'Bengali' or 'Bangla' (
IPA: ) is an
Indo-Aryan language of the eastern
Indian subcontinent, evolved from the
Magadhi Prakrit,
PÄli and
Sanskrit languages.
Bengali is native to the region of eastern
South Asia known as
Bengal, which comprises present day
Bangladesh and the
Indian state of
West Bengal. With nearly 230 million
native speakers, Bengali is one of the most popularly spoken languages in the world (it is ranked fourth in the world
3). Bengali is the main language spoken in Bangladesh; in India, it is ranked as the second
[4][5] most spoken language. Along with
Assamese, it is geographically the most eastern of the
Indo-Iranian languages.
History
Like other
Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from the eastern
Middle Indic languages of the
Indian Subcontinent.
Magadhi Prakrit, the earliest recorded
spoken language in the region and the language of the
Buddha, had evolved into
Ardhamagadhi ("Half Magadhi") in the early part of the first millennium CE. Ardhamagadhi, as with all of the Prakrits of North India, began to give way to what are called
Apabhramsa languages just before the turn of the first millennium.
[6] The local Apabhramsa language of the eastern Subcontinent, Purvi Apabhramsa or
Apabhramsa Abahatta, eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups: the
Bihari languages, the Oriya languages, and the Bengali-Assamese languages. Some argue for much earlier points of divergenceâgoing back to even 500 CE
[7] but the language was not static; different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects. For example, Magadhi Prakrit is believed to have evolved into Apabhramsa Abahatta around the 6th century which competed with Bengali for a period of time.
[8]
Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali:
[6]
# Old Bengali (900/1000 CEâ1400 CE)âtexts include ''
Charyapada'', devotional songs; emergence of pronouns ''Ami'', ''tumi'', etc; verb
inflections -''ila'', -''iba'', etc.
Oriya and
Assamese branch out in this period.
# Middle Bengali (1400â1800 CE)âmajor texts of the period include
Chandidas's ''
Srikrishnakirtan'';
elision of word-final ''ô'' sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian influence. Some scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
# New Bengali (since 1800 CE)âshortening of verbs and pronouns, among other changes (e.g. ''tahar'' â ''tar'' "his"/"her"; ''koriyachhilô'' â ''korechhilo''
he/she had done).
Historically closer to
Pali, Bengali saw an increase in
Sanskrit influence during the Middle Bengali (
Chaitanya era), and also during the
Bengal Renaissance. Of the modern
Indo-European languages in South Asia, Bengali and
Marathi retain a largely Sanskrit vocabulary base while
Hindi and others such as
Punjabi are more influenced by
Arabic and
Persian.
Shaheed Minar, or the Martyr's monument, in
Dhaka, commemorates the struggle for the Bengali language
Until the 18th century, there was no attempt to document the grammar for Bengali. The first written Bengali dictionary/grammar, ''Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes'', was written by the
Portuguese missionary Manoel da Assumpcam between 1734 and 1742 while he was serving in
Bhawal.
[10] Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a
British grammarian, wrote a modern Bengali grammar(''A Grammar of the Bengal Language (1778)'') that used Bengali
types in print for the first time.
[11] Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali Reformer, also wrote a "Grammar of the Bengali Language" (1832).
During this period, the ''Choltibhasha'' form, using simplified inflections and other changes, was emerging from ''Shadhubhasha'' (older form) as the form of choice for written Bengali.
[12]
Bengali was the focus, in 1951â52, of the
Bengali Language Movement (''Bhasha Andolon'') in what was then
East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh).
[7] Although Bengali speakers were more numerous in the population of
Pakistan,
Urdu was legislated as the sole national language. On
February 21,
1952, protesting students and activists walked into military and police fire in
Dhaka University and three young students and several others were killed. Subsequently,
UNESCO has declared
21 February as
International Mother Language Day. In a separate event in May 1961, police in
Silchar, India, killed eleven people who were protesting legislation that mandated the use of the Assamese language.
[14][15]
Geographical distribution
The native geographic extent of Bengali
Bengali is native to the region of eastern
South Asia known as
Bengal, which comprises
Bangladesh and the
Indian state of
West Bengal. Around 98% of the total population of Bangladesh speak Bengali as a native language.
