Caribbean Hindustani

Caribbean Hindustani
कैरेबियाई हिंदुस्तानी (Devanagari script) 𑂍𑂶𑂩𑂵𑂥𑂱𑂨𑂰𑂆⸱𑂯𑂱𑂁𑂠𑂳𑂮𑂹𑂞𑂰𑂢𑂲 (Kaithi script) کَیریبئائی ہندوستانی (Perso-Arabic script)
Caribbean Hindustani written in the Latin, Devanagari, Kaithi, and Perso-Arabic scripts
Region	Caribbean
Ethnicity	Indo-Caribbeans Indo-Caribbean Americans British Indo-Caribbean people Indo-Caribbean Canadians Indo-Caribbeans in the Netherlands
Native speakers	150,000 in Suriname (2018)[1] ca. 1600 in Trinidad and Tobago (in 2003) 299,400 in all countries (2006–2019)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern and Central Bihari and Eastern Hindi Bhojpuri and Awadhi Caribbean Hindustani
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Aryan Vedic Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit Magadhi and Ardhamagadhi Prakrit[a] Magadhan and Ardhamagadhi Apabhraṃśa[b] Abahattha[c] Bhojpuri and Awadhi
Dialects	Trinidadian Hindustani Guyanese Hindustani Sarnami Hindustani
Writing system	Devanagari[2][3] Latin-Roman[2] Kaithi[4][2][3] Perso-Arabic[d][2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hns
Glottolog	cari1275

Caribbean Hindustani (Devanagari: कैरेबियाई हिंदुस्तानी; Kaithi: 𑂍𑂶𑂩𑂵𑂥𑂱𑂨𑂰𑂆⸱𑂯𑂱𑂁𑂠𑂳𑂮𑂹𑂞𑂰𑂢𑂲; Perso-Arabic: کَیریبئائی ہندوستانی) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is a koiné language mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects.^[1] These Hindustani dialects were the most spoken dialects by the Indians who came as immigrants to the Caribbean from Colonial India as indentured laborers. It is closely related to Fiji Hindi and the Bhojpuri-Hindustani spoken in Mauritius and South Africa.

Because a majority of people came from the Bhojpur region in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, and the Awadh region in Uttar Pradesh, Caribbean Hindustani is most influenced by Bhojpuri, Awadhi and other Eastern Hindi-Bihari dialects. Hindustani (Standard Hindi-Standard Urdu) has also influenced the language due to the arrival of Bollywood films, music, and other media from India. It also has a minor influence from Tamil and other South Asian languages.^[5] The language has also borrowed many words from Dutch and English in Suriname and Guyana, and English and French in Trinidad and Tobago. Many words unique to Caribbean Hindustani have been created to cater for the new environment that Indo-Caribbeans now live in. After the introduction of Standard Hindustani to the Caribbean, Caribbean Hindustani was seen by many Indo-Caribbeans as a broken version of Hindi, however due to later academic research it was seen as deriving from Bhojpuri, Awadhi, and other dialects and was in fact not a broken language, but its own unique language mainly deriving from the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects, and not the Khariboli dialect like Standard Hindi and Urdu did, thus the difference.^[6]

Caribbean Hindustani is spoken as a vernacular by Indo-Caribbeans, independent of their religious background. Although, Hindus tend to incorporate more Sanskrit derived vocabulary and Muslim tend to incorporate more Persian, Arabic, and Turkic derived vocabulary, similar to the Standard Hindi-Urdu divide of the Hindustani language. When written, the Devanagari script is used by Hindus, while some Muslims tend to use the Perso-Arabic script in the Nastaliq calligraphic hand following the Urdu alphabet; historically, the Kaithi script was also used.^[4] However, due to the decline in the language these scripts are not widely used and most often the Latin script is used due to familiarity and easiness.

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.

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