hif ISO 639

Fiji Baat Autonyms

Fiji Hindi

  • Geography

    FJ Widespread.
  • Language Cloud

A language of Fiji

hif
Fiji Hindustani, “Fijian Hindi” (pej.), “Fijian Hindustani” (pej.)
Fiji Baat
300,000 in Fiji, all users. L1 users: 148,000 in Fiji (2019). L2 users: 152,000 (2022). Total users in all countries: 329,510 (as L1: 177,510; as L2: 152,000).
Widespread.
3 (Wider communication). De facto language of national identity. Brought by British as indentured laborers from northeastern India from 1879 until the 1920s.
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Intermediate Divisions, Eastern, East Central
Labasa. No significant regional variation. A type of Awadhi [awa], also influenced by Bhojpuri [bho].
SOV; verb conjugations have been simplified from standard Hindi [hin].
Used by all of Indian ancestry in Fiji. Indians who arrived after the indenture system as free immigrants continue to speak their languages at home, using English [eng] as the language to communicate with others. Home. All also use English [eng]. Used as L2 by Eastern Punjabi [pan], Gujarati [guj], Tamil [tam], Telugu [tel], Urdu [urd].
Literacy rate in L2: 85%. Taught in a few primary schools in early grades only. Newspapers. Radio. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 2002.
Devanagari script [Deva]. Latin script [Latn].
Hindu, Muslim.
OLAC resources in and about Fiji Hindi
Fiji Hindi
2,710 in Australia (2016 census).
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
View other languages of Australia
Fiji Hindi
26,800 in New Zealand (2018 census).
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
View other languages of New Zealand