[16] There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in immigrant populations in the
Middle East,
West and
Malaysia.
Official status
Bengali is the national and official language of
Bangladesh and one of the 23
national languages recognised by the Republic of India.
[4] It is the official language of the state of
West Bengal and the co-official language of the state of
Tripura,
Cachar District of southern
Assam and the union territory of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Bengali speakers make the majority in
Neil Island and
Havelock Island. It was made an official language of
Sierra Leone in order to honour the Bangladeshi peacekeeping force from the
United Nations stationed there.
[18] It is also the co-official language of Assam, which has three predominantly
Sylheti-speaking districts of southern Assam:
Silchar,
Karimganj, and
Hailakandi.
[19] The national anthems of both
India and
Bangladesh were written in Bengali by
Rabindranath Tagore.
Dialects
Main articles: Bengali dialects
Regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a
dialect continuum. Linguist
Suniti Kumar Chatterjee grouped these dialects into four large clusters — Radh, Banga, Kamarupa and Varendra;
[11] but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed.
[21] The south-western dialects (Radh) form the basis of standard colloquial Bengali, while Bangali is the dominant dialect group in Bangladesh. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bengal (
Barisal,
Chittagong,
Dhaka and
Sylhet divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal are pronounced as
fricatives. Western
palato-alveolar affricates āĻ [], āĻ [], āĻ
. The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on the phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalized vowels. Some variants of Bengali, particularly
Chittagonian and
Chakma Bengali, have contrastive
tone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words.
Rajbangsi, Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly,
Hajong is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects.
[22]
During the standardization of Bengali in the late 19th and early 20th century, the cultural center of Bengal was its capital
Kolkata (then Calcutta). What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of
Nadia, a district located near Kolkata.
[23] There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word than a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, ''nun'' (salt) in the west corresponds to ''lôbon'' in the east.
Spoken and literary varieties
Bengali exhibits diglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax, have emerged:[23][25]
# ''Shadhubhasha'' (āĻ¸āĻžāĻ§ā§ ''shadhu'' = 'chaste' or 'sage'; āĻāĻžāĻˇāĻž ''bhasha'' = 'language') was the written language with longer verb inflections and more of a Sanskrit-derived (āĻ¤ā§āĻ¸āĻŽ ''tôtshôm'') vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthem ''Jana Gana Mana'' (by Rabindranath Tagore) and national song ''Vande MÄtaram'' (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) were composed in Shadhubhasha. However, use of ''Shadhubhasha'' in modern writing is negligible, except when it is used delibarately to achieve some effect.
# ''Choltibhasha'' (āĻāĻ˛āĻ¤āĻŋāĻāĻžāĻˇāĻž ) or ''Cholitobhasha'' (āĻāĻ˛āĻŋāĻ¤ ''cholito'' = 'current' or 'running') , known by linguists as ''Manno Cholit Bangla'' (Standard Current Bangla), is a written Bengali style exhibiting a preponderance colloquial idiom and shortened verb forms, and is the standard for written Bengali now. This form came into vogue towards the turn of the 19th century, promoted by the writings of Peary Chand Mitra (''Alaler Gharer Dulal'', 1857),[26] Pramatha Chowdhury (''Sabujpatra'', 1914) and in the later writings of Rabindranath Tagore. It is modeled on the dialect spoken in the Shantipur region in Nadia district, West Bengal. This form of Bengali is often referred to as the "Nadia standard" or "Shantipuri bangla".[27]
Linguistically, cholit bangla is derived from sadhu bangla through two successive standard linguistic transformations.
While most writings are carried out in cholit bangla, spoken dialects exhibit a far greater variety. South-eastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in manno cholit bangla. Other parts of West Bengal and west Bangladesh speak in dialects that are minor variations, such as the Medinipur dialect characterised by some unique words and constructions. However, areas of Bangladesh, particularly the Chittagong region, speak in a dialect that bears very little superficial resemblance to manno cholit bangla, including an entirely different vocabulary. The difference is so much that a person from West Bengal will be very hard pressed to understand even a single sentence in a passage of this dialect. This is known as the Bongali sublanguage, or more informally as Chattagram bangla. Writers (such as Manik Bandopadhyay in Padmanodir Majhi) have used the Bongali dialect in writing conversations. Though formal spoken Bengali is modeled on manno cholit bangla, the majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety — often, speakers are fluent in choltibhasha and one or more Regional dialects.
