Hindi, Fiji
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Fiji Hindi
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.
Fiji Hindi
The title should be Fiji Hindi. Not Hindi, Fiji. The language is spoken only in Fiji and the Fijian diaspora. The 'Fiji' part is important. I searched under Fiji Hindi and it was not there.
Fiji Hindi is not the language of wider communication in Fiji. At best it is used by around 33% of Fiji's current population as mother tongue. English is the language of wider commuication. For intra ethnic commuication Indo-Fijians use Fiji Hindi and Fijians, i-Taukei (Fijian).
Fiji Hindi had official status in the 1997 constitution along with English and i-Taukei Fijian. In the 2013 constitution this was changed and an official language is not named.
"In the 1997 Constitution, there was greater recognition of Fiji Hindi as an official language of Fiji even though the language identified as the official language was ‘Hindustani’ rather than ‘Fiji Hindi’, causing some confusion around whether the named language was FH or Hindustani (Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, 1998, p. 2)."
Ref: Shameem, N. 2018. Fiji Hindi in Fiji. Chapter 16 in C. Seals and S. Shah (Eds). Heritage language policies around the world. Routledge.
We will update the speaker populations for Fiji Hindi [hif] (changing the name to the uninverted form) and will change the Function in Country for English [eng], Fijian [fij] and Fiji Hindi to "de facto" status at the national level. These changes will be included in the next edition of the Ethnologue.