bengalí , [a] también conocido por su endónimo bengalí ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), es unalengua indoariaclásica de lafamilia de lenguas indoeuropeasnativa de laregión de Bengalaen el sur de Asia. Con más de 237 millonesde hablantes nativosy otros 41 millones comode segunda lenguaen 2024,[1]el bengalí es laquinta lengua nativa más habladay laséptima lengua más habladapor el número total de hablantes en el mundo.[7][8]Es la quintalengua indoeuropea.[9]
El bengalí es el idioma oficial , nacional y más hablado de Bangladesh , [10] [11] [12] con el 98% de los bangladesíes utilizando el bengalí como su primera lengua. [13] [14] Es el segundo idioma más hablado en la India . Es el idioma oficial de los estados indios de Bengala Occidental y Tripura y la región del valle de Barak del estado de Assam . También es el segundo idioma oficial del estado indio de Jharkhand desde septiembre de 2011. [3] Es el idioma más hablado en las islas Andamán y Nicobar en la Bahía de Bengala , [15] y lo hablan poblaciones significativas en otros estados, incluidos Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha y Uttarakhand . [16] El bengalí también lo hablan las diásporas bengalíes ( diáspora bangladesí y bengalíes indios) en Europa, América del Norte, Oriente Medio y otras regiones. [17]
El gobierno de la India otorgó al bengalí el estatus de lengua clásica el 3 de octubre de 2024. [18] [19] Es el segundo idioma más hablado y el cuarto de más rápido crecimiento en la India , después del hindi en primer lugar, el cachemiro en segundo lugar y el meitei ( manipuri ), junto con el gujarati , en tercer lugar , según el censo de la India de 2011. [20]
El bengalí se ha desarrollado a lo largo de más de 1.400 años. La literatura bengalí , con su historia literaria milenaria, se desarrolló ampliamente durante el Renacimiento bengalí y es una de las tradiciones literarias más prolíficas y diversas de Asia. El movimiento de la lengua bengalí de 1948 a 1956, que exigía que el bengalí fuera una lengua oficial de Pakistán, fomentó el nacionalismo bengalí en Bengala Oriental, lo que llevó al surgimiento de Bangladesh en 1971. En 1999, la UNESCO reconoció el 21 de febrero como el Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna en reconocimiento al movimiento lingüístico. [21] [22]
Aunque los brahmanes hindúes hablan sánscrito en Bengala desde el siglo III a. C., [24] la población budista local hablaba variedades del prácrito . [25] Estas variedades se conocen generalmente como " pracrito magadhi oriental ", como lo acuñó el lingüista Suniti Kumar Chatterji , [26] ya que los dialectos indoarios medios fueron influyentes en el primer milenio cuando Bengala era parte del reino del Gran Magadhan .
Las variedades locales no tenían estatus oficial durante el Imperio Gupta , y con Bengala convirtiéndose cada vez más en un centro de literatura sánscrita para sacerdotes hindúes, la lengua vernácula de Bengala ganó mucha influencia del sánscrito. [27] El magadhi prakrit también se hablaba en las actuales Bihar y Assam , y esta lengua vernácula finalmente evolucionó hacia el ardha magadhi . [28] [29] El ardha magadhi comenzó a dar paso a lo que se conoce como apabhraṃśa , hacia fines del primer milenio. El idioma bengalí evolucionó como una lengua distinta con el transcurso del tiempo. [30]
Aunque algunos arqueólogos afirman que algunos textos del siglo X estaban en bengalí, no es seguro si representan un idioma diferenciado o si representan una etapa en la que las lenguas indoarias orientales se estaban diferenciando. [31] El Apabhraṃśa local del subcontinente oriental, Purbi Apabhraṃśa o Abahatta (lit. 'sonidos sin sentido'), eventualmente evolucionó en dialectos regionales, que a su vez formaron tres grupos, las lenguas bengalí-asamesas , las lenguas bihari y la lengua odia .
