11 Facts About Caribbean Hindustani

1.

Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora.

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2.

Standard Caribbean Hindustani has influenced the language due to the arrival of Bollywood films, music, and other media from India.

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3.

Many words unique to Caribbean Hindustani have been created to cater for the new environment that Indo-Caribbeans now live in.

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4.

Caribbean Hindustani is spoken as a vernacular by Indo-Caribbeans, independent of their religious background.

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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.

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6.

Today Caribbean 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.

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7.

Sarnami or Sarnami Hindoestani or Sarnami Caribbean Hindustani meaning Surinamese Caribbean Hindustani is the third-most spoken language in Suriname after Dutch and Sranan Tongo.

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8.

Today the remaining speakers of Guyanese Caribbean Hindustani are mostly speakers of the Nickerian-Berbician dialect due to the influx of Nickerians in Berbice.

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9.

Nickerian-Berbician Caribbean Hindustani is mostly mutually intelligible with the Sarnami spoken in the rest of Suriname, although there are many words from Guyanese English Creole, English, and Berbice Creole Dutch.

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10.

Nickerian-Berbician Caribbean Hindustani is mutually intelligible with the Guyanese Caribbean Hindustani spoken in the rest Guyana, however unlike Suriname, Indians in Guyana have mostly adopted Guyanese English Creole as their first language and it is spoken mostly by the elderly, Hindu priests, and immigrants from Suriname.

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11.

Attempts to preserve the language are being made by Caribbean Hindustani Inc led by Visham Bhimull, Sarnami Bol Inc led by Rajsingh Ramanjulu in Suriname, Karen Dass in Trinidad and Tobago, and Harry Hergash in Canada who is originally from Guyana.

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