Present-day distribution of Indo-European languages in Eurasia. Bengali is one of the easternmost languagesIndo- Iranian languages, Bengali marked yellowThe descent of proto-Gauda, the ancestor of the modern Bengali language, from the proto-Gauda-Kamarupa line of the proto-Magadhan (Magadhi Prakrit).[23]
The local varieties had no official status during theGupta Empire, and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub ofSanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained much influence from Sanskrit.[27]Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-dayBihar andAssam, and this vernacular eventually evolved intoArdha Magadhi.[28][29] Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what is known asApabhraṃśa, by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time.[30]
A Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary compiled by the Chinese poet Li-Yen in 782 AD shows the presence of Bengali. A research documentClassical Bangla published in 2024 by the Kolkata-based institute "Institute of Language Studies and Research" (ILSR), mentions the presence of 51 Bengali words in the dictionary. The lexicon strongly supports the existence of Old Bengali in the 8th century or earlier.[31][32]
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.[34][better source needed] The ancestor of Bengali was the language of thePala Empire and theSena dynasty.[35][36]
During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by theelision of the word-finalঅ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from theSanskritSchwa. Slowly, the word-finalô disappeared from many words influenced by theArabic,Persian, andTurkic languages.[citation needed] The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East andTurkestan into theBuddhist-rulingPala Empire, from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region.[citation needed]
In the 13th century, subsequentArab Muslim andTurco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population.[37][38] Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including the development ofDobhashi.[37]
Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of theSultans of Bengal with the ascent ofJalaluddin Muhammad Shah.[39] Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali,[40] allowing it to become the most spokenvernacular language in the Sultanate.[41] Bengali adopted many words fromArabic andPersian, which was a manifestation ofIslamic culture on the language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) includeYusuf-Zulekha byShah Muhammad Sagir andSrikrishna Kirtana by theChandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when theMughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century.[42]
The standard literary form of Modern Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken inShantipur region of theNadia district. Modern Bengali shows a high degree ofdiglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language.[43] ModernBengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along withtatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings fromPersian,Arabic,Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali:
চলিতভাষাChôlitôbhasha, a colloquial form of Bengali using simplified inflections.
In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to imposeUrdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to theBengali language movement.[46] This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the formerEast Bengal (todayBangladesh), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of theBengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as a state language of the thenDominion of Pakistan. On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of theUniversity of Dhaka; they were the first evermartyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan.[46] 21 February has since been observed asLanguage Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated asInternational Mother Language Day byUNESCO every year since 2000.
In 2010, the parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language.[47] 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 tabled by India.[48]
The 3rd article of theConstitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the soleofficial language of Bangladesh.[12] TheBengali Language Implementation Act, 1987, 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.[10] It is also thede factonational language of the country.
The national anthems of both Bangladesh (Amar Sonar Bangla) and India (Jana Gana Mana) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureateRabindranath Tagore.[61]Notuner Gaan known as "Chol Chol Chol" is Bangladesh's national march, written byThe National PoetKazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by theBangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses ofVande Mataram, a patriotic song written in Bengali byBankim Chandra Chatterjee, 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 (Sri Lanka Matha) was inspired by a Bengali poem written byRabindranath Tagore,[62][63][64][65] while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated intoSinhala.[66][67][68][69]
The influence ofTibeto-Burman languages on thephonology 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). Somevarieties of Bengali, particularlySylheti,[78]Chittagonian andChakma, have contrastivetone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words.Kharia Thar andMal 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 toNorthern Bengali dialects.[79]
During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was inKolkata, a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on theWest-Central dialect ofNadia andKushtia District.[80] There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali inWest 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 isলবণlôbôṇ in the east which corresponds toনুনnun in the west.[81]
(those marked with an asterisk * are sometimes considered dialects or sometimes as separate languages)
Bengali exhibitsdiglossia, though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia orheteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language.[43] Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies andsyntax:[80][82]
Sadhu bhasha (সাধু ভাষা "upright language") was the written language, with longer verb inflections and more of aPali andSanskrit-derivedTatsama vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthemJana Gana Mana (byRabindranath Tagore) were composed in this style. Its use in modern writing however is uncommon, restricted to some official signs and documents as well as for achieving particular literary effects.
