Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from

the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. Bengali is native to the region of eastern South
Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West
Bengal. With nearly 230 million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most widely spoken
languages (ranking 5th[2] or 6th[1] in the world). Bengali is the primary language spoken in
Bangladesh and is the second most widely spoken language in India[3][4]. Along with Assamese, it
is geographically the most eastern of the Indo-Iranian languages. Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan
languages, Bengali arose from the eastern Middle Indic languages of the Indian subcontinent.
Rajbangsi, Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are
typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong is considered a separate language,
although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. Bengali exhibits diglossia between the
written and spoken forms of the language; two styles of writing, involving somewhat different
vocabularies and syntax, have emerged. The Bengali writing system is the Bengali abugida, a
cursive script which is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script.

The Bengali language, with its long and rich literary tradition, serves to bind together a culturally
diverse region. In 1952, when Bangladesh was part of East Pakistan, this strong sense of identity
led to the Bengali Language Movement, in which several people braved bullets and died on
February 21, 1952. This day has now been declared as the International Mother Language Day.

History
Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from the eastern Middle Indic languages
of the Indian subcontinent. Magadhi Prakrit, the earliest recorded spoken language in the region
and the language of the Buddha, had evolved into Ardhamagadhi ("Half Magadhi") in the early
part of the first millennium C.E. Ardhamagadhi, as with all of the Prakrits of North India, began to
give way to what are called Apabhramsa languages just before the turn of the first millennium.[5]
The local Apabhramsa language of the eastern subcontinent, Purvi Apabhramsa or Apabhramsa
Abahatta, eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups: the Bihari
languages, the Oriya languages, and the Bengali-Assamese languages. Some argue for much
earlier points of divergence, going back to as early as 500 C.E.,[6] but the language was not static;
different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects. For example, Magadhi
Prakrit is believed to have evolved into Apabhramsa Abahatta, which competed with Bengali for
a period of time around the sixth century.[7]

Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali:[8]

 1. Old Bengali (900/1000 C.E.–1400 C.E.)—texts include Charyapada, devotional songs;
emergence of pronouns Ami, tumi, etc; verb inflections -ila, -iba, etc. Oriya and Assamese
branch out in this period.
2. Middle Bengali (1400–1800 C.E.)—major texts of the period include Chandidas's
Srikrishnakirtan; elision of word-final ô sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian
influence. Some scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
3. New Bengali (since 1800 C.E.)—shortening of verbs and pronouns, among other changes
(e.g., tahar → tar "his"/"her"; koriyachhilô → korechhilo he/she had done).

Historically closer to Pali, Bengali saw an increase in Sanskrit influence during the Middle
Bengali (Chaitanya era), and also during the Bengal Renaissance. Of the modern Indo-European
languages in South Asia, Bengali and Marathi maintain a largely Sanskrit vocabulary base while
Hindi and others such as Punjabi are more influenced by Arabic and Persian.

Shaheed Minar, or the Martyr's monument, in Dhaka, commemorates the struggle for the Bengali
language

Until the eighteenth century, there was no attempt to document the grammar for Bengali. The
first written Bengali dictionary/grammar, Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido
em duas partes, was written by the Portuguese missionary Manoel da Assumpcam between 1734
and 1742, while he was serving in Bhawal. Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a British grammarian,
wrote a modern Bengali grammar A Grammar of the Bengal Language (1778), that used Bengali
types in print for the first time. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali Reformer, also wrote a
"Grammar of the Bengali Language." (1832).

During this period, the Choltibhasha form, using simplified inflections and other changes, was
emerging from Shadhubhasha (older form) as the form of choice for written Bengali.[9]

Bengali was the focus, in 1951–1952, of the Bengali Language Movement (Bhasha Andolon) in
what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).[10] Although Bengali speakers were more
numerous in the population of Pakistan, Urdu was legislated as the sole national language. On
February 21, 1952, protesting students and activists walked into military and police fire at Dhaka
University, and three young students and several others were killed. Subsequently, UNESCO
declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day. In a separate event in May, 1961,
police in Silchar, India, killed eleven people who were protesting legislation that mandated the
use of the Assamese language.[11]

Geographical Distribution
The native geographic extent of Bengali

Bengali is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises
Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Around 98% of the total population of
Bangladesh speaks Bengali as a native language.[12] There are also significant Bengali-speaking
communities in immigrant populations in the Middle East, West and Malaysia.

