Bengali language - Knowledge

5350:"harm"), depending on the position of the cluster in a word. Another example is that there are around 7 or more graphemes to represent the sound . These are 'শ' as in শব্দ ("shabda", pronounced as "shôbdo")(meaning"word"), 'ষ' as in ষড়যন্ত্র ("şaḍjantra", pronounced as "shôḍojontro")(meaning "conspiracy"), 'স' as in সরকার ("sarkāra", pronounced as "shôrkār")(meaning "government"), 'শ্ব' as in শ্বশুর (written as "shbashura" but pronounced with the ব 'b' silent, i.e., as "shoshur")( meaning "father in law"), 'শ্ম' as in শ্মশান (written as "shmashāna" but pronounced with the ম 'm' silent, i.e., as "shôshān")( meaning "crematorium"), 'স্ব' as in স্বপ্ন (written as "sbapna" but pronounced with the ব 'b' silent, i.e., as "shôpno")( meaning "dream"), 'স্ম' as in স্মরণ (written as "smaraṅa" but pronounced with the ম 'm' silent, i.e., as "shôron")( meaning "remember"), 'ষ্ম' as in গ্রীষ্ম (written as "grīşma" but pronounced with the ম 'm' silent, i.e., as "grīshsho")( meaning "summer") and so on. In most of the consonant clusters, only the first consonant is pronounced and rest of the consonants are silent. Examples are লক্ষ্মণ (written as "lakşmaṅa" but pronounced as "lôkkhon")(Lord Rama's brother in the Hindu epic Ramayana), বিশ্বাস (written as "bishbāsa" but pronounced as "bishshāsh")( belief ), বাধ্য (written as "bādhja" but pronounced as "bāddho")( bound ( to do something) )and স্বাস্থ্য (written as "sbāsthja" but pronounced as "shāstho") (health). Some consonant clusters have completely different pronunciation as compared to the constituent consonants. For example, 'হ্য' as in ঐতিহ্য where 'hy' is pronounced as 'jjh' (written as "aiti 1914: 1618: 1446: 1242: 188: 165: 1981: 4765:

consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from the graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden.

7480: 2479: 671: 1600: 1462: 8551:"What is more significant, a contemporary Chinese traveler reported that although Persian was understood by some in the court, the language in universal use there was Bengali. This points to the waning, although certainly not yet the disappearance, of the sort of foreign mentality that the Muslim ruling class in Bengal had exhibited since its arrival over two centuries earlier. It also points to the survival, and now the triumph, of local Bengali culture at the highest level of official society." ( 629: 11622: 4382: 11605: 12154: 1454: 4370: 11520: 11571: 5063: 43: 11639: 11588: 11554: 11690: 1898: 562: 1878: 11537: 5366:

the original spelling has been preserved but the pronunciations have changed due to consonant mergers and sound shifts. In fact, most of the tatsam words have a lot of grapheme-to-phoneme inconsistencies while most of the tadbhav words (native Bengali words) have fairly consistent grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence. The Bengali writing system is, therefore, not often a true guide to pronunciation.

4760:) are usually realised 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. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist 8403:"Within the Eastern Indic language family the history of the separation of Bangla from Odia, Assamese, and the languages of Bihar remains to be worked out carefully. Scholars do not yet agree on criteria for deciding if certain tenth century AD texts were in a Bangla already distinguishable from the other languages, or marked a stage at which Eastern Indic had not finished differentiating." ( 5132:) among the Indian scripts. In general, the Bengali-Assamese script is fairly transparent for grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, i.e., it is easier to predict the pronunciation from spelling of the words. But the script is fairly opaque for phoneme-to-grapheme conversion, i.e., it is more difficult to predict the spelling from the pronunciation of the words. 6823:, and English among others, accounting for around 28,000 (28%) of all Bengali words, highlighting the significant influence that foreign languages and cultures have had on the Bengali language throughout Bengal's long history of contact with different peoples and the cultural exchanges that came with such interactions. Bengali is reportedly similar to 5362:ন্ন ("nna"), and while the same letter অ has two different pronunciations, o and ô, the two different consonant clusters have the same pronunciation, "nno". Thus, same letters and graphemes can often have different pronunciations depending on their position in a word and different graphemes and letters often have the same pronunciation. 2642:"running language"), known by linguists as 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 4885: 5365:

The main reason for these numerous inconsistencies is that there have been lots of sound mergers in Bengali, but the script has failed to account for the sound shifts and consonant mergers in the language. Bengali has lots of tatsam words (words directly derived from Sanskrit) and in all these words,

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words, corrupted forms of Sanskrit words, and loanwords non-Indo-European languages). About 45% per cent of Bengali words are unmodified Sanskrit, and the remaining words are from foreign languages. However, more modern sources cite that this is not the case with Bengali vocabulary, as there are far

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spoken in the Hindu-majority states of West Bengal and parts of the Muslim-majority division of Khulna in Bangladesh. About 90% of Bengalis in Bangladesh (ca. 148 million) and 27% of Bengalis in West Bengal and 10% in Assam (ca. 36 million) are Muslim and the Bangladeshi Muslims and some of the

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Another example of inconsistency in the script is that of words like, অন্য (written as "anja" but pronounced as "onno")(other/different) and অন্ন (written as "ann'a" but pronounced as "ônno")(food grain); in these words, the letter অ is combining with two different consonant clusters ন্য ("nja") and

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The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, 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.

