern Hindi language built on Awadhi, formed in Fiji among indentured labourers from India, and it is the mother tongue of Indo-Fijians. It is usually written in the Latin script, with Devanagari used on signs and in schools.
The language on record
- Own name
- फ़िजी हिंदी
- ISO 639-3
- HIF
- Script
- Devanagari
- Family
- Eastern Hindi
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Fiji Hindi is official
Fiji alone, where the record lists Fiji Hindi beside English and Fijian. The 1997 constitution named Hindustani, and the 2013 one names Hindi, so the local variety's standing rests mainly on the school curriculum.
Official beside Fiji Hindi
About Fiji Hindi
How indentured labourers built a common speech
Most of the labourers brought to Fiji in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came from Bengal and from central and eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Their languages mixed with some Fijian and English, and a distinct Indo-Aryan language with an Eastern Hindi base took shape. Young children left together in early day-care centres during working hours sped the process up. By the late 1920s every Fiji Indian child born in the islands learned Fiji Hindi.
About 15,000 labourers from South India, mainly speakers of Dravidian languages such as Tamil and Telugu, arrived later. They had to learn Fiji Hindi to talk to the more numerous northern Indians and to their European overseers, and Gujarati and Punjabi speakers who came as free immigrants after indenture ended picked it up as well.
What the constitutions say about Hindi
The 1997 constitution made English, Fijian and Hindustani the official languages. The 2013 constitution establishes no official language outright, but it requires laws and advisories in Hindi and iTaukei beside English, and its section 31.3 made conversational Fiji Hindi a compulsory school subject. The Hindi text of that constitution is written in Standard Hindi.
Why some schools teach Standard Hindi instead
In 2020 some Hindu organisations kept teaching only formal Standard Hindi, calling Fiji Hindi a broken language, and the government said it would not force them to change. Fiji Hindi also has no official standard script and fewer teaching materials. Until recently it was a spoken language only. The Bible has since been translated into it, and the University of the South Pacific offers courses.
Where its sounds part from Standard Hindi
Fiji Hindi follows the rural Bhojpuri and Awadhi of India. It says saadi for shaadi, fal for phal and jameen for zameen, and it breaks up final consonant clusters, so dharm becomes dharam; verbs use the same form for the first and second person, and number is marked only in the third person past tense.
Common questions
Questions about Fiji Hindi
Is Fiji Hindi the same as Standard Hindi?
No. It is a separate Eastern Hindi language built on Awadhi, with Bhojpuri, Fijian and English mixed in. Its speakers can follow other Eastern Hindi varieties, and Indo-Fijian pupils usually learn Standard Hindi at school as well.
What script does Fiji Hindi use?
Mostly the Latin alphabet. Devanagari appears too, particularly on signs and in education.
Which languages is Fiji Hindi closest to outside Fiji?
The Hindustani varieties spoken in the Caribbean, such as Sarnami, and those of Mauritius and South Africa. All grew from the speech of Indian labourers taken overseas in the same period.