Official status

Bengali is the national and official language of Bangladesh and one of the 23 national languages
recognized by the Republic of India.[3] It is the official language of the state of West Bengal and
the co-official language of the state of Tripura, Cachar,Karimganj and Hailakandi Districts of
southern Assam, and the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Bengali speakers make
up the majority in Neil Island and Havelock Island. It was made an official language of Sierra
Leone in order to honor the Bangladeshi peacekeeping force from the United Nations stationed
there.[13] It is also the co-official language of Assam, which has three predominantly Sylheti-
speaking districts of southern Assam: Silchar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi. The national anthems
of both India and Bangladesh were written in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore.

Dialects

Regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a dialect continuum. Linguist Suniti Kumar
Chatterjee grouped these dialects into four large clusters—Radh, Banga, Kamarupa and
Varendra; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western
dialects (Radh) form the basis of standard colloquial Bengali, while Bangali is the dominant
dialect group in Bangladesh. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern
Bengal (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and
affricates heard in West Bengal are pronounced as fricatives. Western palato-alveolar affricates চ
[ tʃ], ছ [ tʃʰ], জ [[dʒ]] correspond to eastern চ ʻ [ts], ছ় [s], জ ʻ [dz]~z}}. The influence of Tibeto-
Burman languages on the phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalized
vowels. Some variants of Bengali, particularly Chittagonian and Chakma Bengali, have
contrastive tone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words.

Rajbangsi, Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are
typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong is considered a separate language,
although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects.[14] During the standardization of
Bengali in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the cultural center of Bengal was its
capital Kolkata (then Calcutta). What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal
and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia, a district located near Kolkata.[15]
There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word
than a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali
descent. For example, nun (salt) in the west corresponds to lôbon in the east.[16]

Spoken and Literary varieties

Bengali exhibits diglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of
writing, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax, have emerged:[15][17]

1. Shadhubhasha (সাধু shadhu = 'chaste' or 'sage'; ভাষা bhasha = 'language') was the written
language with longer verb inflections and more of a Sanskrit-derived (তৎসম tôtshôm)
vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthem Jana Gana Mana (by Rabindranath
Tagore) and national song Vande Mātaram (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) were
composed in Shadhubhasha. However, use of Shadhubhasha in modern writing is
negligible, except when it is used deliberately to achieve some effect.
2. Choltibhasha (চলিতভাষা ) or Cholitobhasha (চিলত cholito = 'current' or 'running'), known by
linguists as Manno Cholit Bangla (Standard Current Bangla), is a written Bengali style
exhibiting a preponderance of colloquial idioms and shortened verb forms, and is the
standard for written Bengali now. This form came into vogue towards the turn of the
nineteenth century, promoted by the writings of Peary Chand Mitra (Alaler Gharer Dulal,
1857),[18] Pramatha Chowdhury (Sabujpatra, 1914) and in the later writings of
Rabindranath Tagore. It is modeled on the dialect spoken in the Shantipur region in Nadia
district, West Bengal. This form of Bengali is often referred to as the "Nadia standard" or
"Shantipuri bangla".

Linguistically, cholit bangla is derived from sadhu bangla through two successive standard
linguistic transformations.

While most writings are carried out in cholit bangla, spoken dialects exhibit a far greater variety.
South-eastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in manno cholit bangla. Other parts of West
Bengal and west Bangladesh speak in dialects that are minor variations, such as the Medinipur
dialect characterized by some unique words and constructions. However, areas of Bangladesh,
particularly the Chittagong region, speak in a dialect that bears very little superficial resemblance
to manno cholit bangla, including an entirely different vocabulary. The difference is so great that
a person from West Bengal will be very hard pressed to understand even a single sentence in a
passage of this dialect. This is known as the Bongali sublanguage, or more informally as
Chattagram bangla. Writers (such as Manik Bandopadhyay in Padmanodir Majhi) have used the
Bongali dialect in writing conversations. Though formal spoken Bengali is modeled on manno
cholit bangla, the majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety—often,
speakers are fluent in choltibhasha and one or more Regional dialects.[9]