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Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on a large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced

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One kind of inconsistency is due to the presence of several letters in the script for the same sound. In spite of some modifications in the 19th century, the Bengali spelling system continues to be based on the one used for Sanskrit, and thus does not take into account some sound mergers that have

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While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh,

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The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around the 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was

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when compared to the Latin script used for English and French, i.e., in many cases there is a one-to-one correspondence between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) of Bengali. But grapheme-phoneme inconsistencies do occur in many other cases. In fact, Bengali-Assamese script has the

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combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures, the so-called "inherent" vowel is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant

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In 2010, the parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution

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to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in a bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many

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There are various romanisation systems used for Bengali created in recent years which have failed to represent the true Bengali phonetic sound. The Bengali alphabet has often been included with the group of Brahmic scripts for romanisation where the true phonetic value of Bengali is never

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In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as

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In most of Bengali grammar books, cases are divided into 6 categories and an additional possessive case (the possessive form is not recognised as a type of case by Bengali grammarians). But in terms of usage, cases are generally grouped into only 4 categories.

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is also thought to have influenced a lot of grammatical forms. More recent studies suggest that the use of foreign words has been increasing, mainly because of the preference of Bengali speakers for the colloquial style. Because of centuries of contact with

5305:) with the preceding or following vowel or on the context, but this phonological information is not captured by the script, creating ambiguity for the reader. Furthermore, the inherent vowel is often not pronounced at the end of a syllable, as in 5557:, in Roman script at the Kolkata Book Fair 2018. Published under the imprint of Benglish Books, these are based on phonetic transliteration and closely follow spellings used in social media but for using an underline to describe soft consonants. 5527:. Transliteration is orthographically accurate (i.e. the original spelling can be recovered), whereas transcription is phonetically accurate (the pronunciation can be reproduced). As the spelling often doesn't reflect the actual pronunciation, 7745: 4498:). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a 9462: 8838: 2101:, made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the 1913: 8066: 9220: 4876:(sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. 4311:; 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 2397:

of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some

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region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one

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expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including the development of

6604:"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. 7353:

All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken birth-take do. Their reason and intelligence exist; therefore everyone-indeed one another's towards brotherhood-ly attitude taken conduct do should.

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Districts. This form of Bengali is often referred to as the "Kushtia standard"(Bangladesh), "Nadia dialect" (West Bengal), "Southwestern/West-Central dialect" "Shantipuri Bangla" or "Shilaidahi Bangla".

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Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called

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Even in SCB, the vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit (

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Although it might be desirable to use a transliteration scheme where the original Bengali orthography is recoverable from the Latin text, Bengali words are currently romanised on Knowledge using a

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Sômôstô manush shadhinbhabe sôman môrjada ebông ôdhikar niye jônmôgrôhôn kôre. Tãder bibek ebông buddhi achhe; sutôrang sôkôleri êke ôpôrer prôti bhratrittôsulôbh mônobhab niye achôrôn kôra uchit.

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Another kind of inconsistency is concerned with the incomplete coverage of phonological information in the script. The inherent vowel attached to every consonant can be either or depending on

13037: 8830: 2630:) were composed in this style. Its use in modern writing however is uncommon, restricted to some official signs and documents in Bangladesh as well as for achieving particular literary effects. 12902: 7350:ʃɔmosto manuʃ ʃadʱinbʱabe ʃoman mɔɾdʒada eboŋ odʱikaɾ nie̯e dʒɔnmoɡrohon kɔɾe tãdeɾ bibek eboŋ budʱːi atʃʰe ʃutoraŋ ʃɔkoleɾi ɛke ɔporeɾ proti bʱratritːoʃulɔbʱ monobʱab nie̯e atʃorɔn kɔra utʃit 8276: 8091: 2210:, was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( 9363: 8041: 4087:

may all form the glide part of a diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following:

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Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when

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dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However, a majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the

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All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They possess conscience and reason. Therefore, everyone should act in a spirit of brotherhood towards each other.

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The most common borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. After close contact with several indigenous Austroasiatic languages, and later the

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in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of the

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However, these figures do not take into account the large proportion of archaic or highly technical words that are very rarely used. Furthermore, different dialects use more

9494: 9432: 10296: 10817: 8209: 15969: 7344:সমস্ত মানুষ স্বাধীনভাবে সমান মর্যাদা এবং অধিকার নিয়ে জন্মগ্রহণ করে। তাঁদের বিবেক এবং বুদ্ধি আছে; সুতরাং সকলেরই একে অপরের প্রতি ভ্রাতৃত্বসুলভ মনোভাব নিয়ে আচরণ করা উচিত। 8778: 8231: 10096: 9330: 4481:"mind", with variants like the more open . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it, a special diacritic, called the 12889: 7691: 10729: 10018: 2457:

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

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Zatímco romská lexika je bližší hindštině, marvárštině, pandžábštině atd., v gramatické sféře nacházíme mnoho shod s východoindickým jazykem, s bengálštinou.

