Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

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Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-03, 16:55

I figured these two varrities needed their own topic. I believe they are quite rare and don't have many speakers. Caribbean Hindi is spoken by communties in Suriname, Trindabad and Tobago, and some minorities in Guyana. Fiji Hindi is the Hindi spoken by Indian communties in Fiji, and only has about 380,000 speakers. These dialects are more similair to Bhojpuri, but I think a Hindi speaker may still understand them. I think they sound more like a pidigin now. Fiji Hindi is written in the roman script.

Here are some resources I have found, if anyone is interested:
http://suite101.com/article/an-introduc ... es-a390697

http://www.oocities.org/fijihindi/FijiH ... shDict.htm

http://fiji-hindi.co.tv/

http://www.travelphrases.info/languages ... ibbean.htm
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby mōdgethanc » 2013-08-03, 17:09

I've heard of Fiji Hindi but didn't think it would be understandable at all. I didn't even know there was a Caribbean Hindi although I knew there are a lot of Indian migrants there. I'm guessing it's kind of like how I can understand most English creoles with some effort but a non-native would have no idea.
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby LondonOwl7 » 2013-08-03, 17:22

I used to read the Fiji Hindi wikipedia (because it was romanised) when I was finding it really difficult to read in Devanagari. I've never heard it spoken though.

Considering I have issues understanding West Indian English despite being of West Indian descent :oops: , I'm not sure how well I would do...
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-03, 18:02

mōdgethanc wrote:I've heard of Fiji Hindi but didn't think it would be understandable at all. I didn't even know there was a Caribbean Hindi although I knew there are a lot of Indian migrants there. I'm guessing it's kind of like how I can understand most English creoles with some effort but a non-native would have no idea.


Maybe it is like that. I'm talking with two girls I know from Guyana daily in Hindi and I have no problem understand them, it sounds like a simplier Hindi, I think. I don't know if that's how they actually speak or they are making themselves sound more like standard Hindi so I can understand them. I knew there were a lot of East Indians in Guyana but I never knew any of them spoke Hindi, I don't think many of them do but the two Guyanese I'm practcing with love Bollywood I think that may be why they understand and speak it.

The Fiji Hindi wikipedia is fun to read :P
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby mōdgethanc » 2013-08-03, 22:41

Is it like Scots Wikipedia?
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-03, 23:03

Yes but it romanized Hindi :lol:

Check it out :
http://hif.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_Hindi_bhasa
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Bijlee » 2013-08-04, 1:37

LondonOwl7 wrote:I used to read the Fiji Hindi wikipedia (because it was romanised) when I was finding it really difficult to read in Devanagari. I've never heard it spoken though.

Me too haha. Well, for me it was more of because that way I could avoid all those formal Sanskrit words :P
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Here's a couple of those Jesus videos that are translated so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2VGV1SM4fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7beXqBkd2gk

It's pretty easy to understand! There are more videos of speaking on youtube.

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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby LondonOwl7 » 2013-08-04, 16:32

Bijlee wrote:Well, for me it was more of because that way I could avoid all those formal Sanskrit words :P


That's a good point, last year in India when I asked where the "shauchalay" was, the first reaction of the people I asked was to laugh :shock:
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-04, 16:36

Thanks for the videos, Bijlee! I agree it is pretty easy to understand :P It is very pretty dialect I think.
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-04, 17:56

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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-04, 18:00

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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby LondonOwl7 » 2013-08-04, 18:28

Meera wrote: :rotfl: :rotfl:


O dear... just a few thoughts:
1. I guess the choreographer came up with the half-hearted heartbeat move? He shouldn't be shot at all lol
2. Did the guy steal the girl's scarf before filming?
3. Did anyone else notice she never actually agreed to go to Lambasa with him?

Other than that it was quite brilliant! :rotfl:
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-04, 18:32

They were trying to act out that famous song from Rani Mukerjee and Aamir Khan, but omg that was just hilarious. No one can do it like Aamir and Rani.
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby LondonOwl7 » 2013-08-04, 18:38

Both of the vids were easier to understand then I thought, although actually they all spoke fairly close to khari boli except for the first girl in the "Mistaken" video. It took me a couple of sentences to follow her properly.
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-04, 18:40

LondonOwl7 wrote:Both of the vids were easier to understand then I thought, although actually they all spoke fairly close to khari boli except for the first girl in the "Mistaken" video. It took me a couple of sentences to follow her properly.


I was surprised how close to Khari Boli it sounds.
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby LondonOwl7 » 2013-08-04, 18:59

Part of me wants to visit Fiji now!
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-08-04, 19:18

Haha I always want to visit Fiji.
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Saim » 2013-09-19, 23:38

I think it's important to note that Fiji Hindi is a variety of Awadhi and Carribean Hindi is Bhojpuri - neither are based on Khariboli ("Hindi" proper). Meera, Caribbean Hindi is much more endangered in Guyana than it is in Suriname (and in Trinidad and Tobago even more so), so maybe they learned Khari boli as a foreign languages and they're actually native speakers of Guyanese Creole? That's not uncommon among Guyanese Indians, as far as I've read. Though I imagine they weren't speaking pure Caribbean Hindi to you, since Bhojpuri as a member of the Eastern or Magadhi group I imagine would be quite difficult to understand.

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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Meera » 2013-09-19, 23:47

Saim wrote:I think it's important to note that Fiji Hindi is a variety of Awadhi and Carribean Hindi is Bhojpuri - neither are based on Khariboli ("Hindi" proper). Meera, Caribbean Hindi is much more endangered in Guyana than it is in Suriname (and in Trinidad and Tobago even more so), so maybe they learned Khari boli as a foreign languages and they're actually native speakers of Guyanese Creole? That's not uncommon among Guyanese Indians, as far as I've read. Though I imagine they weren't speaking pure Caribbean Hindi to you, since Bhojpuri as a member of the Eastern or Magadhi group I imagine would be quite difficult to understand.


Saim, yeah it's true it's based off of Bhojpuri, but in the Fiji radio stations I have been listening it was still quite easy to understand, and this was the talking parts, in a way fiji hindi was a lot eaiser to understand than standard Hindi. I never listened to anything from suriname so I'm not sure. But I thought Hindi was basically dead in Guyana, so I think my Guyanese friends learned from movies, but they never formally studdied it, so I don't know?
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Re: Caribbean and Fiji Hindi

Postby Saim » 2013-09-20, 9:46

Well Fiji Hindi is in theory a variety of Awadhi, which is an Eastern Hindi language and thus closer to Khariboli (a Western Hindi language) than Bhojpuri (which isn't even part of the Central Zone - apparently it belongs to the same Magadhi group as Bengali and Maithili) is.

I think you're right about your Guyanese friends. They probably learned Khariboli as a foreign language, and don't speak real Guyanese Hindi - which as you know is a moribund variety of Bhojpuri.


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