Even in Standard Bengali, vocabulary items often divide along the split between the Muslim
populace and the Hindu populace. Due to cultural and religious traditions, Hindus and Muslims
might use, respectively, Sanskrit-derived and Perso-Arabic words. Some examples of lexical
alternation between these two forms are:[16]

• hello: nômoshkar (S) corresponds to assalamualaikum/slamalikum (A)

• invitation: nimontron/nimontonno (S) corresponds to daoat (A)
• paternal uncle: kaka (S) corresponds to chacha (S/Hindi)
• water: jol (D) corresponds to pani (S)

(here S = derived from Sanskrit, D = deshi; A = derived from Arabic)

Writing System

Anandabazar Patrika, a news daily published from Kolkata in Bengali.

The Bengali writing system is not purely alphabet-based such as the Latin script. Rather, it is
written in the Bengali abugida, a variant of the Eastern Nagari script used throughout Bangladesh
and eastern India. It is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000
C.E.,[19] and is similar to the Devanagari abugida used for Sanskrit and many modern Indic
languages such as Hindi. It has particularly close historical relationships with the Assamese script
and the Oriya script (although the latter is not evident in appearance). The Bengali abugida is a
cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting the independent form of nine vowels and
two diphthongs, and thirty-nine signs denoting the consonants with the so called "inherent"
vowels.[19] The Bengali orthography reads from left to right.

Although the consonant signs are presented as segments in the basic inventory of the Bengali
script, they are actually orthographically syllabic in nature. Every consonant sign has the vowel অ
[ɔ] (or sometimes the vowel ও [o]) "embedded" or "inherent" in it.[20] For example, the basic
consonant sign ম is pronounced [mɔ] in isolation. The same ম can represent the sounds [mɔ] or
[mo] when used in a word, as in মত [mɔt]̪ "opinion" and মন [mon] "mind," respectively, with no
added symbol for the vowels [ɔ] and [o].

A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than [ɔ] is orthographically realized by
using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign,
thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel ligature. These allographs, called kars (cf. Hindi
matras) are dependent vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graph িম
[mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i], where [i] is represented as the
allograph ি and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma], মী [mi],
মু [mu], মূ [mu], মৃ [mri], েম [me]/[mæ], ৈম [moj], েমা [mo] and েমৌ [mow] represent the same
consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. It should be noted that in
these consonant-vowel ligatures, the so-called "inherent" vowel is expunged from the consonant,
but the basic consonant sign ম does not indicate this change.

To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it, a special
diacritic, called the hôshonto (্্ ), may be added below the basic consonant sign (as in ম [m]).
This diacritic, however, is not common, and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation.
The vowel signs in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic
inventory of the script and the dependent 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 ইিলশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish," the independent form of
the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি). A vowel at the beginning of a word is always
realized using its independent form.

The Bengali consonant clusters (যুকাকর juktakkhor in Bengali) are usually realized 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. There are more than 400 such consonant clusters
and corresponding ligatures in Bengali. Many of their shapes have to be learned by rote.

Three other commonly used diacritics in the Bengali are the superposed chôndrobindu (ঁঁ ),
denoting a suprasegmental for nasalization of vowels (as in চঁাদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed
onushshôr (ংং ) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed
bishôrgo (ঃঃ ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!").

Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the daŗi (|), the Bengali equivalent of a full stop, have
been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. [21]The letters usually hang from a
horizontal headstroke called the matra (not to be confused with its Hindi cognate matra, which
denotes the dependent forms of Hindi vowels)

Signature of Rabindranath Tagore—an example of penmanship in Bengali.

Spelling-to-pronunciation Inconsistencies

In spite of some modifications in the nineteenth century, the Bengali spelling system continues to
be based on the one used for Sanskrit,[21] 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 palato-alveolar fricative [ʃ], although the letter স does retain the voiceless alveolar
fricative [s] sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in সলন [skʰɔlon] "fall," সনন
[spɔndon] "beat," etc.. There are two letters (জ and য) for the voiced postalveolar affricate [dʒ]
as well. What was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal ণ [ɳ] is now pronounced as
an alveolar [n] (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 realized by multiple means, as seen in the following examples: এত [æto̪ ] "so
much," এযাকােডমী [ækademi] "academy," অযািমবা [æmiba] "amoeba," েদখা [dækha ̪ ] "to see," বযস
[bæsto̪ ] "busy," বযাকরণ [bækɔron] "grammar."

