The Bengali Language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bengali /bɛŋˈɡɔːli/[5] or Bangla /bɑːŋlɑː/ (বাংলা Bangla [ˈbaŋla] ( listen)) is the language native to the region of Bengal, which comprises present-day Bangladesh and the Indian states West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam. It is written using the Bengali script. With about 220 million native and about 250 million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages, ranked seventh in the world.[6][7] The National Anthem of Bangladesh, National Anthem of India, National Anthem of Sri Lanka and the national song of India were first composed in the Bengali language.
Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali evolved circa 1000–1200 CE from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects such as the Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, which developed from a dialect or group of dialects that were close, but not identical to, Vedic and Classical Sanskrit.[8] Literary Bengali saw borrowings from Classical Sanskrit, preserving spelling while adapting pronunciation to that of Bengali, during the period of Middle Bengali and the Bengali Renaissance. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the dialect spoken in the Nadia region, a west-central Bengali dialect. Bengali presents a strong case of diglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language.[9] Standard Bengali in West Bengal and Bangladesh are marked by some differences in usage, accent, and phonetics. Today, literary form and dialects of Bengali constitute the primary language spoken in Bangladesh and the second most commonly spoken language in India.[10][11] Also with a rich literary tradition arising from the Bengali Renaissance, Bengali language binds together a culturally diverse region and is an important contributor to Bengali nationalism.
The Bengali Language Movement was a popular ethno-linguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh), which was a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengali people to gain and protect spoken and written Bengali script's recognition as a state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan. On the day of 21 February 1952 several students and political activists were killed during protests near Dhaka University campus. The day has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh, and was proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on 17 November 1999 marking Bengali language the only language in the world to be also known for its language movements and people sacrificing their life for their mother language Bengali. There was a similar Bengali language movement in Assam which was a protest against the decision of the Government of Assam to make Assamese the only official language of the state even though a significant proportion of the population were Bengali speaking.
Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali. The earliest recorded spoken languages in the region and the language of Gautama Buddha, evolved into the Jain Prakrit or ôrdhômagôdhi "Half Magadhi" in the early part of the first millennium CE.[12][13] ôrdhômagôdhi, as with all of the Prakrits of North India, began to give way to what are called ôpôbhrôngshô ("Corrupted grammar") languages just before the turn of the first millennium.[14] The local ôpôbhrôngshô language of the eastern subcontinent, Purbi ôpôbhrôngshô or Abahatta ("Meaningless Sounds"), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups of the Assamese-Bengali languages, the Bihari languages, and the Oriya languages. Some argue that the points of divergence occurred much earlier—going back to even 500[15] 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 Abahatta around the 6th century which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for a period of time.[16]
Shohid Minar, or the Martyr's monument, in Dhaka, commemorates the struggle for the Bengali language.
Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali language:[14]
Old Bengali (900/1000–1400)—texts include চর্যাপদ Chôrjapôdô, devotional songs; emergence of pronouns আমি Ami, তুমি tumi, etc.; verb inflections -ইলা -ila, -ইবা -iba, etc. The scripts and languages during this period were mainly influenced by the Kamarupi Prakrit as the entire region- Assam, Bengal and parts of Bihar and Orissa[citation needed] was under the Kamrup kingdom (now known as Assam).
Middle Bengali (1400–1800)—major texts of the period include Chandidas's Shreekrishna Kirtana; elision of word-final অ ô sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian influence. Some scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
Modern Bengali (since 1800)—shortening of verbs and pronouns, among other changes (e.g. তাহার tahar → তার tar "his"/"her"; করিয়াছিল kôriyachhilô → করেছিল korechhilo he/she had done).
Bengali also saw an increase in Sanskrit influence during the Middle Bengali (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu era) and also during the Bengal Renaissance.[17] The modern Bengali vocabulary contains the vocabulary base from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, also borrowings & reborrowings from Sanskrit and other major borrowings from Arabic, Austroasiatic languages and other languages in contact.
Until the 18th century, there was no attempt to document Bengali grammar. The first written Bengali dictionary/grammar, Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes, was written by the Portuguese missionary Manuel da Assumpção between 1734 and 1742 while he was serving in Bhawal Estate.[18] 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.[6] Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali reformer,[19] also wrote a "Grammar of the Bengali Language" (1832).[20]
During this period, the চলিতভাষা Chôlitôbhasha form of Bengali using simplified inflections and other changes, was emerging from সাধুভাষা Sadhubhasha (Proper form or original form of Bengali) as the form of choice for written Bengali.[21]
Pages from the Chôrjapôdô.
