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| Bengali | |
|---|---|
| Bangla | |
| বাংলা | |
 The word "Bangla" in the Bengali script | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈbaŋla] |
| Native to | Bangladesh and India |
| Region | |
| Ethnicity | Bengalis |
| Speakers | L1: 240 million (2011–2021)[1][2] L2: 41 million (2011–2021)[1] |
Early forms | Magadhi Prakrit
|
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |
|
| Regulated by |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | bn |
| ISO 639-2 | ben |
| ISO 639-3 | ben |
| Glottolog | beng1280 |
 Geographical distribution of the Bengali language. Darker shades imply a greater percentage of native speakers. | |
 Bengalophone diaspora worldwide.
National and official language with majority native speakers
Official language with large number of native speakers
Large diaspora (more than 100,000)
Smaller diaspora (more than 10,000) | |
| Part of a series on |
| Bengalis |
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Bengali,[a] also known by its endonym Bangla (বাংলা, Bāṅlā, [ˈbaŋla] ), is an Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 250 million native speakers[7] and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024,[1] Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world.[8][9] It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language.[10]
Bengali is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh,[11][12][13] with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language.[14][15] It is the second-most widely spoken language in India. It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam. It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011.[3] It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal,[16] and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Uttarakhand.[17] Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas (Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions.[18]
Bengali is the fourth fastest growing language in India, following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei (Manipuri), along with Gujarati, in the third place, according to the 2011 census of India.[19]
Bengali has developed over more than 1,300 years. Bengali literature, with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement.[20][21]
History
Ancient
Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC,[23] the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit.[24] These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji,[25] as the Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm.
The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire, and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit.[26] Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam, and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi.[27][28] Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what is known as Apabhraṃśa, by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time.[29]
Early
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 Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating.[30] The local Apabhraṃśa of the eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages, the Bihari languages, and the Odia language.
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.[31][better source needed] The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty.[32][33]
Medieval
During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa. Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by the Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages.[citation needed] The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist-ruling Pala Empire, from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region.[citation needed]
In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population.[34][35] Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including the development of Dobhashi.[34]
Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah.[36] Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali,[37] allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate.[38] Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian, which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on the language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century.[39]
Modern
The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in the Nadia region. Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language.[40] Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian, 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:
- চলিতভাষা Chôlitôbhasha, a colloquial form of Bengali using simplified inflections.
- সাধুভাষা Sadhubhasha, a formal and genteel form of Bengali.[41][42]
In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement.[43] This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as a state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan. On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan.[43] 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO 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.[44] 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.[45]
Geographical distribution
Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming a rounded total of 280 million) worldwide.
The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal, which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.
Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura, southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Bengali is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand, and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, Varanasi, and Vrindavan. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East,[46][47][48] the United States,[49] Singapore,[50] Malaysia, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy.
Official status
The 3rd article of the Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh.[13] The Bengali 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.[11] It is also the de facto national language of the country.
In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages.[51] It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam.[52][53] Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011.
In Pakistan, Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi[54][55][56] mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan. The Department of Bengali in the University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature.[57]
The national anthems of both Bangladesh (Amar Sonar Bangla) and India (Jana Gana Mana) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.[58] Notuner Gaan known as "Chol Chol Chol" is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram, a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim 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 by Rabindranath Tagore,[59][60][61][62] while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala.[63][64][65][66]
After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, the government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002.[67][68][69][70]
In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations.[71]
Dialects
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Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum. Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters- Rarhi, Vangiya, Kamrupi and Varendri;[72][73] but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed.[74] The south-western dialects (Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form the basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives. Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [tɕɔ], ছ [tɕʰɔ], জ [dʑɔ] correspond to eastern চ , ছ , জ .
The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on the phonology 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 varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti,[75] Chittagonian and Chakma, have contrastive tone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects.[76]
During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata, a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District.[77] There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west.[78]
Bengali exhibits diglossia, though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language.[40] Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax:[77][79]
- Sadhu bhasha (সাধু ভাষা "upright language") was the written language, with longer verb inflections and more of a Pali and Sanskrit-derived Tatsama vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthem Jana Gana Mana (by Rabindranath Tagore) 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.
- 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 of Peary Chand Mitra (Alaler Gharer Dulal, 1857),[80] Pramatha Chaudhuri (Sabujpatra, 1914) and in the later writings of Rabindranath Tagore. It is modelled on the dialect spoken in the Shantipur and Shilaidaha region in Nadia and Kushtia 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".[74]
Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises the language as:
- Madhya Rarhi dialect
- Kanthi (Contai) dialect
- Kolkata dialect
- Shantipuriya (Nadia) dialect
- Shershahabadia (Maldahiya/ Jangipuri) dialect
- Barendri dialect
- Rangapuriya dialect
- Sylheti dialect
- Dhakiya (Bikrampuri) dialect
- Jashore/Jessoriya dialect
- Barisal (Chandradwip) dialect
- Chattal (Chittagong) dialect
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 the Midnapore 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 Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB.[81] The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis.[81] The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects.[41]
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 use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit).[82] For example:[78]
| Predominantly Hindu usage | Origin | Predominantly Muslim usage | Origin | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| নমস্কার nômôskār | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit namaskāra | আসসালামু আলাইকুম āssālāmu ālāikum | Directly from Arabic as-salāmu ʿalaykum | hello |
| নিমন্ত্রণ nimôntrôṇ | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit nimantraṇa as opposed to the native Bengali nemôntônnô | দাওয়াত dāowāt | Borrowed from Arabic da`wah via Persian | invitation |
| জল jôl | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit jala | পানি pāni | Native, compare with Sanskrit pānīya | water |
| স্নান snān | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit snāna | গোসল gosôl | Borrowed from Arabic ghusl via Persian | bath |
| দিদি didi | Native, from Sanskrit devī | আপা āpā | From Turkic languages | sister / elder sister |
| দাদা dādā | Native, from Sanskrit dāyāda | ভাইয়া bhāiyā | Native, from Sanskrit bhrātā | brother / elder brother[83] |
| মাসী māsī | Native, from Sanskrit mātṛṣvasā | খালা khālā | Directly borrowed from Arabic khālah | maternal aunt |
| পিসী pisī | Native, from Sanskrit pitṛṣvasā | ফুফু phuphu | Native, from Prakrit phupphī | paternal aunt |
| কাকা kākā | From Persian or Dravidian kākā | চাচা chāchā | From Prakrit cācca | paternal uncle |
| প্রার্থনা prārthonā | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit prārthanā | দোয়া doyā | Borrowed from Arabic du`āʾ | prayer |
| প্রদীপ prôdīp | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit pradīp | বাতি bāti | Native, compare with Prakrit batti and Sanskrit barti | lamp |
| লঙ্কা lônkā | Native, named after Lanka | মরিচ môrich | Directly borrowed from Sanskrit marica | chilli |
Phonology
The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels. The inventory is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme).
| Non-nasalised | Nasalised | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | ই~ঈ i i |
উ~ঊ u u |
ইঁ~ঈঁ ĩ ĩ |
উঁ~ঊঁ ũ ũ | ||
| Close-mid | এ e e |
ও o o |
এঁ ẽ ẽ |
ওঁ õ õ | ||
| Open-mid | অ্যা æ æ |
অ ɔ ô |
অ্যাঁ æ̃ æ̃ |
অঁ ɔ̃ ɔ̃ | ||
| Open | আ a a |
আঁ ã ã |
||||