The realization of the inherent vowel can be another source of confusion. The vowel can be
phonetically realized as [ɔ] or [o] depending on the word, and its omission is seldom indicated,
as in the final consonant in কম [kɔm] "less."
Many consonant clusters have different sounds than their constituent consonants. For example,
the combination of the consonants ক [k] and ষ [ʃɔ] is graphically realized as ক and is pronounced
[kʰːo] (as in রক [rukʰːo] "rugged") or [kʰo] (as in কিত [kʰoti̪ ] "loss") or even [kʰɔ] (as in কমতা
[kʰɔmota̪ ] "power"), depending on the position of the cluster in a word. The Bengali writing
system is, therefore, not always a true guide to pronunciation.

Uses in other languages

The Bengali script, with a few small modifications, is also used for writing Assamese. Other
related languages in the region also make use of the Bengali alphabet. Meitei, a Sino-Tibetan
language used in the Indian state of Manipur, has been written in the Bengali abugida for
centuries, though Meitei Mayek (the Meitei abugida) has been promoted in recent times. The
script has been adopted for writing the Sylheti language as well, replacing the use of the old
Sylheti Nagori script.

Romanization

Several conventions exist for writing Indic languages including Bengali in the Latin script,
including "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration" or IAST (based on diacritics),[22]
"Indian languages Transliteration" or ITRANS (uses upper case alphabets suited for ASCII
keyboards),[23] and the National Library at Calcutta romanization.[24]

In the context of Bangla Romanization, it is important to distinguish between 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).
Since English does not have the sounds of Bangla, and since pronunciation does not completely
reflect the spellings, being faithful to both is not possible.

Sounds
The phonemic inventory of Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 14 vowels, including the seven
nasalized vowels. An approximate phonetic scheme is set out below in International Phonetic
Alphabet.

Vowels Consonants
Fron Centra Bac Apico- Apico- Lamino-
Labia Denta Vela Glotta
t l k Alveola Postalveola Postalveola
l l r l
High i u r r r
High Voiceles
e o p t̪ ʈ ʧ k
-mid s
pʰ t̪ʰ ʈʰ ʧʰ kʰ
Low- stops
æ ɔ Voiced b d̪ ɖ ʤ ɡ
mid
Low a stops bʰ d̪ʰ ɖʰ ʤʰ ɡʰ
Voiceles s ʃ h
s
 fricative
s
Nasals m n ŋ
Liquids l, r ɽ
Diphthongs
Diphthongs IPA Transliteration Example
/ij/ ii nii "I take"
Magadhan languages such as Bengali are known for /iw/ iu biubhôl "upset"
their wide variety of diphthongs, or combinations of
/ej/ ei nei "there is not"
vowels occurring within the same syllable.[25] Several
/ee/̯ ee khee "having eaten"
vowel combinations can be considered true
monosyllabic diphthongs, made up of the main vowel /ew/ eu đheu "wave"
(the nucleus) and the trailing vowel (the off-glide). /eo/̯ eo kheona "do not eat"
Almost all other vowel combinations are possible, but /æe/̯ êe nêe "she takes"
only across two adjacent syllables, such as the /æo/̯ êo nêo "you take"
disyllabic vowel combination [u.a] in কুয়া kua "well." /aj/ ai pai "I find"
As many as 25 vowel combinations can be found, but /ae/̯ ae pae "she finds"
some of the more recent combinations have not /aw/ au pau "sliced bread"
passed through the stage between two syllables and a /ao/̯ ao pao "you find"
diphthongal monosyllable.[26]
/ɔe/̯ ôe nôe "she is not"
/ɔo/̯ ôo nôo "you are not"
Stress
/oj/ oi noi "I am not"
In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. /oe/̯ oe dhoe "she washes"
Bengali words are virtually all trochaic; the primary /oo/̯ oo dhoo "you wash"
stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while /ow/ ou nouka "boat"
secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered /uj/ ui dhui "I wash"
syllables thereafter, giving strings such as shô-ho-jo-
gi-ta "cooperation," where the boldface represents primary and secondary stress. The first
syllable carries the greatest stress, with the third carrying a somewhat weaker stress, and all
following odd-numbered syllables carrying very weak stress. However in words borrowed from
Sanskrit, the root syllable is stressed, causing them to be out of harmony with native Bengali
words.[27]