Even in Standard Bengali, vocabulary items often divide along the split between the Muslim populace and the Hindu populace. Due to cultural and religious traditions, Hindus and Muslims might use, respectively, Sanskrit-derived and Perso-Arabic words. Some examples of lexical alternation between these two forms are:[ History of Bangla (Banglar itihash) ]
★ hello: nômoshkar (S) corresponds to assalamualaikum/slamalikum (A)
★ invitation: nimontron/nimontonno (S) corresponds to daoat (A)
★ paternal uncle: kaka (S) corresponds to chacha (S/Hindi)
★ water : jol (D) corresponds to pani (P)
(here S = derived from Sanskrit, D = deshi; A = derived from Arabic, P = derived from Persian)
Writing system
Main articles: Bengali script
The Bengali writing system is not purely alphabet-based such as the Latin script. Rather, it is written in the Bengali abugida, a variant of the Eastern Nagari script used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India. It is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE,[28] and is similar to the Devanagari abugida used for Sanskrit and many modern Indic languages such as Hindi. It has particularly close historical relationships with the Assamese script and the Oriya script (although the latter is not evident in appearance). The Bengali abugida is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting the independent form of nine vowels and two diphthongs, and thirty-nine signs denoting the consonants with the so called "inherent" vowels.[29] The Bengali orthography reads from left to right.
Although the consonant signs are presented as segments in the basic inventory of the Bengali script, they are actually orthographically syllabic in nature. Every consonant sign has the vowel āĻ
(or sometimes the vowel āĻ ) "embedded" or "inherent" in it.[ Writing Systems/ Scripts Escudero Pascual Alberto ] For example, the basic consonant sign āĻŽ is pronounced in isolation. The same āĻŽ can represent the sounds or when used in a word, as in āĻŽāĻ¤ "opinion" and āĻŽāĻ¨ "mind", respectively, with no added symbol for the vowels and .
A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than is orthographically realized by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel ligature. These allographs, called ''kar''s (cf. Hindi ''matra''s) are dependent vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graph āĻŽāĻŋ represents the consonant followed by the vowel , where is represented as the allograph āĻŋ and is placed ''before'' the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs āĻŽāĻž , āĻŽā§ , āĻŽā§ , āĻŽā§ , āĻŽā§ , āĻŽā§ /, āĻŽā§ , āĻŽā§ and āĻŽā§ represent the same consonant āĻŽ combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. It should be noted that in these consonant-vowel ligatures, the so-called "inherent" vowel is expunged from the consonant, but the basic consonant sign āĻŽ does not indicate this change.
To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it, a special diacritic, called the ''hôshonto'' (ā§â), may be added below the basic consonant sign (as in āĻŽā§â ). This diacritic, however, is not common, and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation.
The vowel signs in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent allograph form (as discussed above). To represent a vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in āĻŽāĻ "ladder" and in āĻāĻ˛āĻŋāĻļ "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel āĻ is used (cf. the dependent form āĻŋ). A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realized using its independent form.
The Bengali consonant clusters (āĻ¯ā§āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻā§āĻˇāĻ° ''juktakkhor'' in Bengali) are usually realized as ligatures, where the consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. There are more than 400 such consonant clusters and corresponding ligatures in Bengali. Many of their shapes have to be learned by rote.
Three other commonly used diacritics in the Bengali are the superposed ''chôndrobindu'' (āĻ), denoting a suprasegmental for nasalization of vowels (as in āĻāĻžāĻāĻĻ "moon"), the postposed ''onushshôr'' (āĻ) indicating the velar nasal (as in āĻŦāĻžāĻāĻ˛āĻž "Bengali") and the postposed ''bishôrgo'' (āĻ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative (as in āĻāĻ! "ouch!").
Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the ''daÅi'' (|), the Bengali equivalent of a full stop, have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. [11]The graphs usually hang from a superposed horizontal line called the ''matra'' (not to be confused with its Hindi cognate ''matra'', which denotes the dependent forms of Hindi vowels)
Spelling-to-pronunciation inconsistencies
In spite of some modifications in the nineteenth century, the Bengali spelling system continues to be based on the one used for Sanskrit,[11] and thus does not take into account some sound mergers that have occurred in the spoken language. For example, there are three letters (āĻļ, āĻˇ, and āĻ¸) for the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative , although the letter āĻ¸ does retain the voiceless alveolar fricative sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in āĻ¸ā§āĻāĻ˛āĻ¨ "fall", āĻ¸ā§āĻĒāĻ¨ā§āĻĻāĻ¨ "beat", etc. There are two letters (āĻ and āĻ¯) for the voiced postalveolar affricate as well. What was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal āĻŖ is now pronounced as an alveolar (unless conjoined with another retroflex consonant such as āĻ, āĻ , āĻĄ and āĻĸ), although the spelling does not reflect this change. The near-open front unrounded vowel is orthographically realized by multiple means, as seen in the following examples: āĻāĻ¤ "so much", āĻā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻāĻžāĻĄā§āĻŽā§ "academy", āĻ
ā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻŽāĻŋāĻŦāĻž "amoeba", āĻĻā§āĻāĻž "to see", āĻŦā§āĻ¯āĻ¸ā§āĻ¤ "busy", āĻŦā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻāĻ°āĻŖ "grammar".
The realization of the inherent vowel can be another source of confusion. The vowel can be phonetically realized as or depending on the word, and its omission is seldom indicated, as in the final consonant in āĻāĻŽ "less".
Many consonant clusters have different sounds than their constituent consonants. For example, the combination of the consonants āĻā§â and āĻˇ is graphically realized as āĻā§āĻˇ and is pronounced (as in āĻ°ā§āĻā§āĻˇ "rugged") or (as in āĻā§āĻˇāĻ¤āĻŋ "loss") or even (as in āĻā§āĻˇāĻŽāĻ¤āĻž "power"), depending on the position of the cluster in a word. The Bengali writing system is, therefore, not always a true guide to pronunciation.
For a detailed list of these inconsistencies, consult Bengali script.
Uses in other languages
The Bengali script, with a few small modifications, is also used for writing Assamese. Other related languages in the region also make use of the Bengali alphabet. Meitei, a Sino-Tibetan language used in the Indian state of Manipur, has been written in the Bengali abugida for centuries, though Meitei Mayek (the Meitei abugida) has been promoted in recent times. The script has been adopted for writing the Sylheti language as well, replacing the use of the old Sylheti Nagori script.[32]
Romanization
Main articles: Romanization of Bengali
Several conventions exist for writing Indic languages including Bengali in the Latin script, including "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration" or IAST (based on diacritics),[ Learning International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ] "Indian languages Transliteration" or ITRANS (uses upper case alphabets suited for ASCII keyboards),[ ITRANS - Indian Language Transliteration Package ] and the National Library at Calcutta romanization.[ Annex-F: Roman Script Transliteration ]
In the context of Bangla Romanization, it is important to distinguish between
transliteration from transcription. Transliteration is orthographically accurate
(i.e. the original spelling can be recovered), whereas
transcription is phonetically accurate (the pronunciation
can be reproduced).
Since English does not have the sounds of Bangla, and since pronunciation does not completely reflect the spellings, being faithful to both is not possible.
Although it might be desirable to use a transliteration scheme where the original Bangla orthography is recoverable from the Latin text, Bangla words are currently Romanized on Wikipedia mixed a phonemic transcription, where the pronunciation is represented with no reference to how it is written. The Wikipedia Romanization is given in the table below, with IPA transcriptions as used above.
'Vowels'| | Front | Central | Back |
|---|
| High | i | | u |
|---|
| High-mid | e | | o |
|---|
| Low-mid | ÃĒ | | ô |
|---|
| Low | | a | |
|---|
| 'Consonants'| | Labial | Dental | Apico-
Alveolar | Apico-
Postalveolar | Lamino-
Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal |
|---|
Voiceless
stops | p
f | t
th | | ÅŖ
ÅŖh | ch
chh | k
kh | |
|---|
Voiced
stops | b
bh | d
dh | | Ä
Äh | j
jh | g
gh | |
|---|
Voiceless
fricatives | | | s | | sh | | h |
|---|
| Nasals | m | | n | | | ng | |
|---|
| Liquids | | | l, r | Å | | | |
|---|
|
Sounds
Main articles: Bengali phonology
The phonemic inventory of Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 14 vowels, including the seven nasalized vowels. An approximate phonetic scheme is set out below in International Phonetic Alphabet.
'Vowels'| | Front | Central | Back |
|---|
| High | | | |
|---|
| High-mid | | | |
|---|
| Low-mid | | | |
|---|
| Low | | | |
|---|
| 'Consonants'| | Labial | Dental | Apico-
Alveolar | Apico-
Postalveolar | Lamino-
Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal |
|---|
Voiceless
stops |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|---|
Voiced
stops |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|---|
Voiceless
fricatives | | | | | | | |
|---|
| Nasals | | | | | | | |
|---|
| Liquids | | | , | | | | |
|---|
|
Diphthongs
Magadhan languages such as Bengali are known for their wide variety of diphthongs, or combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable.[7] Several vowel combinations can be considered true monosyllabic diphthongs, made up of the main vowel (the 'nucleus') and the trailing vowel (the 'off-glide'). Almost all other vowel combinations are possible, but only across two adjacent syllables, such as the disyllabic vowel combination in āĻā§āĻ¯āĻŧāĻž ''kua'' "well". As many as 25 vowel combinations can be found, but some of the more recent combinations have not passed through the stage between two syllables and a diphthongal monosyllable.[7]
'Diphthongs'| IPA | Transliteration | Example |
|---|
| ii | nii "I take" |
| iu | biubhôl "upset" |
| ei | nei "there is not" |
| ee | khee "having eaten" |
| eu | Äheu "wave" |
| eo | kheona "do not eat" |
| ÃĒe | nÃĒe "she takes" |
| ÃĒo | nÃĒo "you take" |
| ai | pai "I find" |
| ae | pae "she finds" |
| au | pau "sliced bread" |
| ao | pao "you find" |
| ôe | nôe "she is not" |
| ôo | nôo "you are not" |
| oi | noi "I am not" |
| oe | dhoe "she washes" |
| oo | dhoo "you wash" |
| ou | nouka "boat" |
| ui | dhui "I wash" |
Stress
In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as '''shô'-ho-'jo'-gi-'ta''' "cooperation", where the 'boldface' represents primary and secondary stress. The first syllable carries the greatest stress, with the third carrying a somewhat weaker stress, and all following odd-numbered syllables carrying very weak stress. However in words borrowed from Sanskrit, the root syllable is stressed, causing them to be out of harmony with native Bengali words.[35]
Adding prefixes to a word typically shifts the stress to the left. For example, while the word '''shob'-bho'' "civilized" carries the primary stress on the first syllable ['shob'], adding the negative prefix [ô-] creates '''ô'-shob-bho'' "uncivilized", where the primary stress is now on the newly-added first syllable āĻ
'''ô'''. In any case, word-stress does not alter the meaning of a word and is always subsidiary to sentence-stress.[35]
Intonation
For Bengali words, intonation or pitch of voice has minor significance, apart from a few isolated cases. However in sentences intonation does play a significant role.[7] In a simple declarative sentence, most words and/or phrases in Bengali carry a rising tone,[38] with the exception of the last word in the sentence, which only carries a low tone. This intonational pattern creates a musical tone to the typical Bengali sentence, with low and high tones alternating until the final drop in pitch to mark the end of the sentence.
In sentences involving focused words and/or phrases, the rising tones only last until the focused word; all following words carry a low tone.[38] This intonation pattern extends to wh-questions, as wh-words are normally considered to be focused. In yes-no questions, the rising tones may be more exaggerated, and most importantly, the final syllable of the final word in the sentence takes a high falling tone instead of a flat low tone.[40]
Vowel length
Vowel length is not contrastive in Bengali; all else equal, there is no meaningful distinction between a "short vowel" and a "long vowel",
Furthermore, using a form of reduplication called "echo reduplication", the long vowel in ''cha:'' can be copied into the reduplicant ''ÅŖa:'', giving ''cha:ÅŖa:'' "tea and all that comes with it". Thus, in addition to ''cha:ÅŖa'' "the tea" (long first vowel) and ''chaÅŖa'' "licking" (no long vowels), we have ''cha:ÅŖa:'' "tea and all that comes with it" (both long vowels).
Consonant clusters
Main articles: Bengali consonant clusters
Native Bengali (''tôdbhôb'') words do not allow initial consonant clusters;[7] the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e. one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as āĻā§āĻ°āĻžāĻŽ ''geram'' (CV.CVC) for āĻā§āĻ°āĻžāĻŽ ''gram'' (CCVC) "village" or āĻāĻ¸ā§āĻā§āĻ˛ ''iskul'' (VC.CVC) for āĻ¸ā§āĻā§āĻ˛ ''skul'' (CCVC) "school".
Sanskrit (āĻ¤ā§āĻ¸āĻŽ ''tôtshôm'') words borrowed into Bengali, however, possess a wide range of clusters, expanding the maximum syllable structure to CCCVC. Some of these clusters, such as the ''mr'' in āĻŽā§āĻ¤ā§āĻ¯ā§ ''mrittu'' "death" or the ''sp'' in āĻ¸ā§āĻĒāĻˇā§āĻ ''spôshÅŖo'' "clear", have become extremely common, and can be considered legal consonant clusters in Bengali. English and other foreign (āĻŦāĻŋāĻĻā§āĻļā§ ''bideshi'') borrowings add even more cluster types into the Bengali inventory, further increasing the syllable capacity to CCCVCCCC, as commonly-used loanwords such as āĻā§āĻ°ā§āĻ¨ ''ÅŖren'' "train" and āĻā§āĻ˛āĻžāĻ¸ ''glash'' "glass" are now even included in leading Bengali dictionaries.
Final consonant clusters are rare in Bengali.[7] Most final consonant clusters were borrowed into Bengali from English, as in āĻ˛āĻŋāĻĢā§âāĻ ''lifÅŖ'' "lift, elevator" and āĻŦā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻāĻ ''bÃĒÅk'' "bank". However, final clusters do exist in some native Bengali words, although rarely in standard pronunciation. One example of a final cluster in a standard Bengali word would be āĻāĻā§āĻ ''gônj'', which is found in names of hundreds of cities and towns across Bengal, including āĻ¨āĻŦāĻžāĻŦāĻāĻā§āĻ ''Nôbabgônj'' and āĻŽāĻžāĻ¨āĻŋāĻāĻāĻā§āĻ ''Manikgônj''. Some nonstandard varieties of Bengali make use of final clusters quite often. For example, in some Purbo (eastern) dialects, final consonant clusters consisting of a nasal and its corresponding oral stop are common, as in āĻāĻžāĻ¨ā§āĻĻ ''chand'' "moon". The Standard Bengali equivalent of ''chand'' would be āĻāĻžāĻāĻĻ ''chÃŖd'', with a nasalized vowel instead of the final cluster.
Grammar
Bengali nouns are not assigned gender, which leads to minimal changing of adjectives (inflection). However, nouns and pronouns are highly declined (altered depending on their function in a sentence) into four cases while verbs are heavily conjugated.
As a consequence, unlike Hindi, Bengali verbs do not change form depending on the gender of the nouns.
Word order
As a Head-Final language, Bengali follows Subject Object Verb word order, although variations to this theme are common.[45] Bengali makes use of postpositions, as opposed to the prepositions used in English and other European languages. Determiners follow the noun, while numerals, adjectives, and possessors precede the noun.[ Bengali ]
Yes-no questions do not require any change to the basic word order; instead, the low (L) tone of the final syllable in the utterance is replaced with a falling (HL) tone. Additionally optional particles (e.g. āĻāĻŋ ''-ki'', āĻ¨āĻž ''-na'', etc.) are often encliticized onto the first or last word of a yes-no question.
Wh-questions are formed by fronting the wh-word to focus position, which is typically the first or second word in the utterance.
Nouns
Nouns and pronouns are inflected for case, including nominative, objective, genitive (possessive), and locative.[6] The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of animacy. When a definite article such as -āĻāĻž ''-ÅŖa'' (singular) or -āĻā§āĻ˛āĻž ''-gula'' (plural) is added, as in the tables below, nouns are also inflected for number.
'Singular Noun Inflection' | Animate | Inanimate |
|---|
| Nominative | āĻāĻžāĻ¤ā§āĻ°āĻāĻž
chhatro-ÅŖa
the student | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻāĻž
juta-ÅŖa
the shoe |
|---|
| Objective | āĻāĻžāĻ¤ā§āĻ°āĻāĻž'āĻā§'
chhatro-ÅŖa-'ke'
the student | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻāĻž
juta-ÅŖa
the shoe |
|---|
| Genitive | āĻāĻžāĻ¤ā§āĻ°āĻāĻž'āĻ°'
chhatro-ÅŖa-'r'
the student's | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻāĻž'āĻ°'
juta-ÅŖa-'r'
the shoe's |
|---|
| Locative | - | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻāĻž'āĻ¯āĻŧ'
juta-ÅŖa-'(t)e'
on/in the shoe |
|---|
| 'Plural Noun Inflection' | Animate | Inanimate |
|---|
| Nominative | āĻāĻžāĻ¤ā§āĻ°'āĻ°āĻž'
chhatro-'ra'
the students | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻā§āĻ˛āĻž
juta-gula
the shoes |
|---|
| Objective | āĻāĻžāĻ¤ā§āĻ°'āĻĻā§āĻ°(āĻā§)'
chhatro-'der(ke)'
the students | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻā§āĻ˛āĻž
juta-gula
the shoes |
|---|
| Genitive | āĻāĻžāĻ¤ā§āĻ°'āĻĻā§āĻ°'
chhatro-'der'
the students' | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻā§āĻ˛āĻž'āĻ°'
juta-gula-'r'
the shoes' |
|---|
| Locative | - | āĻā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻā§āĻ˛āĻž'āĻ¤ā§'
juta-gula-'te'
on/in the shoes |
|---|
|
When counted, nouns take one of a small set of measure words. As in many East Asian languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.), nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. The noun's measure word ('MW') must be used between the numeral and the noun. Most nouns take the generic measure word -āĻāĻž ''-ÅŖa'', though other measure words indicate semantic classes (e.g. -āĻāĻ¨ ''-jon'' for humans).
'Measure Words'| Bengali | Bengali transliteration | Literal translation | English translation |
|---|
| āĻ¨āĻ¯āĻŧ'āĻāĻž' āĻāĻ°ā§ | Nôe-'ÅŖa' goru | Nine-'MW' cow | Nine cows |
| āĻāĻ¯āĻŧ'āĻāĻž' āĻŦāĻžāĻ˛āĻŋāĻļ | Kôe-'ÅŖa' balish | How many-'MW' pillow | How many pillows |
| āĻ
āĻ¨ā§āĻ'āĻāĻ¨' āĻ˛ā§āĻ | Ãnek-'jon' lok | Many-'MW' person | Many people |
| āĻāĻžāĻ°-āĻĒāĻžāĻāĻ'āĻāĻ¨' āĻļāĻŋāĻā§āĻˇāĻ | Char-pÃŖch-'jon' shikkhôk | Four-five-'MW' teacher | Four or five teachers |
Measuring nouns in Bengali without their corresponding measure words (e.g. āĻāĻ āĻŦāĻŋāĻĄāĻŧāĻžāĻ˛ ''aÅŖ biÅal'' instead of āĻāĻ'āĻāĻž' āĻŦāĻŋāĻĄāĻŧāĻžāĻ˛ ''aÅŖ-'ÅŖa' biÅal'' "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, when the semantic class of the noun is understood from the measure word, the noun is often omitted and only the measure word is used, e.g. āĻļā§āĻ§ā§ āĻāĻ'āĻāĻ¨' āĻĨāĻžāĻāĻŦā§āĨ¤ ''Shudhu ÃĒk-'jon' thakbe.'' (lit. "Only one-'MW' will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one 'person' will remain.", given the semantic class implicit in -āĻāĻ¨ ''-jon''.
In this sense, all nouns in Bengali, unlike most other Indo-European languages, are similar to mass nouns.
Verbs
Verbs divide into two classes: finite and non-finite. Non-finite verbs have no inflection for tense or person, while finite verbs are fully inflected for person (first, second, third), tense (present, past, future), aspect (simple, perfect, progressive), and honor (intimate, familiar, and formal), but ''not'' for number. Conditional, imperative, and other special inflections for mood can replace the tense and aspect suffixes. The number of inflections on many verb roots can total more than 200.
Inflectional suffixes in the morphology of Bengali vary from region to region, along with minor differences in syntax.
Bengali differs from most Indo-Aryan Languages in the zero copula, where the copula or connective ''be'' is often missing in the present tense.[47] Thus "he is a teacher" is ''she shikkhôk'', (literally "he teacher").[48]
In this respect, Bengali is similar to Russian and Hungarian.
Vocabulary
Main articles: Bengali vocabulary
Bengali has as many as 75,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67%) are considered ''tôtshômo'' (direct reborrowings from Sanskrit), 21,100 (28%) are ''tôdbhôbo'' (derived from Sanskrit words), and the rest being ''bideshi'' (foreign) and ''deshi'' (indigenous Austroasiatic) words.
However, these figures do not take into account the fact that a large proportion of these words are archaic or highly technical, minimizing their actual usage. The productive vocabulary used in modern literary works, in fact, is made up mostly (67%) of ''tôdbhôbo'' words, while ''tôtshômo'' only make up 25% of the total.[49][50] ''Deshi'' and ''Bideshi'' words together make up the remaining 8% of the vocabulary used in modern Bengali literature.
Due to centuries of contact with Europeans, Mughals, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Afghans, and East Asians, Bengali has borrowed many words from foreign languages. The most common borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. Close contact with neighboring peoples facilitated the borrowing of words from Hindi, Assamese, Chinese, Burmese, and several indigenous Austroasiatic languages of Bengal. After centuries of invasions from Persia and the Middle East, numerous Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Pashtun words were absorbed into Bengali. Portuguese, French, Dutch and English words were later additions during the colonial period.
Sample
See also
Notes
1. Languages spoken by more than 10 million people
2. Statistical Summaries
3. The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages
4. Languages of India
5. Languages in Descending Order of Strength - India, States and Union Territories - 1991 Census
6.
7.
8. Abahattha in
9.
10. Grammar
11. Bangla language in
12. The Bengali Language and Translation
13.
14. All about language
15. No alliance with BJP, says AGP chief
16. The World Fact Book
17. Languages of India
18. Sierra Leone makes Bengali official language
19. Language NIC, Assam State Centre, Guwahati, Assam
20. Bangla language in
21. Dialect
22. Hajong
23. Chalita Bhasa
24. Chalita Bhasa
25. Sadhu Bhasa
26. Alaler Gharer Dulal
27. Dialect
28. Bangla Script in
29. Bangla Script in
30. Bangla language in
31. Bangla language in
32. Sylheti Nagri
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47. Bangla language in
48. Among Bengali speakers brought up in neighbouring linguistic regions (e.g. Hindi), the lost copula may surface in utterances such as ''she shikkhôk hochchhe''. This is viewed as ungrammatical by other speakers, and speakers of this variety are sometimes (humorously) referred as "hochchhe-Bangali".
49. Tatsama in
50. Tatbhava in
References
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
|
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
★ .
|
External links
★ Ethnologue report for Bengali
★ Bengali Language: A Brief Introduction
★ Samsad Bengali-English dictionary. 3rd ed. online. Requires unicode enabled browser.
★ Free Bangla Unicode Solutions.
★ The South Asian Literary Recordings Project, The Library of Congress. Bengali Authors.
اŲØšØąØ¨ŲØŠ
ä¸åŊ
Français
Deutsch
ÎÎģÎģΡÎŊΚÎēÎŽ
ā¤šā¤ŋā¤¨āĨā¤ĻāĨ
Italiano
æĨæŦčĒ
PortuguÃĒs
Đ ŅŅŅĐēиК
EspaÃąol