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influence was significant for the development of Bengali up to the modern day, and was the primary official language in the region for 600 years, until

4869:. The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between the visible matra and an invisible baseline). 7500: 5497: 4373:

An example of handwritten Bengali. Part of a poem written in Bengali (and with its English translation below each Bengali paragraph) by Nobel Laureate

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to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as

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The descent of proto-Gauda, the ancestor of the modern Bengali language, from the proto-Gauda-Kamarupa line of the proto-Magadhan (Magadhi Prakrit).

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rule, when it was changed to English in 1836. In fact, there was so much Persian influence that a register of highly Persianized Bengali, known as

5022:. Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of 10462: 9547: 8083: 11931: 8997: 7850: 6874:, dictionaries from the early 20th century attributed a little more than 50% of the Bengali vocabulary to native words (i.e., naturally modified 4417:

is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified

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The Origin and Development of the Bengali language, Suniti kumar Chatterjee, Vol- 1, Page 140, George Allen and Unwin London,New Edition,1970

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The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in the

10619:. This is viewed as ungrammatical by other speakers, and speakers of this variety are sometimes (humorously) referred as "hocche-Bangali". 9031: 2298:

dialect) form the basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh (

1769:, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern 15964: 10571: 9517: 9184: 8578: 1594: 11138: 8006: 2587:

between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and

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Among Bengali speakers brought up in neighbouring linguistic regions (e.g. Hindi), the lost copula may surface in utterances such as

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had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of

17270: 17265: 16352: 11857: 6896:, Bengali has absorbed numerous words from foreign languages, often totally integrating these borrowings into the core vocabulary. 5509: 2245: 9731: 9484: 9422: 8486: 17150: 17140: 16712: 15570: 12578: 11174: 10905: 8425: 6285: 4529:

A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel

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Many consonant clusters have different sounds than their constituent consonants. For example, the combination of the consonants

2441:, a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the 17213: 17193: 17135: 17117: 15511: 15477: 15412: 10707: 8748: 8193: 7982: 2234: 107: 8455: 7820: 6314:, which attaches only to nouns denoting something flat, long, square, or thin. These are the least common of the classifiers. 17302: 17188: 17070: 15078: 13204: 12135: 11395: 11376: 11357: 11338: 11302: 11283: 11264: 11212: 11156: 11077: 10967: 10946: 10920: 10885: 10658: 10648: 9324: 8770: 8724: 8270: 8203: 6973: 5224:

is now pronounced as an alveolar when in conversation (the difference is heard when reading) (unless conjoined with another

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in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in

17332: 17312: 17208: 17198: 16577: 4445:. Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called 642: 10533: 10440: 9825: 8628: 17168: 16803: 16646: 15516: 15492: 15329: 12096: 11867: 11508: 6859:

Indian Bengali Muslims speak a more "Perso-Arabised" version of Bengali instead of the more Sanskrit influenced Standard

3967: 3959: 3706: 2337: 2084: 646: 608: 9144: 7719: 1711:. Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken 86: 16823: 16818: 16783: 15506: 13235: 11862: 9092: 7668: 6276:. Nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. An appropriate measure word ( 5046: 2437:

During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in

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with some minor variations. Other related languages in the nearby region also make use of the Bengali script like the

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Bengali is typically thought to have around 100,000 separate words, of which 16,000 (16%) are considered to be তদ্ভব

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o")(tradition). The same হ্য is pronounced as 'hæ' as in হ্যাঁ (written as "hjāṅ" but pronounced as nasalised "hæ").

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and non-finite. Non-finite verbs have no inflection for tense or person, while finite verbs are fully inflected for

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of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in

17307: 17030: 16793: 16667: 16626: 15575: 15487: 15482: 15362: 12554: 12128: 10376: 10107: 8868: 5155: 3895: 3803: 2363: 2226: 1545:, by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. 17: 8966: 5545:

The most recent attempt has been by publishers Mitra and Ghosh with the launch of three popular children's books,

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can replace the tense and aspect suffixes. The number of inflections on many verb roots can total more than 200.

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and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as a state language of the then

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are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly,

1845:. On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the 16672: 16636: 15417: 15339: 13641: 11669: 11543: 11020: 5088: 1984:

Geographical distribution of the Bengali language. Darker shades imply a greater percentage of native speakers.