Chôlito bhasha (চলিত ভাষা "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 ofPeary Chand Mitra (Alaler Gharer Dulal, 1857),[83]Pramatha Chaudhuri (Sabujpatra, 1914) and in the later writings ofRabindranath Tagore. It is modelled on the dialect spoken in theShantipur andShilaidaha region inNadia andKushtia Districts respectively. This form of Bengali is often referred to as the "Kushtia standard"(Bangladesh), "Nadia standard" (West Bengal), "West-Central dialect", "Shantipuri Bangla" or "Shilaidahi Bangla".[77]
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, such as theMidnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However, a majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of theChittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB.[84] The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis.[84] The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than onevariety – often, speakers are fluent inCholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects.[44]
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 (tadbhava), whereas Hindus are more likely to usetatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit).[85] For example:[81]
Thephonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7nasalised vowels. The inventory is set out below in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme).
Bengali is known for its wide variety ofdiphthongs, combinations ofvowels occurring within the samesyllable.[87] Two of these,/oi̯/ and/ou̯/, are the only ones with representation in script, asঐ andঔ respectively./e̯i̯o̯u̯/ 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:[88]
In standard Bengali,stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually alltrochaic; the primary stress falls on the initialsyllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as inসহযোগিতাshô-hô-jo-gi-ta "cooperation", where theboldface represents primary and secondary stress.
Native Bengali words do not allow initialconsonant clusters;[89] 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 asগেরামgeram (CV.CVC) forগ্রামgram (CCVC) "village" orইস্কুলiskul (VC.CVC) forস্কুলskul (CCVC) "school".
An example of handwritten Bengali. Part of a poem written in Bengali (and with its English translation below each Bengali paragraph) by Nobel LaureateRabindranath Tagore in 1926 in HungaryThe Library ofWhitechapel inEast London with the word "বাংলা" illuminated in its front.
TheBengali-Assamese script is anabugida, a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which aninherent vowel (অô) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked.[90] TheBengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modifiedBrahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century).[91] It is acursive script with elevengraphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and twodiphthongs, and thirty-nine graphemes representingconsonants and other modifiers.[91] There are no distinctupper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separateorthographic words. Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together calledমাত্রাmatra.[92]
Since the Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phoneticsegments, but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus aresyllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually aback vowel, either[ɔ] as inমত[mɔt] "opinion" or[o], as inমন[mon] "mind", with variants like the more open[ɒ]. To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it, a special diacritic, called thehôsôntô(্), may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as inম্[m]). 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 ahôsôntô, may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in the finalন inমন[mon] or the medialম inগামলা[ɡamla]).
A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent[ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowelallographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-voweltypographic ligatures. These allographs, calledকারkar, arediacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graphমি[mi] represents the consonant[m] followed by the vowel[i], where[i] is represented as the diacritical allographি (calledই-কারi-kar) and is placedbefore the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphsমা[ma],মী[mi],মু[mu],মূ[mu],মৃ[mri],মে[me~mɛ],মৈ[moj],মো[mo] andমৌ[mow] represent the same consonantম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures, the so-called "inherent" vowel[ɔ] 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 signম[mɔ].
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. For example, inমই[moj] "ladder" and inইলিশ[iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowelই is used (cf. the dependent formি). A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form.
In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressinghôsôntô, three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are the superposedchôndrôbindu(ঁ), denoting a suprasegmental fornasalisation of vowels (as inচাঁদ[tʃãd] "moon"), the postposedônusbar(ং) indicating thevelar nasal[ŋ] (as inবাংলা[baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposedbisôrgô(ঃ) indicating thevoiceless glottal fricative[h] (as inউঃ![uh] "ouch!") or thegemination of the following consonant (as inদুঃখ[dukʰːɔ] "sorrow").
TheBengali consonant clusters (যুক্তব্যঞ্জনjuktôbênjôn) 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. As in, ক্ষ (ক+ষ) or হ্ম (হ+ম) In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exista few visual formulas 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 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.
Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke।daṛi – the Bengali equivalent of afull stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar.[93]
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 calledমাত্রাmatra. The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example, the letterতtô and the numeral৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of thematra, as is the case between the consonant clusterত্রtrô and the independent vowelএe, also the letterহhô and BengaliÔbogrohoঽ(~ô) and letterওo and consonant clusterত্তttô. The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between the visible matra and an invisible baseline).
There is yet to be a uniform standardcollating sequence (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.
