Fiji Hindi

Fiji Hindi is a language spoken by Fijians of Indian origin. It is one of the official languages in of Fiji and is referred to in the constitution, and locally as Hindustani (although it is distinct from the language of the same name spoken in India). It is also spoken by the diaspora of more than 100,000 Fiji Indians residing in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Tonga, making a total of 460,000 native speakers of the language. In addition to this there is more than 150,000 people of non-Indian origin in Fiji who are able to understand the language and speak it with varying degrees of ability.

Fiji Hindi came into existence with the arrival of Indians as indentured laborers in Fiji. Initially these came from North Eastern India, where Awadhi, Bhojpuri and to a lesser extent Magahi dialects were spoken. These dialects combined with Urdu, which was used in the urban areas and Calcutta, resulted in the formation of a new language, initially known as Fiji Baat (Fiji Talk). The new language acquired and adopted many English and Fijian words and developed a unique accent to form a distinct language now known as Fiji Hindi.

Fiji Hindi is written in the Roman script as it can then be understood by all Fiji Indians.

Resources

 * /Pronunciation/
 * /Travel/ - Basic Fiji Hindi for people traveling to Fiji
 * /Verbs/
 * /Vocabulary/