Bengali - বাংলা Language

The Bengali and Bengali (Bengali: বাংলা, Bangla) is an Indo-Iranian language from South Asia by the Bengal spoken. The language has developed from Sanskrit.

The Bengali is the language official of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura. It has a syllabic writing system that has its beginnings towards 1100 a. C. (proto-Bengali). The direction of writing is from left to right.

Since the end of the 11th century A.C. Some Sanskrit inscriptions made in Devánagari writing of East India show an evolution that announces modern Bengali writing. One can speak of a protobengali script, characterized in particular by the presence of small triangles to the left of some letters.

Due to the renaissance of Bengal in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Bengali literature emerged among the most select in South Asia, and even personalities such as Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian nominee for a Nobel Prize, emerged.

Geography and number of speakers

Bengali is native to an area in South Asia that is known as Bengal and Bangladesh and includes the Indian state of West Bengal. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Indian states of Assam and Tripura and among immigrant populations in the west and the Middle East. Bengali is the second language in India in terms of number of speakers, after the related Hindi.

With around 250 million speakers, it is the 7th language in the world (after Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic and Russian).

History

Like most other Eastern Indo-English languages, Bengali arises from the prefect Apabhraṃśa, which is classified chronologically within the middle Indoary. Some argue a lot about this point - placing it even for the year 500 a. C., highlighting that the language was not static, and presented many variants or dialects.

In particular, in the eastern region, where the Abahatta (with considerable resemblance to Purvi and Magadhi Apabhrangsha) developed, this arose around the seventh century BC. C. Hiuen Tsang mentions it as the most spoken language in East India.

Geographic distribution

The Bengali language is native to the Bengal region, which comprises the current nation of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam.

In addition to its native region it is also spoken by the majority of the population in the territory of the Indian union of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are also significant Bengali - speaking communities in the Middle East, Japan, United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Maldives, Australia, Canada and the UK.

Official Status

Bengali is the national and official language of Bangladesh, and one of the 23 official languages recognized by the Republic of India. It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. It is also an important language in the territory of the Indian union of Andaman and Nicobar.

Bengali is a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is also a recognized secondary language in the city of Karachi in Pakistan. The Department of Bengali at the University of Karachi also offers regular programs of study at the Baccalaureate and at the master's levels for Bengali literature.

The national anthems of Bangladesh and India were written in Bengali by the laureate Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal requested that Bengali become an official language of the United Nations.

Literature

Bengali has a rich literary tradition. Much of the most famous literature from India is written in this language. For example, Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Asian to receive a Nobel Prize, was a Bengali and wrote much of his work in his native language.

Phonology

The standard Bengali phonetic inventory consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, including 6 nasalized vowels. Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs, vowel combinations that occur within the same syllable.

Classification

The language belongs to the Bengali-Assamese language group, which in turn belongs to the eastern group of Indian languages. Bengali is therefore most closely related to Assamese.

Grammar

Bengali has a so - called SOV-order (verb at the end of the sentence) and knows the use of both front and back prepositions. There are three courtesy levels (polite, familial and intimate) with corresponding verb conjugations. The language has no grammatical gender.

Writing system

The Bengali writing is an abused system of writing that belongs to the brahmic family of alphabets that are associated with the languages Bangla, Assamese, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Manipuri and Sylheto. It was derived from the ancient Nagari alphabet.

Although it is very similar to devanagari, it is less structured in blocks and presents more sinuous forms. The modern Bengali alphabet was formalized in 1778 when Charles Wilkins first created a typographic composition.

Bengali text by Jôno Gôno Môno:

জনগণমন-অধিনায়ক জয় হে ভারতভাগ্যবিধাতা!
পঞ্জাব সিন্ধু গুজরাট মরাঠা দ্রাবিড় উত্কল বঙ্গ
বিন্ধ্য হিমাচল যমুনা
গঙ্গা উচ্ছলজলধিতরঙ্গ জাগে, তব শুভ আশিস মাগে,
গাহে তব জয়গাথা।
জনগণমঙ্গলদায়ক জয় হে ভারতভাগ্যবিধাতা!
জয় হে, জয় হে, জয় হে, জয় জয় জয়, জয় হে॥

জনগণমন-অধিনায়ক জয় হে ভারতভাগ্যবিধাতা!