El idioma no era estático: coexistían diferentes variedades y los autores solían escribir en múltiples dialectos en este período. Por ejemplo, se cree que el ardhamagadhi evolucionó hacia el abahatta alrededor del siglo VI, que compitió con el antecesor del bengalí durante algún tiempo. [32] [ se necesita una mejor fuente ] El antecesor del bengalí fue la lengua del Imperio Pala y la dinastía Sena . [33] [34]
Durante el período medieval, el bengalí medio se caracterizó por la elisión de la ô final de palabra y la difusión de los verbos compuestos, que se originaron a partir del sánscrito Schwa . Lentamente, la ô final de palabra desapareció de muchas palabras influenciadas por las lenguas árabe , persa y turca . [ cita requerida ] La llegada de comerciantes y comerciantes de Oriente Medio y el Turquestán al Imperio Pala , gobernado por los budistas , desde principios del siglo VII, dio origen a la influencia islámica en la región. [ cita requerida ]
En el siglo XIII, las posteriores expediciones árabes musulmanas y turco-persas a Bengala influyeron fuertemente en la lengua vernácula local al establecerse entre la población nativa. [35] [36] El bengalí absorbió influencias árabes y persas en su vocabulario y dialecto, incluido el desarrollo del dobhashi . [35]
El bengalí adquirió prominencia, sobre el persa, en la corte de los sultanes de Bengala con el ascenso de Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . [37] Los gobernantes musulmanes posteriores promovieron activamente el desarrollo literario del bengalí, [38] lo que le permitió convertirse en la lengua vernácula más hablada en el sultanato. [39] El bengalí adoptó muchas palabras del árabe y el persa , lo que fue una manifestación de la cultura islámica en el idioma. Los principales textos del bengalí medio (1400-1800) incluyen Yusuf-Zulekha de Shah Muhammad Sagir y Srikrishna Kirtana de los poetas Chandidas . El apoyo de la corte a la cultura y el idioma bengalíes disminuyó cuando el Imperio mogol conquistó Bengala a fines del siglo XVI y principios del XVII. [40]
La forma literaria moderna del bengalí se desarrolló durante los siglos XIX y principios del XX basándose en el dialecto del centro-oeste hablado en la región de Nadia . El bengalí muestra un alto grado de diglosia , con la forma literaria y estándar que difiere en gran medida del habla coloquial de las regiones que se identifican con el idioma. [41] El vocabulario bengalí moderno se basa en palabras heredadas del magadhi prakrit y el pali, junto con tatsamas y préstamos del sánscrito y préstamos del persa , el árabe , las lenguas austroasiáticas y otras lenguas con las que históricamente ha estado en contacto.
En los siglos XIX y XX, había dos formas estándar de escritura bengalí:
En 1948, el gobierno de Pakistán intentó imponer el urdu como única lengua estatal en Pakistán, lo que dio lugar al movimiento del idioma bengalí . [44] Este fue un movimiento etnolingüístico popular en la antigua Bengala Oriental (hoy Bangladesh ), que surgió como resultado de la fuerte conciencia lingüística de los bengalíes y su deseo de promover y proteger el reconocimiento del bengalí hablado y escrito como lengua estatal del entonces Dominio de Pakistán . El 21 de febrero de 1952, cinco estudiantes y activistas políticos fueron asesinados durante las protestas cerca del campus de la Universidad de Dacca ; fueron los primeros mártires en morir por su derecho a hablar su lengua materna. En 1956, el bengalí se convirtió en lengua estatal de Pakistán. [44] Desde entonces, el 21 de febrero se ha observado como el Día del Movimiento de las Lenguas en Bangladesh y también se ha conmemorado como el Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna por la UNESCO todos los años desde 2000.
En 2010, el Parlamento de Bangladesh y la Asamblea Legislativa de Bengala Occidental propusieron que el bengalí se convirtiera en idioma oficial de las Naciones Unidas. [45] Hasta enero de 2023, todavía no se había tomado ninguna medida al respecto. Sin embargo, en 2022, las Naciones Unidas adoptaron el bengalí como idioma no oficial, tras una resolución presentada por la India. [46]
En 2024, el gobierno de la India otorgó al bengalí el estatus de lengua clásica . [18] [19]
El idioma bengalí es originario de la región de Bengala , que comprende la actual nación de Bangladesh y el estado indio de Bengala Occidental .
