Bengali, also known as Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language originating in the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal. It is the official language of Bangladesh and the states of West Bengal and Tripura in India and is also spoken in Assam and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. It is the seventh most spoken language in the world, with around 267-280 million speakers of Bengali worldwide, including 85-98 million in India (8.3%) and 100 million in Bangladesh. It played a crucial role in the Bengali Language Movement of 1952, which contributed to the independence of Bangladesh. Bengali has a rich literary tradition dating back over a millennium. Bengali has been declared a ‘classical’ language by Government of India in October 2024.
Origin:
The development of Bengali can be traced through several stages:
Ancient Origins: Bengali’s roots go back to 3500 BCE within the Indo-European language family.
Early Development: It evolved from Old Indo-Aryan dialects, particularly Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, rather than directly from Sanskrit as often assumed.
Medieval Period: The language began to take a distinct form around the 7th century CE.
The historical stages of its development include:
Old Bengali (650-1200 CE)
Middle Bengali (1200-1800 CE)
Modern Bengali (1800 CE onwards)
The formative period of Bengali can be traced to the 8th-12th centuries, as evident from the ‘Carya songs’ (‘Caryapadas’ or ‘Caryagitis’) composed by the Sahajiya Buddhists. Specimens of the Old Bangla can also be traced to the commentary on the ‘Amara kosa’ by Pandit Vandya written around 1159 CE. ‘Brajabuli’ is an early poetic form of Bengali. The establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal in the 14th century led to Bengali becoming the official court language, absorbing many Arabic, Persian and Turkish words into its vocabulary.
Script:
Bengali uses its own script, derived from the eastern variety of the ancient Brahmi script. It has 12 vowels and 36 consonants. The origin of Bengali script can be traced to the ‘Siddhamatrika lipi’ (710 CE), which developed into ‘Gaudi’ or ‘Proto Bengali’ script during 11th to 13th century CE.
The Bengali grammar is characterised by Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) sentence structure with no grammatical gender for nouns. It has highly inflected verbs and a complex pronoun system based on formality and social relationships. Due to historical influences, its vocabulary includes words from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and other languages.
Dialects:
Bengali has several regional dialects, which can be classified based on phonology and pronunciation:
Bangali: The most widely spoken dialect, used across much of Bangladesh and Tripura, India.
Rarhi: Spoken in Southern West Bengal and Southwestern Bangladesh.
Varendri: Used in the Rajshahi and Southern Rangpur Divisions of Bangladesh and the Malda division of West Bengal.
Rangpuri: Found in Rangpur Division of Bangladesh and Jalpaiguri Division of West Bengal.
Manbhumi: Spoken in westernmost Bengali-speaking regions.
In addition, there are two main varieties of standard Bengali:
Sadhubhasa: The formal, literary style.
Chaltibhasa: The colloquial style which became dominant in the 20th century.