1562: 1561:(lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the 1091: 297: 64: 11526: 9145:"Statement by Foreign Minister on Second Bangladesh-India Track II dialogue at BRAC Centre on 07 August, 2005" 17327: 16813: 16342: 14423: 13458: 13228: 12344: 12259: 11952: 9936: 9870: 9775: 9645: 8662: 8317: 5596: 5215: 2162:) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. 501: 75: 9039: 6879:

more dominant foreign influences that accurately reflect the way modern Bengalis speak and utilize Bengali.

5311:"less", but this omission is not generally reflected in the script, making it difficult for the new reader. 17229: 17081: 16879: 16707: 16702: 16687: 16546: 16530: 16500: 15155: 15137: 15128: 15119: 15111: 14394: 14214: 14060: 13377: 13194: 12528: 11577: 10496: 10435: 9358: 7945: 5607: 5187: 3886: 3878: 3428: 1554: 1449:

Present-day distribution of Indo-European languages in Eurasia. Bengali is one of the easternmost languages

1300: 519: 292: 10250: 10215: 6766: Foreign Loanwords (words originating from Persian, Turkish, Arabic, English, Portuguese, etc.) (28%) 5542:, where the true phonetic pronunciation of Bengali is represented with no reference to how it is written. 4241: 4234: 4227: 4222: 4217: 4212: 4207: 4200: 4193: 4186: 4179: 4172: 4165: 4156: 4149: 4144: 4137: 4132: 4127: 4122: 4117: 4110: 4105: 4100: 4095: 4084: 4068: 4064: 3802: 3705: 3567: 3526: 3511: 3459: 3446: 3442: 3390: 3369: 17347: 16510: 16286: 15254: 14957: 14925: 14781: 13189: 12547: 11926: 11908: 11893: 10325: 10157: 9391: 7634: 7493: 7376: 5600: 5532: 5524: 5165: 4725: 3905: 3699: 3497: 3332: 2012: 1938:

Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming a rounded total of 280 million) worldwide.

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Hübschmannová, Milena (1995). "Romaňi čhib – romština: Několik základních informací o romském jazyku".

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or "indigenous" words, which are at around 16,000 (16%) of the Bengali vocabulary. The rest are বিদেশী

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above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel

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represents the consonant followed by the vowel , where is represented as the diacritical allograph

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In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an

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of the final syllable in the utterance is replaced with a falling (HL) tone. Additionally, optional

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those marked with an asterisk * are sometimes considered dialects or sometimes as separate languages

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to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali.

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Since the Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic

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The States of South Asia: Problems of National Integration. Essays in Honour of W.H. Morris-Jones

11123: 7381: 6885: 6854:, on the other hand, use more Sanskrit vocabulary than Muslims. Standard Bengali is based on the 5584: 5490: 5077: 5027: 4398: 4356: 3782: 3713: 3549: 2390: 1786: 1692: 1253: 929: 912: 277: 201: 53: 9918: 2218:, while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into 2027:, and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including 164: 17060: 17040: 16757: 16697: 16317: 16089: 15979: 15454: 15402: 15034: 14903: 14179: 13973: 13790: 13325: 12755: 12023: 11903: 6871: 6641:

In this sense, all nouns in Bengali, unlike most other Indo-European languages, are similar to

5023: 2271: 2230: 2197: 1499: 1277: 1192: 979: 282: 11421:

From Linguistic to Sociolinguistic Reconstruction: The Kamta Historical Subgroup of Indo-Aryan

10579: 9310: 9174: 8566: 5481:

There are additional digits for fractions and prices, though they are little used any longer.

1980: 100: 16420: 16148: 16042: 15309: 15123: 14704: 14517: 14003: 13968: 13963: 13802: 13785: 13305: 12633: 12615: 12197: 12091: 12075: 11936: 11842: 8922: 7899:"50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013)" 5398:, where the Meitei language has been written in the Bengali script for centuries, though the 4458: 4010: 4003: 3789: 3639: 3632: 2777: 2685: 2556: 2407: 2399: 2290:; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( 2263: 2155: 2072: 1854: 1430: 984: 971: 964: 10957: 10184: 7777: 1557:

were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of the eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or

17127: 17109: 16854: 16849: 16450: 16445: 15679: 15630: 15064: 14992: 14967: 14836: 14806: 14663: 14443: 14433: 14243: 13822: 13251: 13112: 13007: 12070: 12028: 11847: 11774: 10878:

Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities of Pakistan: Constitutional and Legal Perspectives

10415: 10321: 8113: 6786: 6707: 5634: 5539: 4534: 4259: 3810: 2423: 2419: 2151: 2064: 1884: 1842: 1736: 1399: 1368: 1249: 996: 959: 825: 344: 287: 8299: 7949: 7909: 7630: 8: 17245: 17015: 16601: 16563: 16455: 16440: 16395: 16370: 16337: 16007: 15914: 15784: 15738: 15668: 15640: 15635: 15625: 15617: 15372: 15039: 14846: 14567: 14552: 14484: 14458: 14448: 14373: 14090: 13880: 13807: 13780: 13532: 13362: 13057: 12429: 12374: 12286: 12274: 12222: 12003: 11497: 10976: 10772: 9306: 6949: 5694:. The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of 5663: 5629:

Yes–no questions do not require any change to the basic word order; instead, the low (L)

5225: 5031: 4957: 4374: 3759: 3752: 3745: 3738: 3731: 3724: 3602: 2759: 2661: 2648: 2627: 2606:"upright language") was the written language, with longer verb inflections and more of a 2350: 2323: 2315: 2303: 2215: 2178: 2068: 1846: 1732: 1522: 1418: 1410: 1149: 1104: 11560: 11493: 11449:. Volume 18 of London Oriental and African Language Library. John Benjamins Publishing. 9852: 17255: 17203: 16894: 16808: 16535: 16460: 16435: 16405: 16106: 15987: 15924: 15849: 15694: 15645: 15501: 15264: 15239: 15168: 14851: 14764: 14729: 14501: 14019: 13754: 13444: 13372: 13367: 13012: 12972: 12865: 12570: 12424: 11918: 11888: 11752: 11251: 11191: 11128: 11111: 11012: 10913:

Encyclopedia of World's Languages: Past and Present (Facts About the World's Languages)

10368: 10062: 9757: 9727: 9216: 9211: 9179: 8478: 6773: 6724: 6666: 6658: 5721: 5630: 5129: 5124: 5035: 4995: 4910: 4873: 3651: 3597: 2699: 2653: 2415: 2238: 1770: 1406: 1375: 1216: 1171: 1081: 919: 850: 331: 205: 11037: 10926: 9701:. 4th International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (TAL-2014). Archived from 8719:(Paperback with corrections. ed.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. p. 3. 5571:

Bengali nouns are not assigned gender, which leads to minimal changing of adjectives (

1417:

from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered

1371:

and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions.

552: 17160: 16611: 16606: 16490: 16480: 16380: 15992: 15889: 15790: 15778: 15757: 15746: 15713: 15459: 15432: 15314: 15249: 15244: 15219: 15214: 15184: 15044: 14858: 14527: 14496: 14474: 14438: 14280: 14238: 14143: 14085: 13850: 13772: 13767: 13676: 13597: 13577: 13499: 13424: 13341: 13274: 13167: 12962: 12947: 12942: 12850: 12750: 12668: 12658: 12643: 12623: 12237: 12227: 12192: 12054: 12049: 11998: 11962: 11799: 11779: 11747: 11450: 11391: 11372: 11353: 11334: 11317: 11298: 11279: 11260: 11208: 11195: 11152: 11073: 11066: 11043: 11016: 10980: 10963: 10942: 10916: 10881: 10779: 10654: 10360: 10139: 9950: 9940: 9884: 9874: 9789: 9779: 9659: 9649: 9320: 8940: 8720: 8331: 8321: 8266: 8199: 7876: 7597: 7386: 6938: 6824: 6800: 6662: 5699: 5387: 5383: 5015: 5011: 4983: 4308: 3770: 3619: 3250: 2643: 2267: 2193: 2167: 2105: 2094: 1704: 1525:

for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit.

1395: 1391: 1383: 1336: 1288: 1284: 1185: 1086: 845: 717: 680: 14888: 14874: 10979:, A Comparative Study of Santali and Bengali, K.P. Bagchi & Co., Kolkata, 1994, 10869:

Bhasha Shourôbh: Bêkorôn O Rôchona (The Fragrance of Language: Grammar and Rhetoric)

10703: 9627: 8740: 8684: 7974: 5049:. It does not mark when the inherent vowel is not used (mainly at the end of words) 4670:. A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. 4405:, a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an 1684:, from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. 1542: 604: 334: 16889: 16864: 16616: 16332: 16211: 16121: 16116: 16037: 16017: 15894: 15763: 15728: 15702: 15597: 15592: 15584: 15555: 15299: 15234: 14962: 14952: 14898: 14831: 14734: 14709: 14699: 14678: 14673: 14648: 14587: 14479: 14453: 14416: 14365: 14311: 14264: 14223: 14174: 14119: 14080: 14029: 13948: 13918: 13865: 13855: 13713: 13708: 13700: 13686: 13636: 13592: 13504: 13310: 13259: 13122: 12992: 12977: 12957: 12937: 12917: 12835: 12800: 12790: 12709: 12699: 12684: 12663: 12470: 12460: 12419: 12414: 12359: 12323: 12318: 12269: 12254: 12247: 12242: 11819: 11794: 11764: 11726: 11704: 11689: 11235: 11183: 11103: 11004: 8447: 7812: 7407: 7371: 6934: 6926: 6918: 6899: 6880: 6860: 6855: 6835: 6816: 6812: 6682: 6678: 5580: 5379: 5375: 5256:

is orthographically realised by multiple means, as seen in the following examples:

5039: 4991: 4949: 4793:. The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example, the letter 4414: 4360: 3990: 3592: 3587: 3259:

inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7

3016: 2753: 2747: 2729: 2677: 2566: 2522: 2513: 2450: 2431: 2403: 2299: 2287: 2283: 2257: 2219: 2052: 1778: 1720: 1669: 1566: 1507: 1236: 1008: 907: 902: 707: 636: 369: 182: 31: 7533:"Jharkhand gives second language status to Magahi, Angika, Bhojpuri, and Maithili" 1792:

In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali:

17020: 16970: 16869: 16515: 16385: 16281: 16271: 16153: 16064: 16032: 15752: 15532: 15007: 14841: 14796: 14683: 14653: 14610: 14562: 14522: 14428: 14378: 14349: 14327: 14259: 14169: 14129: 14095: 14039: 14034: 13993: 13978: 13958: 13953: 13943: 13933: 13923: 13895: 13885: 13875: 13870: 13845: 13840: 13835: 13812: 13733: 13728: 13723: 13718: 13681: 13602: 13527: 13483: 13439: 13434: 13419: 13414: 13357: 13320: 13315: 13172: 13137: 13097: 13092: 13087: 13067: 13062: 13052: 13027: 13002: 12997: 12912: 12875: 12870: 12860: 12820: 12810: 12805: 12780: 12765: 12724: 12714: 12689: 12678: 12491: 12399: 12281: 12264: 12217: 11977: 11972: 11814: 11769: 11731: 11709: 11474: 11445: 9958: 9892: 9797: 9667: 9279: 8339: 6953: 6914: 6828: 6728: 5683: 5679: 5566: 5528: 5520: 5391: 5002:; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. 4945: 4441:

letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate

4418: 4364: 3626: 3614: 3399: 2735: 2504: 2478: 2427: 2411: 2311: 2279: 2211: 1782: 1724: 1716: 1526: 1511: 1495: 1409:, with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the 1387: 1265: 1261: 1016: 991: 946: 885: 835: 747: 670: 395: 326: 269: 259: 12339: 1599: 1461: 17035: 17025: 16985: 16844: 16241: 16206: 16176: 16079: 15854: 15768: 15674: 15655: 15547: 15537: 15319: 15224: 15017: 14759: 14668: 14600: 14595: 14577: 14557: 14344: 14337: 14306: 14200: 14148: 13988: 13983: 13938: 13913: 13905: 13860: 13830: 13797: 13648: 13557: 13522: 13514: 13478: 13429: 13295: 13152: 13142: 13132: 13127: 13102: 13077: 13072: 12987: 12967: 12952: 12932: 12922: 12855: 12840: 12825: 12815: 12785: 12719: 12638: 12600: 12445: 12394: 12379: 12364: 12207: 11883: 11784: 10518: 10430: 9926: 9860: 9829: 9765: 9635: 9316: 8636: 8307: 7568: 7366: 6957: 6903: 6889: 6723:, (literally "he teacher"). In this respect, Bengali is similar to Russian and 5610:, as opposed to the prepositions used in English and other European languages. 5500:, or IAST system (based on diacritics); "Indian languages Transliteration", or 4938: 4677:, three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are the superposed 4406: 3468: 2741: 2717: 2711: 2673: 2622: 2446: 2307: 2295: 2173: 1762: 934: 924: 840: 805: 471: 380: 254: 170: 11240: 11223: 11008: 8150:"Resolution adopted by the 30th Session of UNESCO's General Conference (1999)" 17291: 16925: 16915: 16910: 16692: 16662: 16520: 16470: 16415: 16390: 16322: 16261: 16221: 16191: 15954: 15560: 15442: 15427: 15284: 15269: 15229: 15192: 15002: 14658: 14572: 14547: 14332: 13671: 13572: 13162: 13157: 13147: 13117: 13107: 13082: 13017: 12845: 12830: 12760: 12694: 12465: 12450: 12404: 12384: 12369: 12349: 12313: 12308: 12291: 12232: 11993: 11957: 11804: 11469: 11133: 11055:

Dasgupta, Probal (2003), "Bangla", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.),

10364: 9922: 9856: 9761: 9631: 9489: 9152: 8303: 8011: 7749: 7660: 6922: 6864: 5691: 5687: 5399: 5296: 4999: 4987: 4975: 4953: 4901: 4369: 4035: 3856: 3849: 3842: 3835: 3828: 3821: 3673: 3308: 3293: 2584: 2531: 2442: 2291: 2275: 2202: 1965: 1744: 1728: 1570: 1538: 1413:

and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The

1328: 1257: 1161: 1136: 1021: 951: 742: 697: 687: 16555: 12107: 11142:. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 733–736. 10526:

Indian Standard: Indian Script Code for Information Interchange – ISCII

9962: 9954: 9896: 9888: 9801: 9793: 9671: 9663: 9096: 8479:"Pala Dynasty, Pala Empire, Pala empire in India, Pala School of Sculptures" 8343: 8335: 8034:"Hindi Added 100Mn Speakers In A Decade; Kashmiri 2nd Fast Growing Language" 7564: 4381: 16955: 16950: 16945: 16935: 16425: 16375: 16251: 16126: 15437: 15397: 15357: 15279: 15209: 14997: 13762: 13047: 12475: 12409: 12354: 12033: 11809: 11047: 10674: 9418: 9118: 6578:

Measuring nouns in Bengali without their corresponding measure words (e.g.