Además de la región nativa, también lo hablan los bengalíes que viven en Tripura , el sur de Assam y la población bengalí en el territorio de la unión india de las islas Andamán y Nicobar . El bengalí también se habla en los estados vecinos de Odisha , Bihar y Jharkhand , y minorías considerables de hablantes de bengalí residen en ciudades indias fuera de Bengala, incluidas Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi y Vrindavan . También hay importantes comunidades de habla bengalí en Oriente Medio , [47] [48] [49] Estados Unidos , [50] Singapur , [51] Malasia , Australia , Canadá , el Reino Unido e Italia .
El tercer artículo de la Constitución de Bangladesh establece que el bengalí es el único idioma oficial del país. [12] La Ley de Implementación del Idioma Bengalí de 1987 hizo obligatorio el uso del bengalí en todos los registros y correspondencias, leyes, procedimientos judiciales y otras acciones legales en todos los tribunales, oficinas gubernamentales o semigubernamentales e instituciones autónomas en Bangladesh. [10] También es el idioma nacional de facto del país.
En la India, el bengalí es uno de los 23 idiomas oficiales . [52] Es el idioma oficial de los estados indios de Bengala Occidental , Tripura y en el valle de Barak de Assam . [53] [54] El bengalí ha sido el segundo idioma oficial del estado indio de Jharkhand desde septiembre de 2011.
En Pakistán , el bengalí es una lengua secundaria reconocida en la ciudad de Karachi [55] [56] [57], hablada principalmente por bengalíes que se quedaron en Pakistán . El Departamento de Bengalí de la Universidad de Karachi (establecido por políticos de Pakistán Oriental antes de la Independencia de Bangladesh ) también ofrece programas regulares de estudios de grado y máster en literatura bengalí. [58]
Los himnos nacionales de Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) y de la India ( Jana Gana Mana ) fueron escritos en bengalí por el premio Nobel bengalí Rabindranath Tagore . [59] Notuner Gaan, conocida como " Chol Chol Chol" , es la marcha nacional de Bangladesh, escrita por el poeta nacional Kazi Nazrul Islam en bengalí en 1928. Fue adoptada como canción de marcha nacional por el gobierno de Bangladesh en 1972. Además, los dos primeros versos de Vande Mataram , una canción patriótica escrita en bengalí por Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , fueron adoptados como la "canción nacional" de la India tanto en el período colonial como más tarde en 1950 en la India independiente. Además, muchos creen que el himno nacional de Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) se inspiró en un poema bengalí escrito por Rabindranath Tagore , [60] [61] [62] [63] mientras que algunos incluso creen que el himno fue escrito originalmente en bengalí y luego traducido al cingalés . [64] [65] [66] [67]
Tras la contribución realizada por la Fuerza de Paz de las Naciones Unidas en Bangladesh en la Guerra Civil de Sierra Leona en el marco de la Misión de las Naciones Unidas en Sierra Leona , el gobierno de Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declaró el bengalí como idioma oficial honorario en diciembre de 2002. [68] [69] [70] [71]
En 2009, representantes electos tanto de Bangladesh como de Bengala Occidental pidieron que el bengalí se convirtiera en idioma oficial de las Naciones Unidas . [72]
Las variedades regionales del bengalí hablado constituyen un continuo dialectal . El lingüista Suniti Kumar Chatterji agrupó los dialectos del idioma bengalí en cuatro grandes grupos: rarhi , vangiya , kamrupi y varendri ; [73] [74] pero también se han propuesto muchos esquemas de agrupación alternativos. [75] Los dialectos del suroeste ( dialecto rarhi o nadia ) forman la base del bengalí coloquial estándar moderno. En los dialectos predominantes en gran parte del este y sureste de Bangladesh ( divisiones de Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka y Sylhet de Bangladesh), muchas de las oclusivas y africadas que se escuchan en Bengala Occidental y el oeste de Bangladesh se pronuncian como fricativas . Las africadas alveolo-palatales occidentales চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] corresponden a las orientales চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] .