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 by each other. Small numbers of people inMidnapore, which bordersOdisha, have used theOdia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas betweenWest Bengal andBihar, some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali inDevanagari,Kaithi andTirhuta.[94]
InSylhet andBankura, modified versions of theKaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script ofHindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessingmatra.[95] Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing inc. 1869.[11]
Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of theArabic script had been used across Bengal fromChittagong in the east toMeherpur in the west.[96][97][98] The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal,Nur Qutb Alam, composed Bengali poetry using thePersian alphabet.[99][100] After thePartition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali inEast Pakistan; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement.[101]
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 asLisbon 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 theAesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based onEnglish phonology by the Scottish linguistJohn Gilchrist. Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes ofSuniti Kumar Chatterji,Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda, andMuhammad Enamul Haq.[102] TheDigital Revolution has also played a part in the adoption of theEnglish alphabet to write Bengali,[103] with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali.[104]
Bengali script like others does haveSchwa deletion. It does not mark when the inherent vowel is not used (mainly at the end of words)
The Bengali script in general has a comparativelyshallow orthography 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 deepest orthography (deep orthography) 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.
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,[93] and thus does not take into account some sound mergers that have occurred in the spoken language. For example, there are three letters (শ,ষ, andস) for thevoiceless postalveolar fricative[ʃ], although the letterস retains thevoiceless alveolar sibilant[s] sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as inস্খলন[skʰɔlon] "fall",স্পন্দন[spɔndon] "beat", etc. The letterষ also, sometimes, retains thevoiceless retroflex sibilant[ʂ] sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as inকষ্ট[kɔʂʈo] "suffering",গোষ্ঠী[ɡoʂʈʰi] "clan", etc. Similarly, there are two letters (জ andয) for thevoiced postalveolar affricate[dʒ]. Moreover, what was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasalণ[ɳ] is now pronounced as an alveolar[n] when in conversation (the difference is heard when reading) (unless conjoined with anotherretroflex consonant such asট,ঠ,ড andঢ), although the spelling does not reflect this change. Thenear-open front unrounded vowel[æ] is orthographically realised by multiple means, as seen in the following examples:এত[æto] "so much",এ্যাকাডেমী[ækademi] "academy",অ্যামিবা[æmiba] "amoeba",দেখা[dækʰa] "to see",ব্যস্ত[bæsto] "busy",ব্যাকরণ[bækorɔn] "grammar".
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[ɔ] or[o] depending onvowel harmony (স্বরসঙ্গতি) 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 inকম[kɔm] "less", but this omission is not generally reflected in the script, making it difficult for the new reader.
Many consonant clusters have different sounds than their constituent consonants. For example, the combination of the consonantsক্[k] andষ[ʂ] is graphically realised asক্ষ and is pronounced[kkʰo] (as inরুক্ষ[rukkʰo] "coarse"),[kʰɔ] (as inক্ষমতা[kʰɔmota] "capability") or even[kʰo] (as inক্ষতি[kʰoti] "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[ʃ]. 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")( meaning "belief" ), বাধ্য (written as "bādhja" but pronounced as "bāddho")( meaning "bound" ( to do something) )and স্বাস্থ্য (written as "sbāsthja" but pronounced as "shāstho") ( meaning "health"). Some consonant clusters have completely different pronunciation as compared to the constituent consonants. For example, 'হ্য' as in ঐতিহ্য ( meaning "heritage") where 'hy' is pronounced as 'jjh' (written as "aitihya" but pronounced as "oitijjho"). The same হ্য is pronounced as 'hæ' as in হ্যাঁ (meaning "yes") (written as "hjāṅ" but pronounced as nasalised "hæ").
Another example of inconsistency in the script is that of words like, অন্য ( meaning "other") (written as "anja" but pronounced as "onno")(other/different) and অন্ন (written as "ann'a" but pronounced as "ônno")( meaning "food grain"); in these words, the letter অ is combining with two different consonant clusters ন্য ("nja") and 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.
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, 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 many 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.
The script used for Bengali, Assamese, and other languages is known asBengali script. The script is known as theBengali alphabet for Bengali and its dialects and theAssamese alphabet forAssamese language with some minor variations. Other related languages in the nearby region also make use of the Bengali script like theMeitei language in the Indian state ofManipur, where the Meitei language has been written in the Bengali script for centuries, though theMeitei script has been promoted in recent times.
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 represented. Some of them are theInternational Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, or IAST system (based on diacritics);[105] "Indian languages Transliteration", orITRANS (uses upper case letters suited forASCII keyboards);[106] and theNational Library at Kolkata romanisation.[107]
In the context of Bengaliromanisation, it is important to distinguishtransliteration fromtranscription. 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,transliteration andtranscription are often different.
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 Wikipedia using aphonemic transcription, where the true phonetic pronunciation of Bengali is represented with no reference to how it is written.
