Fiji Hindi
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This entry is confusing. Those who immigrated after indenture no longer speak their original language at home and have largely shifted to the use of Fiji Hindi as home language and English as language of wider and inter-ethnic communication. Post-indenture languages are spoken mainly by the older generation now.
Moreover, Fiji Hindi is a preliterate language. Indo-Fijians use English and Latin script to write.
Shameem, N. 2002. Multilingual proficiencies in Fiji primary schools. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 23 (5), 388-407.
Shameem, N. 2002. Classroom language use in a multi-lingual community - the Indo-Fijians in Fiji. Journal of Intercultural Studies 23 (32), 267-284.
Shameem, N. 1999. Language use in Fiji and Aotearoa/NZ - trends and implications for Fiji Hindi. In TE REO: Proceedings of the 6th Language and Society Conference, Department of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies: Victoria University of Wellington.
We will shift the L1 speaker populations to ethnic populations, replacing the L1 population number to a statement `Few in number', removing the domain for each, updating the EGIDS value to 8a, adding a speaker age range and a language contact for the following languages: Gujarati [guj], Eastern Punjabi [pan], Tamil [tam], Telugu [tel], and Urdu [urd], and we will add the domain and update the language contact for Fiji Hindi [hif], and we will remove the L2 speaker population for Fijian [fij], and we will update the L2 speaker population for [eng] in Fiji. All of these changes will be included in the next edition of the Ethnologue.
Comments
Dear Nikhat,
Thank you for this information on the language shift that has taken place in the Indo-Fijian community in Fiji, from the original languages to Fiji Hindi [hif] as home language, to English [eng].
Best regards,
Charles Fennig
Managing Editor, Ethnologue
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