La influencia de las lenguas tibetano-birmanas en la fonología del bengalí oriental se ve a través de la falta de vocales nasalizadas y una articulación alveolar de lo que se clasifican como consonantes "cerebrales" (a diferencia de la articulación postalveolar del Bengala occidental). Algunas variedades del bengalí, en particular el sylheti , [76] el chittagón y el chakma , tienen un tono contrastivo ; las diferencias en el tono de voz del hablante pueden distinguir las palabras. El kharia thar y el mal paharia están estrechamente relacionados con los dialectos bengalíes occidentales, pero normalmente se clasifican como idiomas separados. De manera similar, el hajong se considera un idioma separado, aunque comparte similitudes con los dialectos bengalíes del norte . [77]
Durante la estandarización del bengalí en el siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX, el centro cultural de Bengala estaba en Calcuta , una ciudad fundada por los británicos. Lo que se acepta como la forma estándar hoy en día tanto en Bengala Occidental como en Bangladesh se basa en el dialecto del centro-oeste del distrito de Nadia y Kushtia . [78] Hay casos en los que los hablantes de bengalí estándar en Bengala Occidental usarán una palabra diferente a la de un hablante de bengalí estándar en Bangladesh, aunque ambas palabras sean de ascendencia bengalí nativa. Por ejemplo, la palabra sal es লবণ lôbôṇ en el este, que corresponde a নুন nun en el oeste. [79]
El bengalí muestra diglosia , aunque algunos estudiosos han propuesto triglosia o incluso n-glosia o heteroglosia entre las formas escritas y habladas del idioma. [41] Han surgido dos estilos de escritura, que implican vocabularios y sintaxis algo diferentes : [78] [80]
El lingüista Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar clasifica el idioma como:
Aunque la mayor parte de la escritura se realiza en bengalí coloquial estándar (SCB), los dialectos hablados presentan una mayor variedad. La gente del sureste de Bengala Occidental, incluida Calcuta, habla en SCB. Otros dialectos, con variaciones menores del coloquial estándar, se utilizan en otras partes de Bengala Occidental y el oeste de Bangladesh, como el dialecto de Midnapore , que se caracteriza por algunas palabras y construcciones únicas. Sin embargo, una mayoría en Bangladesh habla dialectos notablemente diferentes del SCB. Algunos dialectos, en particular los de la región de Chittagong , solo tienen un parecido superficial con el SCB. [82] El dialecto de la región de Chittagong es el menos comprendido por la masa general de bengalíes. [82] La mayoría de los bengalíes pueden comunicarse en más de una variedad : a menudo, los hablantes hablan con fluidez el cholitobhasha (SCB) y uno o más dialectos regionales. [42]
Incluso en el SCB, el vocabulario puede diferir según la religión del hablante: los musulmanes son más propensos a utilizar palabras de origen persa y árabe, junto con más palabras derivadas naturalmente del sánscrito ( tadbhava ), mientras que los hindúes son más propensos a utilizar tatsama (palabras tomadas directamente prestadas del sánscrito). [83] Por ejemplo: [79]
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).
Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs, combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable.[85] Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/, are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ 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:[86]
In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali 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 in সহযোগিতা shô-hô-jo-gi-ta "cooperation", where the boldface represents primary and secondary stress.
Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters;[87] the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school".
The Bengali-Assamese script is an abugida, a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked.[88] The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century).[89] It is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs, and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers.[89] There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words. Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra.[90]
Since the Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments, but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel, either [ɔ] as in মত [mɔt] "opinion" or [o], as in মন [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 the hôsôntô (্), may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [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 a hôsôntô, may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in the final ন in মন [mon] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla]).
A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures. These allographs, called কার kar, are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i], where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma], মী [mi], মু [mu], মূ [mu], মৃ [mri], মে [me~mɛ], মৈ [moj], মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম 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 sign ম [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, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই 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-suppressing hôsôntô, three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are the superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ), denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow").