The most recent attempt has been by publishers Mitra and Ghosh with the launch of three popular children's books,Abol Tabol,Hasi Khusi andSahoj Path, 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.
Bengali nouns are not assigned gender, which leads to minimal changing of adjectives (inflection). However, nouns and pronouns are moderatelydeclined (altered depending on their function in a sentence) into fourcases while verbs are heavilyconjugated, and the verbs do not change form depending on the gender of the nouns.
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, optionalparticles (e.g.কি-ki,না-na, etc.) are oftenencliticised onto the first or last word of a yes–no question.
Wh-questions are formed by fronting the wh-word tofocus position, which is typically the first or second word in the utterance.
Nouns and pronouns are inflected forcase, includingnominative,objective,genitive (possessive), andlocative.[30] The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree ofanimacy. When adefinite article such as-টা-ṭa (singular) or-গুলো-gulo (plural) is added, as in the tables below, nouns are also inflected fornumber.
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.
Noun inflection
Animate
Inanimate
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Nominative
ছাত্রটি
chatrô-ṭi
ছাত্রটি
chatrô-ṭi
the student
ছাত্ররা
chatrô-ra
/
ছাত্রগণ
ছাত্ররা / ছাত্রগণ
chatrô-ra {} {}
the students
জুতোটা
juto-ṭa
জুতোটা
juto-ṭa
the shoe
জুতাগুলা
juta-gula
/
/
জুতোগুলো
juto-gulo
জুতাগুলা / জুতোগুলো
juta-gula / juto-gulo
the shoes
Objective
ছাত্রটিকে
chatrô-ṭi-ke
ছাত্রটিকে
chatrô-ṭi-ke
the student
ছাত্রদের(কে)
chatrô-der(ke)
ছাত্রদের(কে)
chatrô-der(ke)
the students
জুতোটা
juto-ṭa
জুতোটা
juto-ṭa
the shoe
জুতাগুলা
juta-gula
/
/
জুতোগুলো
juto-gulo
জুতাগুলা / জুতোগুলো
juta-gula / juto-gulo
the shoes
Genitive
ছাত্রটির
chatrô-ṭi-r
ছাত্রটির
chatrô-ṭi-r
the student's
ছাত্রদের
chatrô-der
ছাত্রদের
chatrô-der
the students'
জুতোটার
juto-ṭa-r
জুতোটার
juto-ṭa-r
the shoe's
জুতাগুলা
juta-gula
/
/
জুতোগুলোর
juto-gulo-r
জুতাগুলা / জুতোগুলোর
juta-gula / juto-gulo-r
the shoes'
Locative
–
–
জুতোটায়
juto-ṭa-y
জুতোটায়
juto-ṭa-y
on/in the shoe
জুতাগুলা
juta-gula
/
/
জুতোগুলোতে
juto-gulo-te
জুতাগুলা / জুতোগুলোতে
juta-gula / juto-gulo-te
on/in the shoes
When counted, nouns take one of a small set ofmeasure words. Nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. An appropriate measure word (MW), aclassifier, must be used between the numeral and the noun (most languages of theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area are similar in this respect). Most nouns take the generic measure word-টা-ṭa, though other measure words indicate semantic classes (e.g.-জন-jôn for humans). There is also the classifier-khana, and its diminutive form-khani, which attaches only to nouns denoting something flat, long, square, or thin. These are the least common of the classifiers.[110]
There are two classes of verbs:finite and non-finite. Non-finite verbs have no inflection for tense or person, while finite verbs are fully inflected forperson (first, second, third),tense (present, past, future),aspect (simple, perfect, progressive), andhonour (intimate, familiar, and formal), butnot for number.Conditional, imperative, and other special inflections formood can replace the tense and aspect suffixes. The number of inflections on many verb roots can total more than 200.
Inflectional suffixes in themorphology of Bengali vary from region to region, along with minor differences insyntax.
