Bengali Language and Literature

BENGALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Bengali language is one of four forms of speech composing the eastern group of the Indo-Aryan Languages (q.v.).

Bengali is spoken in the province of Bengal proper;

i.e., in, and on both sides of, the delta of the Ganges. The name "Bengali" is an English word, derived from the English word "Bengal." The language is known as Bangga-Bhara, or the language of Bangga; i.e., "Bengal." It is an immediate descendant of Magadhi Prakrit, (see PRAKRIT), which spread from south Behar in three lines south wards, where it developed into Oriya; south-eastwards into Bengal proper, where it became Bengali; and eastwards, through northern Bengal, into Assam, where it became Assamese. Thus the language of northern Bengal, though usually and conveniently treated as a dialect of Bengali, is, in reality, a connecting link between Assamese and Bihari, the language of Behar. Northern Bengali and Assamese often agree in their grammar with Oriya, as against standard Bengali.

Bengali has two main dialects, a western and an eastern, the former being the standard. The eastern dialect has a tendency to disaspiration, the pronunciation of c as ts, of ch as s, and of j as z. In the northern part of the tract a medial r is often elided, and in the extreme east there is a broader pronunciation of the vowel a, like that in the English word "ball," k is sounded like the ch in "loch," and both c and ch are pronounced like s. The letter p is often sounded like w, and s like h; the latter, when initial, is dropped. The distinction between cerebral and dental letters is lost. In the south-east, near Chittagong, the local dialect is prac tically a new language and is unintelligible to a man from western Bengal. Throughout the eastern districts there is a strong ten dency to epenthesis ; e.g., kali is pronounced kail.

Abbreviations used : A. = Assamese, Bg. = Bengali, 0. = Oriya, Pr. = Prakrit, Mg. Pr. = Magadhi Prakrit, Skr. = Sanskrit. (In transliteration, c has the sound of ch, in church. Thus Caitanya, Candi, are pronounced Chaitany a, Chandi.) Vocabulary.—Literary Bengali abounds in tatsamas, words borrowed in modern times from Sanskrit (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES), which have intruded themselves into the speech of the educated so that, in the literary language, when a genuine Bengali or tadbhava word is used in literature it is frequently not put into writing, but the corresponding learned tatsama is written in its place, although the tadbhava is read.

Phonetics.

The vowel a is sounded like the o in "hot," and is represented in the present article by o. The pronunciation of this frequently recurring vowel gives a tone to the general sound of the languages. In Bg. a final vowel preceded by a single consonant is generally not pronounced for nouns, a final a being freely sounded in adjectives and verbs. The sound of such a final a is that of the second o in "promote." In Bg. a medial a sometimes has the sound of the first o in "promote." In eastern Bg. a medial a is often sounded like the a in "ball," and is then transliterated a. A has preserved as a rule its proper sound of a in "father." The distinction between i and i and between u and u is everywhere lost in pronunciation, although in tatsama words the Sanskrit spelling is followed in literature. In Bg. the vowel e may be long or short and the syllable ya preceded by a consonant has the sound of a short e, and is often pronounced like the a in the German Mann, a sound here phonetically represented by a. The syllable ya, when following a consonant, has this a-sound, so that the English word "bank" is written byiink in Bengali characters. O in Bg., when it does not carry the accent, is shortened to the sound of the first o in "promote," a sound also sometimes taken by a medial a. The diphthongs ai (in tatsamas; i.e., the Skr. ai) and ai (in tadbhavas) are sounded like of in "oil" in Bg. and the diphthongs au and au are sounded like the an in the German Haus. In colloquial Bg. the two syllables ai often have the sound of J.

In eastern Bengal k has often the sound of ch in "loch." The tendency to pronounce the consonants c and ch like s, and j and jh as zh (i.e., the s in "pleasure") or (when final) z, is observ able in Bg., though usually considered vulgar. In parts of eastern Bengal c is pronounced like ts. In eastern Bg. there is a strong tendency to pronounce both dentals and cerebrals as semi-cere brals, as in the neighbouring Tibeto-Burmans. In Bg. n has universally become n. Y is usually pronounced as j, unless it is a merely euphonic bridge to avoid a hiatus between two vowels, as in kariyd for kari-a. When y is the final element of a conjunct consonant, in Bg. (except in the south-east) it is very faintly pronounced. In compensation the preceding member of the con junct is doubled and the preceding vowel is shortened if possible, thus vakya becomes bakkyo. M and v when similarly situated are altogether elided in Bg. R is generally pronounced correctly, except that when a member of a compound it is often not pro nounced in colloquial Bg. In north-eastern Bengali a medial r is commonly dropped. The vulgar commonly confound n and 1. The old cerebral l of Pr. has disappeared in Bg. The semi-vowel v (w) becomes b in Bg. ; when Bg. wishes to represent a w, it has to write oyd. Bg. pronounces all uncompounded sibilants as if they were like the English sh in "shin," as in Mg. Pr. (see PRAKRIT). In eastern Bg. s becomes frankly h and is then often dropped. The compound ks is everywhere treated as if it were khy. In colloquial Bg. there is a tendency to disaspiration. In eastern Bg. there is a cockney tendency to drop h.

Declension.

Sex is distinguished either by the use of qualify ing terms, such as "male" or "female," or by the employment of different words, as in the case of our "bull" and "cow." The plural number is almost always denoted by the addition of some word meaning "many" or "collection" to the singular, although some times a true plural is used in the case of nouns denoting human beings. Case was originally indicated by postpositions (see IND0 ARYAN LANGUAGES), which in many instances have been joined to the noun, forming one word with it.

A noun often takes e (e) in the nominative singular, when it is the subject of a transitive verb. The nominative plural may, in the case of human beings, be formed by adding a to the genitive singular. The same is the case with the pronouns.

Pronominal suffixes are freely used in the conjugation of verbs. The adjective does not change for gender, for number or for case.

The personal pronouns have new nominatives formed from the oblique base. In the first and second persons the singulars have fallen into disuse in polite conversation, and the plurals are used honorifically for the singular, as in the case of the English "you" for "thou." For the plural, new plurals are formed from the new singular (old plural) bases. The Bg. pronouns are, mui (old), I; arni (modern), I; tui (old), thou; turni (modern), thou; se, tini, he ; e, ini, this ; o, uni, that ; je, jini, who ; lee, who? ; ki, what? ; /eon, what (adjective) ? ; keha, anyone; kichu, anything; kona, any.

All these pronouns have plurals and oblique forms to which the case suffixes are added.

Conjugation.

Colloquial Bg. differs most from the literary dialect in the conjugation of the verb. There is no distinction between singular and plural. Most of the old singular forms have survived in a non-honorific sense, but are rarely employed in polite language except in the third person. The old plural forms are generally employed for the singular also.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-J.

Beames, Comparative Grammar (1894) ; LinBibliography.-J. Beames, Comparative Grammar (1894) ; Lin- guistic Survey of India, vol. v., parts i. and ii. (Calcutta, 1903), with copious bibliography ; Dinesh Chandra Sen, History of the Bengali Language and Literature (191I) ; S. Chatterji, The Origin and Develop ment of the Bengali Language (1926) .