The Bengali consonant clusters (যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn) are usually realised as ligatures, where the consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a 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 a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar.[91]
Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra. The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example, the letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra, as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e, also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô. 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 standard collating 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 in Midnapore, which borders Odisha, have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar, some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari, Kaithi and Tirhuta.[92]
In Sylhet and Bankura, modified versions of the Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra.[93] Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869.[11]
Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in the east to Meherpur in the west.[94][95][96] The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam, composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet.[97][98] After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement.[99]
In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of the Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist. Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda, and Muhammad Enamul Haq.[100] The Digital Revolution has also played a part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali,[101] with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali.[102]
Bengali script like others does have Schwa 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 comparatively shallow 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,[91] 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, and স) for the voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ], although the letter স retains the voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in স্খলন [skʰɔlon] "fall", স্পন্দন [spɔndon] "beat", etc. The letter ষ also, sometimes, retains the voiceless retroflex sibilant [ʂ] sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in কষ্ট [kɔʂʈo] "suffering", গোষ্ঠী [ɡoʂʈʰi] "clan", etc. Similarly, there are two letters (জ and য) for the voiced postalveolar affricate [dʒ]. Moreover, what was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal ণ [ɳ] is now pronounced as an alveolar [n] when in conversation (the difference is heard when reading) (unless conjoined with another retroflex consonant such as ট, ঠ, ড and ঢ), although the spelling does not reflect this change. The near-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 on vowel 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 in কম [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 consonants ক্ [k] and ষ [ʂ] is graphically realised as ক্ষ and is pronounced [kkʰo] (as in রুক্ষ [rukkʰo] "coarse"), [kʰɔ] (as in ক্ষমতা [kʰɔmota] "capability") or even [kʰo] (as in ক্ষতি [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")( belief ), বাধ্য (written as "bādhja" but pronounced as "bāddho")( bound ( to do something) )and স্বাস্থ্য (written as "sbāsthja" but pronounced as "shāstho") (health). Some consonant clusters have completely different pronunciation as compared to the constituent consonants. For example, 'হ্য' as in ঐতিহ্য where 'hy' is pronounced as 'jjh' (written as "aitihya" but pronounced as "oitijjho")(tradition). The same হ্য is pronounced as 'hæ' as in হ্যাঁ (written as "hjāṅ" but pronounced as nasalised "hæ").
Another example of inconsistency in the script is that of words like, অন্য (written as "anja" but pronounced as "onno")(other/different) and অন্ন (written as "ann'a" but pronounced as "ônno")(food grain); in these words, the letter অ is combining with two different consonant clusters ন্য ("nja") and 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 a lot of grapheme-to-phoneme inconsistencies while most of the tadbhav words (native Bengali words) have fairly consistent grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence. The Bengali writing system is, therefore, not often a true guide to pronunciation.
The script used for Bengali, Assamese, and other languages is known as Bengali script. The script is known as the Bengali alphabet for Bengali and its dialects and the Assamese alphabet for Assamese language with some minor variations. Other related languages in the nearby region also make use of the Bengali script like the Meitei language in the Indian state of Manipur, where the Meitei language has been written in the Bengali script for centuries, though the Meitei script has been promoted in recent times.
Bengali digits are as follows.
There are additional digits for fractions and prices, though they are little used any longer.[vague]
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 the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, or IAST system (based on diacritics);[103] "Indian languages Transliteration", or ITRANS (uses upper case letters suited for ASCII keyboards);[104] and the National Library at Kolkata romanisation.[105]
In the context of Bengali romanisation, it is important to distinguish transliteration from transcription. 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 and transcription 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 a phonemic 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 and Sahoj 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 moderately declined (altered depending on their function in a sentence) into four cases while verbs are heavily conjugated, and the verbs do not change form depending on the gender of the nouns.
As a head-final language, Bengali follows a subject–object–verb word order, although variations on this theme are common.[106] Bengali makes use of postpositions, as opposed to the prepositions used in English and other European languages. Determiners follow the noun, while numerals, adjectives, and possessors precede the noun.[107]
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. কি -ki, না -na, etc.) are often encliticised onto the first or last 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.
Nouns and pronouns are inflected for case, including nominative, objective, genitive (possessive), and locative.[30] The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of animacy. When a definite article such as -টা -ṭa (singular) or -গুলো -gulo (plural) is added, as in the tables below, nouns are also inflected for number.
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.
When counted, nouns take one of a small set of measure words. Nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. An appropriate measure word (MW), a classifier, must be used between the numeral and the noun (most languages of the Mainland 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.[108]
Measuring nouns in Bengali without their corresponding measure words (e.g. আট বিড়াল aṭ biṛal instead of আটটা বিড়াল aṭ-ṭa biṛal "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, when the semantic class of the noun is understood from the measure word, the noun is often omitted and only the measure word is used, e.g. শুধু একজন থাকবে। Shudhu êk-jôn thakbe. (lit. "Only one-MW will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one person will remain.", given the semantic class implicit in -জন -jôn.