Adding prefixes to a word typically shifts the stress to the left. For example, while the word
shob-bho "civilized" carries the primary stress on the first syllable [shob], adding the negative
prefix [ô-] creates ô-shob-bho "uncivilized," where the primary stress is now on the newly-added
first syllable অ ô. In any case, word-stress does not alter the meaning of a word and is always
subsidiary to sentence-stress.[28]

Intonation

For Bengali words, intonation or pitch of voice has minor significance, apart from a few isolated
cases. However, in sentences, intonation does play a significant role.[29] In a simple declarative
sentence, most words and/or phrases in Bengali carry a rising tone,[30] with the exception of the
last word in the sentence, which only carries a low tone. This intonational pattern creates a
musical tone to the typical Bengali sentence, with low and high tones alternating until the final
drop in pitch to mark the end of the sentence.

In sentences involving focused words and/or phrases, the rising tones only last until the focused
word; all following words carry a low tone.[31] This intonation pattern extends to wh-questions, as
wh-words are normally considered to be focused. In yes-no questions, the rising tones may be
more exaggerated, and most importantly, the final syllable of the final word in the sentence takes
a high falling tone instead of a flat low tone.[32]

Vowel length

Vowel length is not contrastive in Bengali; there is no meaningful distinction between a "short
vowel" and a "long vowel",[33] unlike the situation in many other Indic languages. However, when
morpheme boundaries come into play, vowel length can sometimes distinguish otherwise
homophonous words. This is due to the fact that open monosyllables (i.e., words that are made up
of only one syllable, with that syllable ending in the main vowel and not a consonant) have
somewhat longer vowels than other syllable types.[34] For example, the vowel in cha: "tea" is
somewhat longer than the first vowel in chaţa "licking," as cha: is a word with only one syllable,
and no final consonant. (The long vowel is marked with a colon : in these examples.) The suffix
ţa "the" can be added to cha: to form cha:ţa "the tea." Even when another morpheme is attached
to cha:, the long vowel is preserved. Knowing this fact, some interesting cases of apparent vowel
length distinction can be found. In general Bengali vowels tend to stay away from extreme vowel
articulation.[35]

Furthermore, using a form of reduplication called "echo reduplication," the long vowel in cha:
can be copied into the reduplicant ţa:, giving cha:ţa: "tea and all that comes with it." Thus, in
addition to cha:ţa "the tea" (long first vowel) and chaţa "licking" (no long vowels), we have
cha:ţa: "tea and all that comes with it" (both long vowels).

Consonant clusters

Native Bengali (tôdbhôb) words do not allow initial consonant clusters;[36] 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
েগরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইসুল iskul (VC.CVC) for সুল skul
(CCVC) "school."

Sanskrit (তৎসম tôtshôm) words borrowed into Bengali, however, possess a wide range of clusters,
expanding the maximum syllable structure to CCCVC. Some of these clusters, such as the mr in
মৃতুয mrittu "death" or the sp in সষ spôshţo "clear," have become extremely common, and can be
considered legal consonant clusters in Bengali. English and other foreign (িবেদশী bideshi)
borrowings add even more cluster types into the Bengali inventory, further increasing the syllable
capacity to CCCVCCCC, as commonly-used loanwords such as েটন ţren "train" and গাস glash
"glass" are now even included in leading Bengali dictionaries.
Final consonant clusters are rare in Bengali.[37] Most final consonant clusters were borrowed into
Bengali from English, as in িলফ lifţ "lift, elevator" and বযাংক bêņk "bank." However, final clusters
do exist in some native Bengali words, although rarely in standard pronunciation. One example
of a final cluster in a standard Bengali word would be গঞ gônj, which is found in names of
hundreds of cities and towns across Bengal, including নবাবগঞ Nôbabgônj and মািনকগঞ Manikgônj.
Some nonstandard varieties of Bengali make use of final clusters quite often. For example, in
some Purbo (eastern) dialects, final consonant clusters consisting of a nasal and its corresponding
oral stop are common, as in চান chand "moon." The Standard Bengali equivalent of chand would
be চঁাদ chãd, with a nasalized vowel instead of the final cluster.

