Caribbean Hindustani

Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects.[4] These were spoken by indentured laborers who came as immigrants to the Caribbean from the Indian subcontinent. It is closely related to Fiji Hindi and the Hindustani spoken in Mauritius and South Africa.

Caribbean Hindustani
RegionCaribbean
Ethnicity
Native speakers
Indo-European
Dialects
  • Trinidadian Hindustani (Trinidadian Bhojpuri)
  • Guyanese Hindustani (Aili Gaili)
  • Sarnami Hindoestani
Language codes
ISO 639-3hns
Glottologcari1275[3]

Because a majority of people came from the Awadh region in Uttar Pradesh and the Bhojpur region in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, Caribbean Hindustani is most influenced by Bhojpuri, Awadhi, and other Eastern Hindi-Bihari dialects. It has a very minor influence from Tamil, Telugu, and other Dravidian languages. It has also borrowed many words from Dutch in Suriname and other Dutch colonies, and English and French in former British colonies and French colonies. Many words unique to Caribbean Hindustani have been created to cater for the new environment that Indo-Caribbeans now live in.

Caribbean Hindustani is spoken as a vernacular by all descendants of South Asian immigrants, independent of their religious background. While Caribbean Hindustani is mostly a language of informal daily comunication, the traditional prestige language of the community is Hindi–Urdu in either of its literary variants: Hindi (Modern Standard Hindi) for Hindus, and Urdu for Muslims.[5]

Chutney music, chutney soca, chutney parang, baithak gana, folk music, classical music, some Hindu religious songs, some Muslim religious songs, and even some Indian Christian religious songs are sung in Caribbean Hindustani, sometimes being mixed with English in the Anglophone Caribbean or Dutch in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean.

Guyanese Hindustani

The Caribbean Hindustani of Guyana is known as Aili Gaili. It is spoken by some members in a community of 300,000 Indo-Guyanese.

Trinidadian Hindustani

The variant that is spoken in Trinidad and Tobago is known as Trinidadian Hindustani, Trinidadian Bhojpuri, Plantation Hindustani, or Gaon ke Bolee (Village Speech).[6] A majority of the early Indian immigrants spoke Bhojpuri and Awadhi, which later formed into Trinidadian Hindustani. In 1935, Indian movies began showing to audiences in Trinidad. Most of the Indian movies were in the Standard Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) dialect and this modified Trinidadian Hindustani slightly by adding Standard Hindi and Urdu phrases and vocabulary to Trinidadian Hindustani. Indian movies also revitalized Hindustani among Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians.[7] Around the mid to late 1970s the lingua franca of Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians switched from Trinidadian Hindustani to a sort of Hindinized version of English. Today Hindustani survives on through Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian musical forms such as, Bhajan, Indian classical music, Indian folk music, Filmi, Pichakaree, Chutney, Chutney soca, and Chutney parang. Presently there are about 15,633 Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians who speak Trinidadian Hindustani and there are 10,000 who speak Standard Hindi. Many Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians today speak a type of Hinglish that consist of Trinidadian and Tobagonian English that is heavily laced with Trinidadian Hindustani vocabulary and phrases and many Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians can recite phrases or prayers in Hindustani today. There are many places in Trinidad and Tobago that have names of Hindustani origin. Some phrases and vocabulary have even made its way into the mainstream English and English Creole dialect of the country.[8][9][10][11][6][12] World Hindi Day is celebrated each year with events organized by the National Council of Indian Culture, Hindi Nidhi Foundation, Indian High Commission, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, and the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.[13]

Sarnami Hindustani

Sarnami Hindustani meaning Surinamese Hindustani is the most widely spoken language in Suriname after Dutch, Sranan Tongo (the two lingua francas) and English . It is a distinct dialect of the Bhojpuri language (the language spoken in north Indian states Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) with heavy lexical influence from other languages spoken in Suriname. It is mainly spoken by and within Suriname’s Indo-Surinamese (ca. 27% of the population) community and therefore it is not considered to be a third lingua franca.

Baithak Gana is the most famous form of the song being sung in Sarnami Hindustani.

gollark: Because it's good. It even includes SCPs now.
gollark: Has anyone installed potatOS yet?
gollark: Soon I will prepare and consume a Level 6 lunch.
gollark: I'm interacting with a Laptop item.
gollark: I do not like this Pandemic event, it's basically just a copy of the previous ones with some minor tweaks.

References
  1. Frawley, William (May 2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195139778. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  2. Frawley, William (May 2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195139778. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Caribbean Hindustani". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Caribbean Hindustani at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
  5. Damsteegt, Theo (1988). "Sarnami: a Living Language". In Richard Keith Barz; Jeff Siegel (eds.). Language Transplanted: The Development of Overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 95–120.
  6. Jayaram, N.; Atal, Yogesh (24 May 2004). The Indian Diaspora: Dynamics of Migration. ISBN 9780761932185.
  7. Gooptar, Primnath (2014). Bala Joban: The First Indian Movie in Trinidad (1935). ISBN 9789766483227.
  8. "Hindustani, Sarnami". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  9. "The Languages spoken in Trinidad and Tobago".
  10. "10,000 students graduate in Hindi".
  11. Mahabir, Kumar (December 1999). "The Impact of Hindi on Trinidadian English". Caribbean Quarterly. 45 (4): 13–34. doi:10.1080/00086495.1999.11671866.
  12. Frawley, William (May 2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195139778. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  13. https://newsday.co.tt/2020/01/19/tt-celebrates-world-hindi-day/#
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