Bengali differs from most Indo-Aryan Languages in thezero copula, where thecopula or connectivebe is often missing in the present tense.[93] Thus, "he is a teacher" isতিনি শিক্ষকse shikkhôk, (literally "he teacher").[111] In this respect, Bengali is similar to Russian andHungarian.Romani grammar is also the closest to Bengali grammar.[112]
Bengali is typically thought to have around 100,000 separate words, of which 16,000 (16%) are considered to be তদ্ভবtôdbhôbô, orTadbhava (inheritedIndo-Aryan vocabulary), 40,000 (40%) are তৎসমtôtśômô orTatsama (words directly borrowed fromSanskrit), and borrowings from দেশীdeśi, or "indigenous" words, which are at around 16,000 (16%) of the Bengali vocabulary. The rest are বিদেশীbideśi or "foreign" sources, includingPersian,Turkish,Arabic, 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.[113] Bengali is reportedly similar toAssamese and has a lexical similarity of 40 per cent withNepali.[114]
According toSuniti Kumar Chatterji, dictionaries from the early 20th century attributed a little more than 50% of the Bengali vocabulary to native words (i.e., naturally modifiedSanskrit 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.[115] However, more modern sources cite that this is not the case with Bengali vocabulary, as there are far more dominant foreign influences that accurately reflect the way modern Bengalis speak and utilise Bengali.[116]Persian is also thought to have influenced many grammatical forms.[117] 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.[115] Because of centuries of contact withEuropeans,Turkic peoples, andPersians, Bengali has absorbed numerous words from foreign languages, often totally integrating these borrowings into the core vocabulary.
Persian 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, untilBritish 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 asDobhashi appeared in medieval Bengal.[citation needed]
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।
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.
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.
^Mitra, Atri (8 October 2024)."Behind Bengali's classical language tag, a Kolkata institute's 2,000-page research document".The Indian Express. Kolkata. Retrieved24 February 2025.And the West Bengal government-run organisation that prepared the document, the Institute of Language Studies and Research (ILSR), is delighted its more than a year-long efforts have paid off...."…a Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary compiled by Li-Yen bears testimony to the fact that at least 51 Bangla words made their way into that dictionary…The Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in the 8th Century CE, included or rather was compelled to include words of a third language, i.e., Bangla. This is indicative of the fact that Bangla had already been standardized and was one of the influential tongues which was regarded as the lingua franca of the geographic area that was known as Bengal,"....
^Das, Amitava; Sanyal, Rajat; Chakraborty, Rajib, eds. (2025).Classical Bangla.Kolkata:Institute of Language Studies and Research (ILSR), Kolkata. pp. 332―337.ISBN9788198479358.The Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in the 8th Century CE, included or rather was compelled to include words of a third language, i.e., Bangla. This is indicative of the fact that Bangla had already been standardized and was one of the influential tongues which was regarded as the lingua franca of the geographic area that was known as Bengal. This illustrates with absolute certainty that Bangla must have been the language of communication for several centuries before the time of composition of Carya songs. By the time Carya songs were composed, Bangla had already acquired prosodic as well as rhetoric sophistication to be considered as a medium of literary discourse.
^"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." (Dasgupta 2003:386–387)
^"Banglapedia".Banglapedia.Archived from the original on 15 May 2020. Retrieved7 November 2017.
^Majumder, Atindra.Arabic, Persian and Turkish words in Bengali Literature.
^"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." (Eaton 1993:60)
^Gope, Amalesh; Mahanta, Sakuntala (2014).Lexical Tones in Sylheti(PDF). 4th International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (TAL-2014). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 15 August 2021. Retrieved27 June 2020.
^"Hajong". The Ethnologue Report.Archived from the original on 15 November 2006. Retrieved19 November 2006.
^Escudero Pascual Alberto (23 October 2005)."Writing Systems/ Scripts"(PDF).Primer to Localization of Software. it46.se. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 19 March 2009. Retrieved20 November 2006.
^Saha, RN (1935)."The Origin of the Alphabet and Numbers". In Khattry, DP (ed.).Report of All Asia Educational Conference (Benares, December 26-30, 1930).Allahabad, India: The Indian Press Ltd. pp. 751–779.
^"Bengali".UCLA Language Materials project. University of California, Los Angeles. Archived fromthe original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved20 November 2006.
^Boyle David, Anne (2015).Descriptive grammar of Bangla. De Gruyter. pp. 141–142.
^Among Bengali speakers brought up in neighbouring linguistic regions (e.g. Hindi), the lost copula may surface in utterances such asshe shikkhôk hocche. This is viewed as ungrammatical by other speakers, and speakers of this variety are sometimes (humorously) referred as "hocche-Bangali".
^Hübschmannová, Milena (1995). "Romaňi čhib – romština: Několik základních informací o romském jazyku".Bulletin Muzea Romské Kultury (4/1995). Brno.Zatímco romská lexika je bližší hindštině, marvárštině, pandžábštině atd., v gramatické sféře nacházíme mnoho shod s východoindickým jazykem, s bengálštinou.
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