6273: 5516: 4687: 2596: 2182: 2124: 1813: 1604: 1582: 1518: 1344: 1312: 1299:

using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken

1296: 1131: 1061: 1026: 857: 787: 712: 446: 227: 9312:

Dressing the Colonised Body: Politics, Clothing, and Identity in Sri Lanka

7467: 1276:

by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken

1229: 536: 17010: 17000: 16940: 16621: 16525: 16495: 16485: 16475: 16231: 16226: 16196: 16084: 16052: 16027: 15997: 15934: 15859: 15382: 15204: 15141: 15088: 14075: 13890: 13393: 12770: 12018: 11628: 10220:

Report of All Asia Educational Conference (Benares, December 26-30, 1930)

9931: 9865: 9770: 9640: 9570: 8312: 8059:"Hindi fastest growing language in India, finds 100 million new speakers" 7782: 6961: 6945: 6847: 6703: 6654: 5587:, and the verbs do not change form depending on the gender of the nouns. 4922: 4918: 4706: 4438: 4390: 4386: 3952: 3320: 3303: 3288: 3260: 2693: 2454: 2418:; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. 2319: 2116: 1997: 1955: 1837:), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the 1830: 1688: 1681: 1578: 1422: 1364: 1304: 1076: 777: 737: 702: 432: 217: 11684: 11611: 10372: 10348: 8860: 8685:"Bengali language | History, Writing System & Dialects | Britannica" 5720:(plural) is added, as in the tables below, nouns are also inflected for 5666:

position, which is typically the first or second word in the utterance.

2196:

in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the

17145: 16920: 16631: 16586: 16410: 16400: 16291: 16246: 16201: 16136: 16069: 16002: 15884: 15864: 15824: 15392: 15387: 15056: 14184: 14153: 14124: 13220: 12775: 12162: 12153: 11321: 11187: 8974: 8513:"A Tale of Two Languages: How the Persian language seeped into Bengali" 7472: 6843: 6695:

of Bengali vary from region to region, along with minor differences in

6688: 6288:

are similar in this respect). Most nouns take the generic measure word

6284:, must be used between the numeral and the noun (most languages of the 5675: 5611: 5603: 5576: 5572: 5374:

The script used for Bengali, Assamese, and other languages is known as

5136:

occurred in the spoken language. For example, there are three letters (

4979: 4930: 4735: 4466: 4442: 4052: 3535: 3313: 3298: 2772: 2669: 2546: 1993: 1945: 1834: 1712: 1292: 1166: 1066: 1056: 892: 772: 692: 11594: 11115: 8417: 8084:"Hindi grew rapidly in non-Hindi states even without official mandate" 7494:"Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2011" 6863:

although the majority of the Indian Bengalis of West Bengal speaks in

5218:. Moreover, what was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal 4884: 2430:

is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to

2003:

Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in

1773:

is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with

1453: 16727: 16682: 16677: 16074: 15929: 15904: 15899: 15844: 15829: 15407: 15274: 15197: 14974: 14883: 14863: 13552: 13547: 13279: 12673: 12539: 10271: 10223: 9427: 9247: 6642: 5619: 5606:, although variations on this theme are common. Bengali makes use of 4897: 4781:– have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. 4778: 4547: 4530: 4434: 4430: 3866: 3667: 3221: 2833: 2768: 2665: 2583:, though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or 2580: 2491: 2394: 2136: 2044: 2024: 1766: 1743:

poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the

1740: 1673: 1348: 1331:, and is spoken by significant populations in other states including 1320: 1051: 865: 545: 529: 511: 493: 452: 339: 232: 10992: 10755: 8114:"Amendment to the Draft Programme and Budget for 2000–2001 (30 C/5)" 7935:"50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" 5062: 2241:

declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002.

1789:

and other languages with which it has historically been in contact.

1636:

During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the

42: 16980: 16975: 16307: 16276: 16256: 16236: 16181: 16131: 16022: 15949: 15919: 15869: 15304: 15012: 14754: 14105: 13567: 13562: 13542: 13300: 12795: 12704: 12389: 12212: 11789: 11107: 9551: 6907: 6893: 6875: 6781: 4889: 4840: 4462: 4426: 4267: 4060: 3264: 2829: 2788: 2723: 2611: 2274:

grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters-

2143: 2040: 1838: 1727:

on the language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include

1697: 1677: 1650: 1622: 1558: 1487: 1479: 1475: 1356: 1323:

since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the

1114: 1109: 1071: 870: 662: 616: 244: 6748: Tadbhavas in Bengali (Inherited Indo-Aryan vocabulary) (16%) 6714:

is often missing in the present tense. Thus, "he is a teacher" is

4550:

vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graph

571: National and official language with majority native speakers 17005: 16990: 16327: 16312: 15944: 15939: 15909: 15839: 15834: 15819: 15814: 15102: 14946: 14817: 14290: 14024: 13537: 12982: 12927: 12653: 11758: 6795: 6754: Tatsamas in Bengali (Direct borrowings from Sanskrit) (40%) 5695: 5395: 4422: 4402: 4263: 3662: 3256: 2895: 2792: 2616: 2495: 2438: 2147: 2120: 2047:. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the 2004: 1920: 1897: 1850: 1774: 1637: 1491: 1352: 1319:. It is also the second official language of the Indian state of 1308: 1121: 1031: 782: 612: 437: 222: 10492: 3267:(upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). 2999: 1877: 1672:. The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and 561: 16995: 16960: 16930: 16722: 16216: 16186: 16111: 15959: 15879: 15874: 15422: 15377: 14285: 14134: 14109: 13666: 13658: 13582: 13473: 13398: 12745: 12512: 11488: 10756:"Lexicographic affinities between Persian and Bengali language" 10011:"A Bilingual Dictionary of Words and Phrases (English-Bengali)" 9828:. Bengal Telecommunication and Electric Company. Archived from 9518:"Recounting the sacrifices that made Bangla the State Language" 9354:"Sri Lankan National Anthem: can it be used to narrow the gap?" 6930: 6851: 6839: 6820: 6696: 5656: 5501: 5007: 4934: 4914: 4808:"3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the 4483: 2850: 2588: 2483: 2032: 2016: 1989: 1862: 1703:

Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the

1661: 1483: 1426: 1360: 1126: 820: 815: 767: 760: 11172:

Hayes, B; Lahiri, A (1991). "Bengali intonational phonology".

11127: 11094:

Ferguson, CA; Chowdhury, M (1960). "The Phonemes of Bengali".

10248: 10161: 7746:

Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Bangladesh

6972:

The following is a sample text in Bengali of Article 1 of the

5579:(altered depending on their function in a sentence) into four 15449: 15367: 15174: 14100: 13998: 13022: 12648: 12595: 12296: 11502: 10894: 10463:"Learning International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration" 10333: 10190: 10145: 7741: 7425: 6297:, though other measure words indicate semantic classes (e.g. 5505: 4926: 4056: 2975: 2900: 2487: 2128: 2036: 2028: 2020: 2008: 1904: 1888: 1665: 1653: 1534: 1530: 1379: 1374:

Bengali is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing

1340: 1332: 1316: 1099: 792: 442: 11494:

The South Asian Literary Recordings Project: Bengali Authors

10391: 10230: 10195: 7692:"The missionaries and the evolution of the Bengali language" 2146:, Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of 2011:

and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of

1829:. This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former 1804:, a colloquial form of Bengali using simplified inflections. 1649:

and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the

577: Official language with large number of native speakers 16047: 16012: 14801: 14114: 12729: 12301: 9625: 9002: 7431: 7413: 5615: 5252:), although the spelling does not reflect this change. The 2607: 1825:

as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the

1822: 1715:

language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from

10286:"The development of Bengali literature during Muslim rule" 8801:"Kuwait restricts recruitment of male Bangladeshi workers" 4262:

is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all

1747:

conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century.

615:

characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see

30:"Bangla language" redirects here. Not to be confused with 14893: 11645: 9935:(Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, 9869:(Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, 9774:(Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, 9755: 9644:(Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, 9455:"How Bengali became an official language in Sierra Leone" 8316:(Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, 7813:"The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh" 7422: 4929:, some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in 4492:, may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in 3170: 1903:

Language Martyr's Memorial at Silchar Railway Station in

1425:

leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999,

10094: 8007:"What census data reveals about use of Indian languages" 7873:"5 Surprising Reasons the Bengali Language Is Important" 7456: 2453:. There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in 2177:) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate 1494:. These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern 11295:

Teach Yourself Bengali: A Complete Course for Beginners

10578:. University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from 10493:"ITRANS – Indian Language Transliteration Package" 8539:

Arabic, Persian and Turkish words in Bengali Literature

4986:

in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal,

4413:) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The 2015:. Bengali is also spoken in the neighbouring states of 10997:

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

10469:. Gabriel Pradiipaka & Andrés Muni. Archived from 8233:

Journal and Text of the Buddhist Text Society of India

6702:

Bengali differs from most Indo-Aryan Languages in the

4974:

Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the

4071:, are the only ones with representation in script, as 2795:(words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: 2115:. It is the official language of the Indian states of 1541:. Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what is known as 1517:

The local varieties had no official status during the

1303:. It is the official language of the Indian states of 16348:

List of West Bengal districts ranked by literacy rate

10320: 8259:

Tuteja, K. L.; Chakraborty, Kaustav (15 March 2017).

7440: 7416: 6625:

will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one

5190:

sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in

5168:

sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in

4768:

Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke

4502:, may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in the final 2131:. Bengali has been a second official language of the 400: 11068:

The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760

10897:

Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of Bangladesh

10278: 9932: