Bengali language
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- This article is about the Bengali language. For the script, see Bengali script.
| Bengali (Bangla [বাংলা]) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Bangladesh, India, and several other countries |
| Region: | Eastern South Asia |
| Total speakers: | 207 million |
| Ranking: | 4 (Native speakers)[1] |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Bangladesh, India, and Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | bn |
| ISO 639-2 | ben |
| SIL | BNG |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Bengali or Bangla (বাংলা) is an Indo-Aryan language of South Asia that evolved as a successor to the Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit languages. Bengali is the English word for the name of the language and for its speakers; in Bengali, the language itself is called Bangla (বাংলা), a term that now has greater currency in English. From this point forward, Bangla will be used to refer to the language.
Bangla is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. There are significant Bangla-speaking communities in the Indian states of Assam and Tripura and in immigrant populations in the West and the Middle East. With more than 200 million native speakers, it is the fourth or fifth most widely spoken language in the world (after Mandarin, Spanish, English and, arguably, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) [2]. Bangla is the second most commonly spoken language in India (after Hindi). Along with Assamese, it is geographically the most eastern of the Indo-European languages. Assamese, Oriya and Maithili, three other languages belonging to the Eastern Maghadan Branch of Indo-Aryan language family, are very closely related to Bangla. Standard Assamese, Oriya, and Bangla are considered by some to be nearly mutually intelligible; some local dialects of one language bear a striking resemblance to one or more dialects of the other two languages.
As a result of the Bengal renaissance in the 19th and 20th centuries, much of India's most famous literature, poetry, and lyrics are in Bangla; the works of Rabindranath Tagore (the first Asian to be awarded a Nobel Prize), for example, are in Bangla. Many of the reformist religious, philosophical, and political movements that began in that era were led by Bengalis.
Contents |
Script
Main article: Bengali script
Bangla is written in the Bangla alphasyllabary (also called syllabic alphabet or abugida), a Brahmic script similar to the Devanagari alphasyllabary used for Hindi, Sanskrit, and many other Indic languages. The Bangla alphasyllabary is a cursive script with 12 vowel characters and 52 consonant characters. As in all alphasyllabaries, every consonant in the Bangla script has an inherent embedded vowel sound. To suppress the embedded vowel sound, an extra diacritic must be added below the consonant. Vowels can be written as independent letters, or by writing a variety of diacritics above, below, before, after, or around the consonant they belong to. Consonant clusters are typically indicated by ligating two or more symbols.
The Bangla spelling system is based on a much older version of the language, and thus does not take into acount some sound mergers that have occurred in the spoken language. For example, the alphabet has two letters for the sound [dʒ] and three for the sound [ʃ]. Conversely, a number of letters now have more than one pronunciation; the letter এ can represent either the low vowel [æ] or the high-mid vowel [e]. Furthermore, many letters and diacritics have become "silent letters" in the spoken language. The word for "health", for example, is pronounced [shastho], but is written 'swasthyô'. With these minor inconsistencies and redundancies, the Bangla script cannot be described as a entirely phonetic.
This same script, with a few small modifications, is also used for writing Assamese. Other related languages in the region also make use of the Bangla alphabet. Meithei (Manipuri), a Sino-Tibetan language used in the Indian state of Manipur, was written in the Bangla alphasyllabary for centuries, until the 1980s, when Meetei Mayek (the Meithei alphasyllabary) returned to daily usage. For centuries, the Sylheti language used a different script, based on the Devanagari alphasyllabary. This script, called Sylheti Nagori, has now fallen out of use, as most speakers of Sylheti have adopted the Bangla script.
Phonetics
The phonemic inventory of Bangla consists of 29 consonants and 14 vowels, including the seven nasalized vowels. An approximate phonetic scheme is set out below in IPA.
Front |
Central | Back |
|
| High | i |
u |
|
| High-mid | e |
o |
|
| Low-mid | æ |
ɔ |
|
| Low | a |
| Labial | Dental | Apico- Alveolar |
Apico- Postalveolar |
Lamino- Postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |
| Voiceless stops | p pʰ |
t̪ t̪ʰ |
ʈ ʈʰ |
ʧ ʧʰ |
k kʰ |
||
| Voiced stops | b bʰ |
d̪ d̪ʰ |
ɖ ɖʰ |
ʤ ʤʰ |
g gʰ |
||
| Voiceless fricatives | s | ʃ | h | ||||
| Nasals | m |
n |
ŋ |
||||
| Liquids | l, r |
ɽ |
Phonology
For the purposes of consistent transliteration, the following Romanization scheme is used throughout this article along with other Wikipedia articles related to the Bengali language. The tables below correspond to the IPA transcriptions used above.
Front |
Central | Back |
|
| High | i |
u |
|
| High-mid | e |
o |
|
| Low-mid | ê |
ô |
|
| Low | a |
| Labial | Dental | Apico- Alveolar |
Apico- Postalveolar |
Lamino- Postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |
| Voiceless stops | p ph |
t th |
ţ ţh |
ch chh |
k kh |
||
| Voiced stops | b bh |
d dh |
đ đh |
j jh |
g gh |
||
| Voiceless fricatives | s | sh | h | ||||
| Nasals | m |
n |
ng |
||||
| Liquids | l, r |
ŗ |
Stress
Bangla words are virtually all trochaic; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as [shô-ho-jo-gi-ta] "cooperation", where the boldface represents primary and secondary stress. The first syllable carries the greatest stress, with the third carrying a somewhat weaker stress, and all following odd-numbered syllables carrying very weak stress.
Adding prefixes to a word typically shifts the stress to the left; for example, while the word [shob-bho] "civilized" carries the primary stress on the first syllable [shob], adding the negative prefix [ô-] creates [ô-shob-bho] "uncivilized", where the primary stress is now on the newly-added first syllable [ô].
Intonation
In a simple declarative sentence, most words and/or phrases in Bangla carry a rising tone (L*H), with the exception of the last word in the sentence, which only carries a low tone (L). This intonational pattern creates a musical tone to the typical Bangla sentence, with low and high tones alternating until the final drop in pitch to mark the end of the sentence.
In sentences involving focused words and/or phrases, the rising tones (L*H) only last until the focused word; all following words carry a low (L) tone. This intonation pattern extends to wh-questions, as wh-words are normally considered to be focused. In yes-no questions, the rising tones (L*H) may be more exaggerated, and most importantly, the final syllable of the final word in the sentence takes a falling tone (HL) instead of a flat low tone (L).
Vowel Length
Vowel length is not contrastive in Bangla; all else equal, there is no meaningful distinction between a "short vowel" and a "long vowel", unlike the situation in many other Indic languages. However, when morpheme boundaries come into play, vowel length can sometimes distinguish otherwise homophonous words. This is due to the fact that open monosyllables (i.e. words that are made up of only one syllable, with that syllable ending in the main vowel and not a consonant) have somewhat longer vowels than other syllable types. For example, the vowel in cha: "tea" is somewhat longer than the first vowel in chaţa "licking", as cha: is a word with only one syllable, and no final consonant. (The long vowel is marked with a colon : in these examples.) The suffix ţa "the" can be added to cha: to form cha:ţa "the tea". Even when another morpheme is attached to cha:, the long vowel is preserved. Knowing this fact, some interesting cases of apparent vowel length distinction can be found.
Furthermore, using a form of reduplication called "echo reduplication", the long vowel in cha: can be copied into the reduplicant ţa:, giving cha:ţa: "tea and all that comes with it". Thus, in addition to cha:ţa "the tea" (long first vowel) and chaţa "licking" (no long vowels), we have cha:ţa: "tea and all that comes with it" (both long vowels).
Consonant Clusters
Native Bangla (tôdbhôb) words do not allow initial consonant clusters; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e. one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bangla restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as geram (CV.CVC) for gram (CCVC) "village" or iskul (VC.CVC) for skul (CCVC) "school".
Sanskrit (tôtshôm) words borrowed into Bangla, however, possess a wide range of clusters, expanding the maximum syllable structure to CCCVC. Some of these clusters, such as the mr in mrittu "death" or the sp in spôshţo "clear", have become extremely common, and can be considered legal consonant clusters in Bangla. Other commonly-heard clusters from Sanskrit include pr (proshno "question"), br (brishţi "rain"), bhr (bhromon "travel"), tr (trish "thirty"), dr (druto "rapid"), kr (krimi "worm"), gr (gram "village"), sr (sromik "worker"), str (stri "woman"), sth (sthanio "local"), and sn (snan "bath").
Less commonly-heard clusters from Sanskrit include dhr (dhrubo "fixed, permanent"), ghr (ghrina "disgust"), ml (mlan "melancholy"), nr (nritto "dance"), sph (sphurti "delight"), st (stômbho "tower"), and skh (skhôlon "slip").
English and other foreign (bideshi) borrowings add even more cluster types into the Bangla inventory, further increasing the syllable capacity to CCCVCCCC, as commonly-used loanwords such as ţren "train" and glash "glass" are now even included in leading Bangla dictionaries. Clusters from English borrowings include bl (blauz "blouse"), thr (thru or thrute "through, via"), ţr (ţrak "truck"), đr (đraivar "driver"), fr (frans "France"), fl (flaiţ "flight"), spl (splêsh "splash"), sţ (sţeshon "station"), sţr (sţreiţ "straight"), skr (skru "screw"), and sm (smarţ "smart"). Furthermore, some clusters occasionally found in Sanskrit borrowings are now more commonly heard in English borrowings. These clusters include pl (plen "plane"), kl (klash "class"), gl (glash "glass"), sl (sloli "slowly"), spr (spring "spring"), and sk (skarţ "skirt").
Most final consonant clusters were borrowed into Bangla from English, as in lifţ "lift, elevator" and bêņk "bank". However, final clusters do exist in some native Bangla words, although rarely in standard pronunciation. One example of a final cluster in a standard Bangla word would be gônj, which is found in names of hundreds of cities and towns across Bengal, including Nôbabgônj and Manikgônj. Some nonstandard varieties of Bangla make use of final clusters quite often. For example, in some Purbo (eastern) dialects, final consonant clusters consisting of a nasal and its corresponding oral stop are common, as in chand "moon". The Standard Bangla equivalent of chand would be chñad, with a nasalized vowel instead of the final cluster.
Syntax
Main article: Bengali grammar
As a Head-Final language, Bangla follows Subject Object Verb word order, although word order variation is highly common. Bangla makes use of postpositions, instead of English-style prepositions. Determiners follow the noun, while numerals, adjectives, and possessors precede the noun.
Yes-no questions do not require any change to the basic word order; instead, the low (L) tone of the final syllable in the utterance is replaced with a falling (HL) tone. Additionally optional particles (e.g. [-ki], [-na], etc.) are often encliticized onto the first word of a yes-no question.
Wh-questions are formed by fronting the wh-word to Focus position, which is typically the first or second word in the utterance.
Morphology
There is no grammatical gender in Bangla. Adjectival morphology is light, while nouns and verbs are highly inflected.
Nouns
Nouns and pronouns are inflected for case, including nominative, objective, genitive (possessive), and locative. The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of animacy.
Animate |
Inanimate |
|
| Nominative | chhatro-ţa the student |
juta-ţa the shoe |
| Objective | chhatro-ţa-ke the student |
juta-ţa the shoe |
| Genitive | chhatro-ţa-r the student's |
juta-ţa-r the shoe's |
| Locative | - |
juta-ţa-(t)e on/in the shoe |
When a definite article such as -ţa (singular) or -gulo (plural) is added, as in the table above, nouns are also inflected for number. Plural versions of the previous table can be found below:
Animate |
Inanimate |
|
| Nominative | chhatro-ra the students |
juta-gulo the shoes |
| Objective | chhatro-der(ke) the students |
juta-gulo the shoes |
| Genitive | chhatro-der the students' |
juta-gulo-r the shoes' |
| Locative | - |
juta-gulo-te on/in the shoes |
When counted, nouns must also be accompanied by the appropriate measure word. As in many Asian languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.), nouns in Bangla cannot be counted directly by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. The noun's measure word (MW) must be used in between the numeral and the noun. Most nouns take the generic measure word ţa, although there are many more specific measure words, such as jon, which is only used to count humans.
| Bangla | Literal translation | English translation |
| Nôe-ţa ghoŗi | Nine-MW clock | Nine clocks |
| Kôe-ţa balish | How.many-MW pillow | How many pillows |
| Ônek-jon lok | Many-MW person | Many people |
| Char-pañch-jon shikkhôk | Four-five-MW teacher | Four or five teachers |
Measuring nouns in Bangla without their corresponding measure words (e.g. aţ biŗal instead of aţ-ţa biŗal "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, omitting the noun and preserving the measure word is grammatical and not uncommon to hear. For example, Shudhu êk-jon thakbe. (lit. "Only one-MW will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one person will remain.", since jon can only be used to count humans. The word lok "person" is implied.
Verbs
Verbs divide into two classes: finite and non-finite. Non-finite verbs have no inflection for tense or person, while finite verbs are fully inflected for person (first, second, third), tense (present, past, future), aspect (simple, perfect, progressive), and honor (intimate, familiar, and formal) -- but not for number. Conditional, imperative, and other special inflections for mood can replace the tense and aspect suffixes.
While the syntax of Bangla is not drastically different across the various dialects, the inflectional suffixes in the morphology of Bangla vary from region to region.
Vocabulary
The typical Bangla dictionary lists 75,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67%) are considered tôtshôm (direct borrowings from Sanskrit), 21,100 (28%) are tôdbhôb (native Bangla vocabulary), and the rest being foreign (primarily English, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Portuguese, and French) borrowings and indigenous (non-Bangla) words.
However, these figures do not take into account the fact that a huge chunk of these words are archaic or highly technical, minimizing their actual usage. The vocabulary used in modern literary works, in fact, is made up mostly (67%) of tôdbhôb (native Bangla) words, while tôtshôm (Sanskrit borrowings) only make up 25% of the total. Indigenous (but non-Bangla) words and foreign borrowings together make up the remaining 8% of the vocabulary used in modern Bengali literature.
Due to centuries of contact with Europeans, Mughals, Arabs, Persians, and East Asians, Bangla has absorbed countless words from foreign languages, often totally integrating these borrowings into the core vocabulary. Some of the most common borrowings are listed below:
From Portuguese
anarôsh "pineapple", almari "closet, cupboard", gamla "basket", girja "church", chabi "key", janala "window", tamak "tobacco", toale "towel", peñpe "papaya", peara "guava", baranda "verandah", balti "pail", bashon "dish", botol "bottle", botam "button", boma "bomb", mistri "mechanic, artisan", jishu "Jesus", shaban "soap"
From French
añsh "plant fiber", ingrej "English", kartuj "cartridge", restorañ "restaurant", shemiz "chemise"
From English
apish/ôfish "office", inchi "inch", kap "cup", khrishtan "Christian", glash/glas "glass", chear "chair", jel "jail", tebil "table", daktar "doctor", pulish "police", phut/fut "foot", baksho "box", bêngk "bank", bhot "vote", lônthon "lantern", ishkul/skul "school", hashpatal "hospital", and countless others.
From Arabic
akkel "wisdom", alada "separate", ashol "real", elaka "area", ojon "weight", kôbor "grave", kamiz "shirt", khôbor "news", khali "empty", khêal "consideration", gorib "poor", jôbab/jôoab "answer", jôma "collect", jinish "thing", tarikh "date", dunia "world", nôkol "fake", fokir "poor person", boi "book", bôdol "exchange", baki "remaining", môshola "spice", shaheb "sir", hishab "calculation"
From Farsi
aoaj "sound", andaj "guess", aena "mirror", aram "comfort", aste "softly", kagoj "paper", kharap "bad", khub "very", gôrom "hot", chôshma "glasses", chakri "job", chador "blanket", jan "dear", jaega "place", degchi "pot", dôm "breath", deri "late", dokan "store", bôd "bad", bagan "garden", bachcha "child", môja "fun", rasta "road", roj "everyday", shôsta "inexpensive", hindu "Hindu"
From Turkish
kañchi "scissors", chôkmôk "sparkle", thakur "lord, master", dada "paternal grandfather" (in Bangladesh), dadi "paternal grandmother" (in Bangladesh), nana "maternal grandfather" (in Bangladesh), nani "maternal grandmother" (in Bangladesh), baburchi "cook, chef", begom "lady", lash "corpse"
From Hindi
achchha "okay", chahida "demand", kahini "story", pani "water", phaltu "useless"
From Chinese
cha "tea", chini "sugar", lichu "lychee", elachi "cardamom"
From Indigenous (non-Indo-European) Languages
alu "potato", kuri "twenty", khuki "girl", khoka "boy", khoñcha "stab", khoñj "notice", chal "rice grains", chingri "shrimp", chula "oven, stove", jhinuk "shell", jhol "gravy", thêng "leg", dhol "dhol (type of drum)", pet "belly", boba "deaf", math "field, open land", muri "puffed rice", lunggi "lunggi" (man's skirt)
Variation in dialects
Dialectual differences in Bangla manifest themselves in three forms: standardized dialect vs. regional dialect, literary language vs. colloquial language and lexical influences.
Literary forms
In Bangla, there exists what is known as Shadhubhasha (the elegant language; literally "language of sages"; also called Shuddhobhasha) and Choltibhasha (the current, or colloquial, language; literally "the current or running language"; also called Cholitobhasha or Cholitbhasha in common speech). The major differences between the two are the adherence to traditional grammar (i.e. the archaic forms of Medieval Bangla) and to a heavily Sanskritized vocabulary in Shadhubhasha. Songs like the Indian national anthem Jôno Gôno Môno (by Rabindranath Tagore) and the national song of India (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (Chatterjee)) Bônde Matôrom were actually composed in the highly refined Sadhubhasha form of Bangla. However, Shadhubhasha is not spoken in commonplace settings but confined to literary and formal contexts.
Choltibhasha, which comprises the standard pronunciation of Bangla and thus serves as the basis for the orthography of most Bangla writing today, is modeled on the cultivated form of the dialect spoken in Kolkata by the educated people originally coming from districts bordering on the lower reaches of the Hooghly River. Choltibhasha, as the colloquial dialect, derives its lexicon from several sources. Though overwhelmingly Sanskrit-based, a large amount of vocabulary is taken from English, Arabic and Persian sources.
Greater laxity in grammatical expression, particularly the verbal conjugations, distinguishes between Choltibhasha (CB) and Shadhubhasha (SB). From a strictly linguistic view, Choltibhasha exhibits several marked departures from the traditional Shadhubhasha Bangla; most noticeably clipped verbal forms [SB cholitechhi ("I am going") corresponds to CB cholchhi], consonantal simplication [SB snan ("bath") corresponds to CB chan], and vowel raising [SB ôbbhash ("habit") corresponds to CB ôbbhesh].
Regional variations
There are marked dialectual differences between the speech of Bengalis living on the Poshchim (western) side and Purbo (eastern) side of the Padma River. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern Bangladesh (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions), many of the stops and affricates heard in Kolkata Bangla are pronounced as fricatives.
Poshchim Bangla palato-alveolar affricates চ [tʃ], ছ [tʃh], জ [dʒ], and ঝ [dʒɦ] correspond to Purbo Bangla চʻ [ts], ছ় [s], জʻ [dz], and ঝ় [z]. This pronunciation is also found in Assamese, a related language across the border in India.
The aspirated velar stop খ [kh] and the aspirated labial stop ফ [ph] of Poshchim Bangla correspond to খ় [x] and ফ় [f] in many dialects of Purbo Bangla. These pronunciations are most extreme in the 'Sylheti' dialect of extreme northeastern Bangladesh -- the dialect of Bangla most common in the United Kingdom. Additionally, the Sylheti dialect carries a greater Arab and Persian influence while sharing grammatical features with Assamese.
Many Purbo Bangla dialects also share additional phonological features with Assamese, including the debuccalization of শ [ʃ] to হ [h] or খ় [x].
Some Purbo Bangla dialects do not include the breathy voiced stops ঘ [gɦ], ঝ [dʒɦ], ঢ [ɖɦ], ধ [d̪ɦ], and ভ [bɦ].
The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on the phonology of Purbo Bangla is seen through the lack of nasalized vowels, a more fronted place of articulation for the apico-postalveolar stops ট [ʈ], ঠ [ʈh], ড [ɖ], and ঢ [ɖɦ], and the lack of distinction between র [ ɾ] and ড়/ঢ় [ɽ].
The Chittagong and Chakma Bangla dialects are heavily influenced by the neighboring Tibeto-Burman languages; these dialects are often considered separate languages from Bangla.
During standardization of Bangla in the late 19th and early 20th century, the cultural elite were mostly from West Bengal, especially Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Hence, the dialect of that area was considered to be standard. To this day, the accepted standard language in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the dialect of the 19th century Kolkata elite. This has helped create a state of diglossia in most of Bangladesh, with many speakers familiar with or fluent in both the particular Purbo dialect of their community and the standard Poshchim dialect used in the media.
Lexical variations
The third major factor in dialectical difference, specifically between the dialects of West Bengal and Bangladesh, is a lexical one. Even in Standard Bengali, vocabulary items often divide along the split between the predominantly Muslim Bangladeshi populace and largely Hindu West Bengali populace. Due to their cultural and religious traditions, Muslims occasionally utilize Perso-Arabic words instead of the Sanskrit-derived forms.
Some examples of lexical alternation between standard West Bengali forms (or commonly called Hindu forms) and their corresponding standard Bangladeshi forms (or commonly called Muslim forms) are as follows:
- hello: nômoshkar (S) corresponds to assalamualaikum/slamalikum (A)
- invitation: nimontron/nimontonno (S) corresponds to daoat (A)
- guest: otithi (S) corresponds to mehman (P)
- sir: môshae (S) corresponds to shaheb (A)
- bath/shower: snan/chan (S) corresponds to gosol (A)
- water: jôl (S) corresponds to pani (S/Hindi)
- meat: mangsho (S) corresponds to gosh/goshto/gosto (P)
- prayer: prarthona (S) corresponds to doa (A)
- god: bhôgoban, ishshor (S) corresponds to allah (A), khoda (P)
- mother: ma (S) corresponds to amma (A)
- father: baba (S) corresponds to abba (A)
- maternal aunt: mashi (S) corresponds to khala (A)
- paternal aunt: pishi (S) corresponds to fupi/fupu (P)
- paternal uncle: kaka (S) corresponds to chacha (S/Hindi)
(here S = derived from Sanskrit; A = derived from Arabic, P = derived from Persian)
The differences above depend on the region contemplated and are not always clearly distinct. For example, many people in West Bengal continue to use the words chan and gosol (or nimontron and daoat) interchangeably with no particular bias towards one word or the other; a similar situation prevails (even among Muslims) in Hindu majority and Western regions of Bangladesh. Additionally, baba and ma are also heard often in Bangladesh.
Though jôl, pani, kaka, and chacha are all Sanskrit derivatives, pani and chacha became more associated with the Hindustani language that imbibed so much of Mughal culture and so became the word of choice for Muslim speakers of Bangla.
Furthermore, there are cases where speakers of Standard Bangla in West Bengal will use a different word than a speaker of Standard Bangla in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bangla descent. Because each pair of words is made up of only native vocabulary, the choice of which word to use is not based on one's religion, but on regional usage. Examples of such cases are listed below, with the West Bengali standard marked (W) and the Bangladeshi standard marked (E):
- salt: nun (W) corresponds to lôbon (E)
- turmeric: holdi (W) corresponds to holud (E)
- chili pepper: lôngka (W) corresponds to morich (E)
- with: shôngge (W) corresponds to shathe (E)
- husband's sister: thakurjhi (W) corresponds to nônod (E)
Note that these differences reflect the vocabulary of the standard varieties of Bangla in West Bengali and Bangladesh. Variation in the vocabulary of the countless regional dialects of both West Bengal and Bangladesh are even more pronounced.
Bangla literature
The first evidence of Bangla literature is Charyapada or Charyageeti, buddhist hymns or dohas from the 8th century.
Possibly the most prolific writer in Bangla is Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Influenced primarily by universalist Hindu philosophy in the Upanishads, Tagore dominated both the Bengali and Indian philosophical and literary scene for decades. His 2,000 Rabindrasangeets play a pivotal part in defining Bengali culture, both in West Bengal and Bangladesh. He is the author of the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh, both composed in Bangla. Other notable Bangla works of his are Gitanjali, a book of poems for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, and many short stories and a few novels.
In a similar category is Kazi Nazrul Islam, a Muslim who was invited to post-partition Bangladesh as the National Poet and whose work, transcends sectarian boundaries. Adored by Bengalis both in Bangladesh and West Bengal, his work includes 3,000 songs, known as nazrul geeti. He is frequently called the rebel poet because of his strong involvement in revolution leading to India's independence from the British Rule. His songs and poems were frequently used during the Bangladesh Liberation War as well.
Michael Madhusudan Dutt, a Christian by conversion, is best known for his Ramayana-based masterpiece, "The Slaying of Meghnadh," (in Bengali "Meghnadh Bodh Kabbo" (মেঘনাদ বধ কাব্য)), which essentially follows in the poetic tradition of Milton's Paradise Lost. Those who have read it consider this work a world-class epic poem of the modern era. Michael Madhusudan Dutta is also credited with introduction of sonnets in Bangla literature.
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was an author whose speciality was exploring complex human psychology. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was one of the earliest Bengali novelist and is popularly known as the author of India's first national song, "Bande Mātarom" (pronounced in Hindi "Vande Mātāram"). Tarashankar Bandopadhay was another famous novelist whose works feature a realistic picture of the many-colored fabric of life in rural bengal.
Jibanananda Das was a famous poet, who along with Buddhadev Basu, marks the starting of the move to transcend the Tagore legacy. The new genere of Bengali poets rather shifted from Tagore's ideological style and adoped realism in their writing more pronouncedly. Titled polli-kobi (Poet of the Country) for works relating to the villages and country-side of Bengal, Jasimuddin is particularly famous for his poems that have become major highlights for pedagogical purposes in both West Bengal and Bangladesh.
Seminal Hindu religious works in Bangla include the many songs of Ramprasad Sen. His works (still sung today in West Bengal) from the 17th century cover an astonishing range of emotional responses to Ma Kali, detailing complex philosophical statements based on Vedanta teachings and more visceral prouncements of his love of Devi. Using inventive allegory, Ramprasad had 'dialogues' with the Mother Goddess through his poetry, at times chiding her, adoring her, celebrating her as the Divine Mother, reckless consort of Shiva and capricious Shakti of the cosmos. There are also the laudatory accounts of the lives and teachings of the Vaishnava saint Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (the Choitanyo Choritāmrit) and Devi Advaitist Shri Ramakrishna (the Ramakrishna Kathamrita, translated roughly as Gospel of Ramakrishna).
The mystic Bauls of the Bengal countryside who preached the boundless spiritual truth of Sôhoj Pôth (the Simple, Natural Path) and Moner Mānush (The Man of The Heart) drew on Vedantic philosophy to propound transcendental truths in song format, traveling from village to village proclaiming that there was no such thing as Hindu, Muslim or Christian, only moner mānush.