Bengali was the focus, in 1951–52, of the Bengali Language Movement (ভাষা আন্দোলন Bhasha Andolôn) in what was then East Bengal (today Bangladesh).[22] On 21 February 1952, protesting students and activists were fired upon by military and police in the University of Dhaka and three young students and several other people were killed.[23] Later in 1999, UNESCO declared 21 February as the International Mother Language Day in recognition of the deaths and people sacrificing their life for their mother language Bengali.[24][25] In a separate event on 19 May 1961, police in Barak Valley in Assam killed eleven people who were demonstrating against legislation that mandated the use of the Assamese language.[26]
Geographical distribution[edit]
Bengali with native speakers holds sole official and national language status
Bengali with native speakers holds one of the official languages status
Large diaspora of Bengali speakers (100,000+)
Smaller diaspora of Bengali speakers (10,000+)
Bengali language is native to the region Bengal, which comprises present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam.
Besides the native region it is also spoken by the majority of the population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in Middle East, Japan, United States, Singapore,[27] Malaysia, Maldives, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom.
Official status[edit]
See also: States of India by Bengali speakers
Bengali is the national and official language of Bangladesh, and one of the 23 official languages recognised by the Republic of India.[28] It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam.[29][30] It is also a major language in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.[2][3]
Kazi Nazrul Islam, the National Poet of Bangladesh at Sitakunda, Chittagong
The Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the National Poet of India
Bengali is a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is also a recognized secondary language in the City of Karachi in Pakistan.[31][32][33] The Department of Bengali in the University of Karachi also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature.[34] In December 2002, Sierra Leone’s then President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah also named Bengali as an "official language" in recognition of the work of 5,300 troops from Bangladesh in the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone peacekeeping force.[35][36]
The national anthems of both Bangladesh and India were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.[37] In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali language to be made an official language of the United Nations.[38]
Dialects[edit]
Main article: Bengali dialects
Regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a dialect continuum. Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee grouped these dialects into four large clusters—Rarh, Banga, Kamarupa and Varendra;[6] but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed.[39] The south-western dialects (Rarh or Nadia dialect) form the basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh (Barisal division, Chittagong division, Dhaka division and Sylhet division of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal are pronounced as fricatives. Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [tɕɔ], ছ [tɕʰɔ], জ [dʑɔ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ], ছ় [sɔ], জ [dzɔ~zɔ]. 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 Bangla, 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.[40]
During the standardization of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural center of Bengal was in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata), founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia District, located next to the border of Bangladesh.[41] There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is নুন nun in the west which corresponds to লবণ lôbôn in the east.[42]
Spoken and literary varieties[edit]
Bengali exhibits diglossia, though largely contested notion as some scholars proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia[43] between the written and spoken forms of the language.[44] Two styles of writing, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax, have emerged:[41][45]
Shadhubhasha (সাধুভাষা ← সাধু shadhu='chaste' or 'sage' + ভাষা bhasha='language') was the written language, with longer verb inflections and more of a Pali and Sanskrit-derived tôtsômô vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthem Jônô Gônô Mônô (by Rabindranath Tagore) were composed in Shadhubhasha. However, use of Shadhubhasha in modern writing is uncommon, restricted to some official signs and documents in Bangladesh as well as for achieving particular literary effects.
Cholitobhasha (Bengali: চলিতভাষা ← চলিত chôlitô='current' or 'running' + ভাষা bhasha='language') known by linguists as Manno Cholit Bangla (Standard Colloquial Bengali), is a written Bengali style exhibiting a preponderance of 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),[46] 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", "Nadia dialect", "South-western/Western-central dialect" or "Shantipuri Bangla".[39]
While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali, spoken dialects (defeated language of the captive speaker[47]) exhibit a greater variety. South-eastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in Standard Colloquial Bengali. Other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh speak in dialects that are minor variations, such as the Medinipur dialect characterised by some unique words and constructions. However, a majority in Bangladesh speak in dialects notably different from Standard Colloquial Bengali. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to Standard Colloquial Bengali.[48] The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis.[48] The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety—often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (Standard Colloquial Bengali) and one or more regional dialects.[21] For some counter-views, one may browse some different articles.[49][50]
Even in Standard Colloquial Bengali, the words may differ based on the speakers's religion. Due to religious traditions Hindus and Muslims might use respectively, Sanskrit-derived and Arabic-derived words.[51] Some examples of lexical alternation between these two forms (here S=derived from Sanskrit, A=derived from Arabic):[42]
hello: নমস্কার nômôshkar (S) corresponds to সালাম আলাইকুম salam-alaikum (A)
invitation: নিমন্ত্রণ nimôntrôn (S) corresponds to দাওয়াত daoat (A)
water : জল jôl (S) corresponds to পানি pani (A)
Phonology[edit]
Main article: Bengali phonology
The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, including 6 nasalized vowels. The inventory is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanization (lower grapheme).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language
The Bengali Language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bengali /bɛŋˈɡɔːli/[5] or Bangla /bɑːŋlɑː/ (বাংলা Bangla [ˈbaŋla] ( listen)) is the language native to the region of Bengal, which comprises present-day Bangladesh and the Indian states West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam. It is written using the Bengali script. With about 220 million native and about 250 million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages, ranked seventh in the world.[6][7] The National Anthem of Bangladesh, National Anthem of India, National Anthem of Sri Lanka and the national song of India were first composed in the Bengali language.
Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali evolved circa 1000–1200 CE from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects such as the Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, which developed from a dialect or group of dialects that were close, but not identical to, Vedic and Classical Sanskrit.[8] Literary Bengali saw borrowings from Classical Sanskrit, preserving spelling while adapting pronunciation to that of Bengali, during the period of Middle Bengali and the Bengali Renaissance. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the dialect spoken in the Nadia region, a west-central Bengali dialect. Bengali presents a strong case of diglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language.[9] Standard Bengali in West Bengal and Bangladesh are marked by some differences in usage, accent, and phonetics. Today, literary form and dialects of Bengali constitute the primary language spoken in Bangladesh and the second most commonly spoken language in India.[10][11] Also with a rich literary tradition arising from the Bengali Renaissance, Bengali language binds together a culturally diverse region and is an important contributor to Bengali nationalism.
The Bengali Language Movement was a popular ethno-linguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh), which was a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengali people to gain and protect spoken and written Bengali script's recognition as a state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan. On the day of 21 February 1952 several students and political activists were killed during protests near Dhaka University campus. The day has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh, and was proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on 17 November 1999 marking Bengali language the only language in the world to be also known for its language movements and people sacrificing their life for their mother language Bengali. There was a similar Bengali language movement in Assam which was a protest against the decision of the Government of Assam to make Assamese the only official language of the state even though a significant proportion of the population were Bengali speaking.
Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali. The earliest recorded spoken languages in the region and the language of Gautama Buddha, evolved into the Jain Prakrit or ôrdhômagôdhi "Half Magadhi" in the early part of the first millennium CE.[12][13] ôrdhômagôdhi, as with all of the Prakrits of North India, began to give way to what are called ôpôbhrôngshô ("Corrupted grammar") languages just before the turn of the first millennium.[14] The local ôpôbhrôngshô language of the eastern subcontinent, Purbi ôpôbhrôngshô or Abahatta ("Meaningless Sounds"), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups of the Assamese-Bengali languages, the Bihari languages, and the Oriya languages. Some argue that the points of divergence occurred much earlier—going back to even 500[15] 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 Abahatta around the 6th century which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for a period of time.[16]
Shohid Minar, or the Martyr's monument, in Dhaka, commemorates the struggle for the Bengali language.
Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali language:[14]
Old Bengali (900/1000–1400)—texts include চর্যাপদ Chôrjapôdô, devotional songs; emergence of pronouns আমি Ami, তুমি tumi, etc.; verb inflections -ইলা -ila, -ইবা -iba, etc. The scripts and languages during this period were mainly influenced by the Kamarupi Prakrit as the entire region- Assam, Bengal and parts of Bihar and Orissa[citation needed] was under the Kamrup kingdom (now known as Assam).
Middle Bengali (1400–1800)—major texts of the period include Chandidas's Shreekrishna Kirtana; elision of word-final অ ô sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian influence. Some scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
Modern Bengali (since 1800)—shortening of verbs and pronouns, among other changes (e.g. তাহার tahar → তার tar "his"/"her"; করিয়াছিল kôriyachhilô → করেছিল korechhilo he/she had done).
Bengali also saw an increase in Sanskrit influence during the Middle Bengali (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu era) and also during the Bengal Renaissance.[17] The modern Bengali vocabulary contains the vocabulary base from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, also borrowings & reborrowings from Sanskrit and other major borrowings from Arabic, Austroasiatic languages and other languages in contact.
Until the 18th century, there was no attempt to document Bengali grammar. The first written Bengali dictionary/grammar, Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes, was written by the Portuguese missionary Manuel da Assumpção between 1734 and 1742 while he was serving in Bhawal Estate.[18] 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.[6] Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali reformer,[19] also wrote a "Grammar of the Bengali Language" (1832).[20]
During this period, the চলিতভাষা Chôlitôbhasha form of Bengali using simplified inflections and other changes, was emerging from সাধুভাষা Sadhubhasha (Proper form or original form of Bengali) as the form of choice for written Bengali.[21]
Pages from the Chôrjapôdô.
Bengali was the focus, in 1951–52, of the Bengali Language Movement (ভাষা আন্দোলন Bhasha Andolôn) in what was then East Bengal (today Bangladesh).[22] On 21 February 1952, protesting students and activists were fired upon by military and police in the University of Dhaka and three young students and several other people were killed.[23] Later in 1999, UNESCO declared 21 February as the International Mother Language Day in recognition of the deaths and people sacrificing their life for their mother language Bengali.[24][25] In a separate event on 19 May 1961, police in Barak Valley in Assam killed eleven people who were demonstrating against legislation that mandated the use of the Assamese language.[26]
Geographical distribution[edit]
Bengali with native speakers holds sole official and national language status
Bengali with native speakers holds one of the official languages status
Large diaspora of Bengali speakers (100,000+)
Smaller diaspora of Bengali speakers (10,000+)
Bengali language is native to the region Bengal, which comprises present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam.
Besides the native region it is also spoken by the majority of the population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in Middle East, Japan, United States, Singapore,[27] Malaysia, Maldives, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom.
Official status[edit]
See also: States of India by Bengali speakers
Bengali is the national and official language of Bangladesh, and one of the 23 official languages recognised by the Republic of India.[28] It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam.[29][30] It is also a major language in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.[2][3]
Kazi Nazrul Islam, the National Poet of Bangladesh at Sitakunda, Chittagong
The Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the National Poet of India
Bengali is a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is also a recognized secondary language in the City of Karachi in Pakistan.[31][32][33] The Department of Bengali in the University of Karachi also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature.[34] In December 2002, Sierra Leone’s then President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah also named Bengali as an "official language" in recognition of the work of 5,300 troops from Bangladesh in the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone peacekeeping force.[35][36]
The national anthems of both Bangladesh and India were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.[37] In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali language to be made an official language of the United Nations.[38]
Dialects[edit]
Main article: Bengali dialects
Regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a dialect continuum. Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee grouped these dialects into four large clusters—Rarh, Banga, Kamarupa and Varendra;[6] but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed.[39] The south-western dialects (Rarh or Nadia dialect) form the basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh (Barisal division, Chittagong division, Dhaka division and Sylhet division of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal are pronounced as fricatives. Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [tɕɔ], ছ [tɕʰɔ], জ [dʑɔ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ], ছ় [sɔ], জ [dzɔ~zɔ]. 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 Bangla, 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.[40]
During the standardization of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural center of Bengal was in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata), founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia District, located next to the border of Bangladesh.[41] There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is নুন nun in the west which corresponds to লবণ lôbôn in the east.[42]
Spoken and literary varieties[edit]
Bengali exhibits diglossia, though largely contested notion as some scholars proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia[43] between the written and spoken forms of the language.[44] Two styles of writing, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax, have emerged:[41][45]
Shadhubhasha (সাধুভাষা ← সাধু shadhu='chaste' or 'sage' + ভাষা bhasha='language') was the written language, with longer verb inflections and more of a Pali and Sanskrit-derived tôtsômô vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthem Jônô Gônô Mônô (by Rabindranath Tagore) were composed in Shadhubhasha. However, use of Shadhubhasha in modern writing is uncommon, restricted to some official signs and documents in Bangladesh as well as for achieving particular literary effects.
Cholitobhasha (Bengali: চলিতভাষা ← চলিত chôlitô='current' or 'running' + ভাষা bhasha='language') known by linguists as Manno Cholit Bangla (Standard Colloquial Bengali), is a written Bengali style exhibiting a preponderance of 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),[46] 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", "Nadia dialect", "South-western/Western-central dialect" or "Shantipuri Bangla".[39]
While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali, spoken dialects (defeated language of the captive speaker[47]) exhibit a greater variety. South-eastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in Standard Colloquial Bengali. Other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh speak in dialects that are minor variations, such as the Medinipur dialect characterised by some unique words and constructions. However, a majority in Bangladesh speak in dialects notably different from Standard Colloquial Bengali. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to Standard Colloquial Bengali.[48] The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis.[48] The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety—often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (Standard Colloquial Bengali) and one or more regional dialects.[21] For some counter-views, one may browse some different articles.[49][50]
Even in Standard Colloquial Bengali, the words may differ based on the speakers's religion. Due to religious traditions Hindus and Muslims might use respectively, Sanskrit-derived and Arabic-derived words.[51] Some examples of lexical alternation between these two forms (here S=derived from Sanskrit, A=derived from Arabic):[42]
hello: নমস্কার nômôshkar (S) corresponds to সালাম আলাইকুম salam-alaikum (A)
invitation: নিমন্ত্রণ nimôntrôn (S) corresponds to দাওয়াত daoat (A)
water : জল jôl (S) corresponds to পানি pani (A)
Phonology[edit]
Main article: Bengali phonology
The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, including 6 nasalized vowels. The inventory is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanization (lower grapheme).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language