Bengali language
Bengali is the most eastern Indo-Aryan language from South Asia. It developed from a language called Pali. Bengali is spoken in Bangladesh and in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, parts of Assam and Jharkhand and in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
| Bengali Dialect | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangla Dialect বাংলা উপভাষা | ||||
 "Bangla" in Bengali script | ||||
| Pronunciation | [ˈbaŋla] ( listen) | |||
| Region | Bangladesh and India | |||
| Ethnicity | Assamese | |||
| Native speakers | 150–300 million (2017)[1][2][3] (L1 plus L2 speakers) | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Early forms: | Abahattha
| |||
| Dialects | see Bengali dialects
| |||
| Writing system | Eastern Nagari script (Bengali alphabet) Bengali Braille | |||
| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |  Bangladesh India (in West Bengal, Tripura and Barak Valley) | |||
| Regulated by | Bangla Academy Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-1 | bn | |||
| ISO 639-2 | ben | |||
| ISO 639-3 | ben | |||
| Linguasphere | 59-AAF-u | |||
 Bengali speaking region of South Asia | ||||
| ||||
| Part of a series on | |
|---|---|
| |
| Constitutionally recognised languages of India | |
| Category | |
| Scheduled Languages | |
|
A
| |
| Related | |
|
Official languages of India
|
 |
This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Bengali language edition. |
There are about 220 million native speakers and about 250 million total speakers of Bengali. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, ranking seventh.[4]
Most people in Bangladesh speak Bengali, and many famous books and poems are written in Bengali. Rabindranath Tagore was a famous poet who wrote in Bengali. Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The national anthems of both India and Bangladesh were written in this language.[5]
Bengali Language Media
Present-day distribution of Indo-European languages in Eurasia. Bengali is one of the easternmost languages
Indo- Iranian languages, Bengali marked yellow
The descent of proto-Gauda, the ancestor of the modern Bengali language, from the proto-Gauda-Kamarupa line of the proto-Magadhan (Magadhi Prakrit).
Silver coin of Maharaj Gaudeshwar Danujmardandev of Deva dynasty, c. 1417
Silver coin with proto-Bengali script, Harikela Kingdom, c. 9th–13th century
Geographical distribution of the Bengali language in the world. Main language Regional language Overseas population of more than a million Overseas population of more than 100 thousand Overseas population of more than 10 thousand Overseas population of more than a thousand
An example of handwritten Bengali. Part of a poem written in Bengali (and with its English translation below each Bengali paragraph) by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1926 in Hungary
The Library of Whitechapel in East London with the word "বাংলা" illuminated in its front.
An 1855 Dobhashi manuscript of Halat-un-Nabi written by Sadeq Ali using the Sylheti Nagri script.
References
- ↑ "Article 3. The state language". The CBalto-onstitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd. Ministry of Law, The People's Republic of Bangladesh. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
- ↑ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2011" (PDF). Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 29 June 2018.
- ↑ Bengali at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
- ↑ "Statistical Summaries". Ethnologue. 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
- ↑ "Statement by Hon'ble Foreign Minister on Second Bangladesh-India Track II dialogue at BRAC Centre on 07 August, 2005". Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 2008-04-18. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