Literature discussed so far can be more or less regarded as the common heritage of both Bangladesh and West Bengal. After the partition of Bengal in 1947, the east and west parts of Bengal have also had their distinctive literature. For example, the Naxalite movement has influenced much of West Bengal's literature where as a similarly profound impact on Bangladeshi literature was that of the Liberation War.
Major literary figures in Bangladesh include Shamsur Rahman, Sufia Kamal, Hasan Azizul Huq, Akhtaruzzaman Ilias and Humayun Azad , to name a few. Some notable writers from West Bengal are Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shankha Ghosh, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Mahasweta Devi and Joy Goswami.
History
Until the 18th century, Bangla did not have a well-documented grammar. Bangla existed as a collection of thousands of dialects. The first written Bangla grammar, Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes, was written by Manoel da Assumpcam, a Portuguese missionary. Assumpcam wrote this grammar between 1734 and 1742 while he was serving in Bhawal. Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a British grammarian, is credited as being the first to write a Bangla grammar using Bangla texts and letters for illustration: A Grammar of the Bengal Language (1778). Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali Reformer, also published a book "Grammar of the Bengali Language" in 1832.
The Fight for Bangla
In East Pakistan/Bangladesh
Between the years of 1947 and 1971, what is now known as Bangladesh was part of Pakistan (and first known as East Bengal and later East Pakistan). During this period, the Bangla language became the focus and foundation of the national identity of the Bengali people, leading ultimately to the creation of the sovereign state of Bangladesh.
Around 1950-52, the emerging middle class of East Bengal underwent an uprising known later as the Bhasha Andolon, or Language Movement. Bengalis (then East Pakistanis) were initially agitated by a decision by the central Pakistani government to establish Urdu as the sole national language for all of Pakistan, despite the fact that Urdu was only a minority language spoken by the supposed elite class of what was then West Pakistan. At the peak of resentment, on February 21, 1952, Bengali students (mainly of Dhaka Medical College and University of Dhaka) and activists walked into military and police fire and were killed in demand of the recognition and establishment of the Bangla language - spoken by the majority of the then-Pakistani population - as one of the, if not the sole, national language of erstwhile Pakistan. The day is revered in modern-day Bangladesh and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in West Bengal as the Language Martyrs' Day. UNESCO decided to observe 21 February as International Mother Language Day. The UNESCO General Conference took a decision to that took effect on 17 November 1999 when it unanimously adopted a draft resolution submitted by Bangladesh and co-sponsored and supported by 28 other countries.
In India
In 1961, the Government of Assam passed a legislature making the usage of Assamese language compulsary. The legislature resulted in widespread protest across Assam. In one such incident, 11 people were killed due to police firing in Silchar in southern Assam. Coming under intense pressure, the Government withdrew the legislature.[3]
See also
- Bangladesh
- Bengal
- Dhaka
- East Bengal (province)
- East Pakistan
- Kazi Nazrul Islam
- Kolkata
- Language Martyrs' Day
- Language Movement
- Music of Bangladesh
- Music of Bengal
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Siliguri
- West Bengal
- Bengali cinema
- Languages of India
- List of national languages of India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
External links
- Ethnologue report for Bengali
- Bengali Language: A Brief Introduction
- Link on Sylheti dialect of Bangladesh
- Ranking of Languages by Native Speakers
- Transliterator Transliterate from Romanised (english alphabets) to Unicode Bengali
- Samsad Bengali-English dictionary. 3rd ed. online. Requires unicode enabled browser (such as firefox).
References
- Alam, Mahbubul 2000. Bhasha Shourôbh: Bêkorôn O Rôchona (The Fragrance of Language: Grammar and Rhetoric). S. N. Printers, Dhaka.
- Chatterji, S. K. 1926. The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language: Part II. Calcutta Univ. Press.
- Masica, C. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge Univ. Press.
- Radice, William. 1994. Teach Yourself Bengali: A Complete Course for Beginners.Hodder Headlin, Ltd., London.
- ^ Silchar police firing incidentar:بنغالية (لغة)
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