Fiji Hindi Serves Its Own Purpose, Say Linguistics Experts
FUniversity of the South Pacific in Linguistics expert Nikhat Shameem. iji Hindi is not a dialect but a language serving its own purpose, says a PhD graduate in Applied Linguistics.
Nikhat Shameem, who studied at the University of the South Pacific and Victoria University in Wellington, says if 25 per cent of the population speaks the same language it is classed as a language. This is the situation for Fiji Hindi in the country, she added.
“Fiji Hindi has developed separately as a diasporic Hindi, which was a result of plantation contact in Fiji a century ago. It has subsequently been adopted as the mother tongue of all the Girmitya descendants in Fiji.
“The language we speak currently is our identity and culture,” she said.
USP’s linguistics teaching assistant Rajendra Prasad said: “Fiji Hindi and standard Hindi are very much supporting languages in terms of their construct and origin. The introduction of standard Hindi to the school curriculum made teaching this language a lot easier.
“The language complements each other and even the use of Fiji Hindi is not a new thing as we speak it daily,” he said.
Mr Prasad said Fiji Hindi had a long history.
“Since the arrival of indentured labourers, everyone was using their own dialect, which later on merged and is now used as Fiji Hindi,” he said.
“Fiji Hindi is the mixture of all dialects.” Mr Prasad said USP offered one unit of conversational Hindi courses to non-Hindi speakers. “Under the Ministry Education curriculum, schools also teach conversational language to students,” he said.
“In school the interest of the subject depends on the student.”
Fiji Hindi is recognised as one of the three official languages widely spoken throughout the country. of the