Grammar
Bengali nouns are not assigned gender, which leads to minimal changing of adjectives
(inflection). However, nouns and pronouns are highly declined (altered depending on their
function in a sentence) into four cases while verbs are heavily conjugated.

As a consequence, unlike Hindi, Bengali verbs do not change form depending on the gender of
the nouns.

Word order

As a Head-Final language, Bengali follows Subject Object Verb word order, although variations
to this theme are common.[38] 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.[39]

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., িক -ki, না -na, etc.) are often encliticized 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

Nouns and pronouns are inflected for case, including nominative, objective, genitive (possessive),
and locative.[40] The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's
degree of animacy. When a definite article such as -টা -ţa (singular) or -গলা -gula (plural) is
added, as in the tables below, nouns are also inflected for number.

Singular Noun Inflection Plural Noun Inflection

Animate Inanimate Animate Inanimate
Nominative ছাতটা জুতাটা Nominative ছাতরর জুতাগলা
chhatro-ţa juta-ţa chhatro-ra juta-gula
 the student the shoe the students the shoes
ছাতটারর জুতাটা ছাতররর(রর) জুতাগলা
Objective chhatro-ţa-ke juta-ţa Objective chhatro-der(ke) juta-gula
the student the shoe the students the shoes
ছাতটার জুতাটার ছাতররর জুতাগলার
Genitive chhatro-ţa-r juta-ţa-r Genitive chhatro-der juta-gula-r
the student's the shoe's the students' the shoes'
জুতাটারর জুতাগলারর
Locative - juta-ţa-(t)e Locative - juta-gula-te
on/in the shoe on/in the shoes

When counted, nouns take one of a small set of measure words. As in many East Asian languages
(e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.), nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral
directly adjacent to the noun. The noun's measure word (MW) must be used between the numeral
and the noun. Most nouns take the generic measure word -টা -ţa, though other measure words
indicate semantic classes (e.g. -জন -jon for humans).

Measure Words

Bengali Bengali transliteration Literal translation English translation

নয়রর গর Nôe-ţa goru Nine-MW cow Nine cows

কয়রর বািলশ Kôe-ţa balish How many-MW pillow How many pillows

অেনকরর েলাক Ônek-jon lok Many-MW person Many people

চার-পঁাচরর িশকক Char-pãch-jon shikkhôk Four-five-MW teacher Four or five teachers

Measuring nouns in Bengali without their corresponding measure words (e.g. আট িবড়াল aţ biŗal
instead of আটরর িবড়াল aţ-ţa biŗal "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. শধু একরর থাকেব। Shudhu êk-jon thakbe. (lit.
"Only one-MW will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one person will remain.,"
given the semantic class implicit in -জন -jon.

In this sense, all nouns in Bengali, unlike most other Indo-European languages, are similar to
mass nouns.

Verbs
Verbs divide into two classes: 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 honor (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.[21] Thus "he is a teacher" is she shikkhôk,
(literally "he teacher").[41] In this respect, Bengali is similar to Russian and Hungarian.

Vocabulary

Sources of Bengali words██ Tôtshômo (Sanskrit Reborrowings)██ Tôdbhôbo (Native)██ Bideshi

(Foreign Borrowings)

Bengali has as many as 100,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67 percent) are considered
tôtshômo (direct reborrowings from Sanskrit), 21,100 (28 percent) are tôdbhôbo (derived from
Sanskrit words), and the rest are bideshi (foreign) and deshi words.

A large proportion of these 100,000 words are archaic or highly technical, minimizing their
actual usage. The productive vocabulary used in modern literary works, is made up mostly (67
percent) of tôdbhôbo words, while tôtshômo only make up 25 percent of the total.[42][43] Deshi and
Bideshi words together make up the remaining 8 percent of the vocabulary used in modern
Bengali literature.

Due to centuries of contact with Europeans, Mughals, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Afghans, and East
Asians, Bengali has borrowed many words from foreign languages. The most common
borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. Close contact
with neighboring peoples facilitated the borrowing of words from Hindi, Assamese, Chinese,
Burmese, and several indigenous Austroasiatic languages (like Santali) [44] of Bengal. During
centuries of invasions from Persia and the Middle East, numerous Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and
Pashtun words were absorbed into Bengali. Portuguese, French, Dutch and English words were
later additions from the period of European exploration and the colonial period.