In this sense, all nouns in Bengali, unlike most other Indo-European languages, are similar to mass nouns.
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 for person (first, second, third), tense (present, past, future), aspect (simple, perfect, progressive), and honour (intimate, familiar, and formal), but not for number. Conditional, imperative, and other special inflections for mood can replace the tense and aspect suffixes. The number of inflections on many verb roots can total more than 200.
Inflectional suffixes in the morphology of Bengali vary from region to region, along with minor differences in syntax.
Bengali differs from most Indo-Aryan Languages in the zero copula, where the copula or connective be is often missing in the present tense.[91] Thus, "he is a teacher" is তিনি শিক্ষক se shikkhôk, (literally "he teacher").[109] In this respect, Bengali is similar to Russian and Hungarian. Romani grammar is also the closest to Bengali grammar.[110]
Origins of Words in the Bengali Language
Bengali is typically thought to have around 100,000 separate words, of which 16,000 (16%) are considered to be তদ্ভব tôdbhôbô, or Tadbhava (inherited Indo-Aryan vocabulary), 40,000 (40%) are তৎসম tôtśômô or Tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit), and borrowings from দেশী deśi, or "indigenous" words, which are at around 16,000 (16%) of the Bengali vocabulary. The rest are বিদেশী bideśi or "foreign" sources, including Persian, 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.[111] Bengali is reportedly similar to Assamese and has a lexical similarity of 40 per cent with Nepali.[112]
According to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, dictionaries from the early 20th century attributed a little more than 50% of the Bengali vocabulary to native words (i.e., naturally modified Sanskrit 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.[113] 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.[114] Persian is also thought to have influenced a lot of grammatical forms.[115] 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.[113] Because of centuries of contact with Europeans, Turkic peoples, and Persians, 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, until British rule, when it was changed to English in 1836. In fact, there was so much Persian influence that a register of highly Persianized Bengali, known as Dobhashi appeared in medieval Bengal.[citation needed]
The most common borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. After close contact with several indigenous Austroasiatic languages,[116][117][118][119] and later the Delhi Sultanate, the Bengal Sultanate, and the Mughal Empire, whose court language was Persian, numerous Arabic, Persian, and Chaghatai words were absorbed into the lexicon.[44]
Later, East Asian travellers and lately European colonialism brought words from Portuguese, French, Dutch, and most significantly English during the colonial period.[citation needed]
The following is a sample text in Bengali of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
সমস্ত
Sômôstô
ʃɔmosto
All
মানুষ
manush
manuʃ
human
স্বাধীনভাবে
shadhinbhabe
ʃadʱinbʱabe
free-manner-in
সমান
sôman
ʃoman
equal
মর্যাদা
môrjada
mɔɾdʒada
dignity
এবং
ebông
eboŋ
and
অধিকার
ôdhikar
odʱikaɾ
right
নিয়ে
niye
nie̯e
taken
জন্মগ্রহণ
jônmôgrôhôn
dʒɔnmoɡrohon
birth-take
করে।
kôre.
kɔɾe
do.
তাঁদের
Tãder
tãdeɾ
Their
বিবেক
bibek
bibek
reason
এবং
ebông
eboŋ
and
বুদ্ধি
buddhi
budʱːi
intelligence
আছে;
achhe;
atʃʰe
exist;
সুতরাং
sutôrang
ʃutoraŋ
therefore
সকলেরই
sôkôleri
ʃɔkoleɾi
everyone-indeed
একে
êke
ɛke
one
অপরের
ôpôrer
ɔporeɾ
another's
প্রতি
prôti
proti
towards
ভ্রাতৃত্বসুলভ
bhratrittôsulôbh
bʱratritːoʃulɔbʱ
brotherhood-ly
মনোভাব
mônobhab
monobʱab
attitude
নিয়ে
niye
nie̯e
taken
আচরণ
achôrôn
atʃorɔn
conduct
করা
kôra
kɔra
do
উচিত।
uchit.
utʃit
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.
An Indic language spoken in India and Bangladesh.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Zatímco romská lexika je bližší hindštině, marvárštině, pandžábštině atd., v gramatické sféře nacházíme mnoho shod s východoindickým jazykem, s bengálštinou.
