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Eastern Bengali dialects
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Eastern Bengali dialects
Eastern Bengali, Baṅgālī (Bengali: বঙ্গালী, romanized: bôṅgalī) or Vaṅga (Bengali: বঙ্গ, romanized: bôṅgô) is a set of vernacular dialects of Bengali, spoken in most of Bangladesh and Tripura, thus covering majority of the land of Bengal and surrounding areas.
It is also known as Baṅgālī (Bengali: বঙ্গালী, romanized: bôṅgalī), Pūrvavaṅgīẏa (Bengali: পূর্ববঙ্গীয়, romanized: pūrbôbôṅgīẏô), Prācya (Bengali: প্রাচ্য, romanized: prachyô), Vaṅga (Bengali: বঙ্গ, romanized: bôṅgô), or Vaṅgīẏa (Bengali: বঙ্গীয়, romanized: bôṅgīẏô). Chatterji often cited a more generalised variant of Eastern Bengali which he dubbed as, Typical East Bengali, for the sake of broader comparison with other varieties of Bengali. Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym Bangal Bhasha (Bengali: বাঙাল ভাষা, romanized: bangal bhasha) in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals. It may also be referred to by names such as Khaisi-Gesi Bangla (Bengali: খাইছি-গেছি বাংলা, romanized: khaisi-gesi baṅla, lit. 'I've eaten-I've gone Bengali'), emphasising the contrast between Eastern Bengali varieties and the standard language in terms of grammar by use of the example phrases "I have eaten" (খেয়েছি kheẏechhi in Standard Bengali but খাইছি khaisi in Typical East Bengali) and "I have gone" (গিয়েছি giẏechhi in Standard Bengali but গেছি gesi in Typical East Bengali). A similar name, Khaitesi-Zaitesi Bangla[citation needed] (Bengali: খাইতেছি-যাইতেছি বাংলা, romanized: khaitesi-zaitesi baṅla, lit. 'I'm eating-I'm going Bengali'), instead juxtaposes the examples of "I am eating" (খাচ্ছি khacchhi in Standard Bengali but খাইতেছি khaitesi in Typical East Bengali) and "I am going" (যাচ্ছি jacchhi in Standard Bengali but যাইতেছি zaitesi in Typical East Bengali).
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, describing the cluster as "Vaṅga Dialects", further divided it into two groups of two: "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga". Eastern Vaṅga is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi division of Sylhet and the Greater Comilla region of Chittagong along with the Barak Valley Division of Assam and the state of Tripura in India. Southeastern Vaṅga is spoken in the remaining area of the Chittagong division, corresponding to the former colonial territories of Noakhali District and Chittagong District, and historically extended further into Sittwe. Western Vaṅga is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, and Barisal. Southwestern Vaṅga is spoken across the Khulna Division, where Eastern Bengali transitions into Central Standard Bengali.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya (Bengali: প্রাচ্য, romanized: prachyô, lit. 'eastern') and Pāścātya (Bengali: পাশ্চাত্য, romanized: pashchatyô, lit. 'western'). Within his Prācya grouping, he created the divisions of "Southeastern" and "Extreme Eastern", which approximately correspond to Chatterji's "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga", respectively. The Southeastern group is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the Greater Noakhali region of the Chittagong division and eastern parts of the 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The Extreme Eastern group is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions Sylhet and Chittagong, including Greater Comilla and excluding Greater Noakhali, as well as the Barak Valley division of Assam.
Gopal Haldar, in his study of Eastern Bengali, divided all East Bengali dialects into four groups. Group I or "Central East Bengali" spans the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur, and Barisal, as well as the district of Chandpur in Chittagong Division. The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali". Group II or "Central North East Bengali" is spoken in eastern areas of the Mymensingh and Dhaka divisions, the western half of the Sylhet Division, as well as the Brahmanbaria District of the Chittagong Division. Group III or "North East Bengali" is spoken in the eastern half of the Sylhet Division as well as the bordering Barak Valley division of Assam, India. Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region. The Comilla District and Tripura state of India, the Bengalis in the latter chiefly being migrants from the former, sit at the confluence of all the major groupings and thus the speech of this region shares features with all the major groups classified by Haldar. Transitionary East Bengali is spoken in the Khulna division as well as Western Greater Faridpur i.e. Rajbari District, which shares features with both Standard Bengali and Eastern Bengali dialects.
Eastern Bengali is characterised by a considerably smaller phoneme inventory when compared with Standard Bengali.
Eastern Bengali notably preserves epenthesis (Bengali: অপিনিহিতি, romanized: ôpinihiti) from an earlier stage of Bengali. Thus, the equivalent of Standard Literary Bengali করিয়া (ISO-15919: kariẏā) 'having done' in Typical East Bengali is [kɔ̝i̯ɾa̟], having gone through the medial phase of *[kɔi̯ɾiä]; by comparison, the Standard Colloquial Bengali equivalent is [kore], as the standard language has undergone the additional phonological processes of syncope and umlaut, unlike most Eastern Bengali dialects. Similar occurrences of metathesis occur in the case of consonant conjuncts containing ্য jôphôla, due to the fact that it had, in earlier Bengali, also represented the addition of the semivowel [i̯] at the end of a conjunct containing it in addition to its current standard usage of simply geminating the previous consonant in the conjunct. সত্য (ISO-15919: satya, 'truth'), for example, pronounced [ʃɔt̪ːi̯ɔ] in earlier Bengali, is pronounced [ʃɔ̝i̯t̪ːo] in Eastern Bengali and [ʃot̪ːo] in Standard Bengali. Metathesis also occurs in the case of consonant conjuncts which were once pronounced with [i̯] as a component even if they do not contain ্য jôphôla itself, such as ক্ষ (ISO-15919: kṣa), whose value in earlier Bengali was [kːʰi̯]. Hence রাক্ষস (ISO-15919: rākṣasa, 'rakshasa'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of [räkːʰi̯ɔʃ], is pronounced [räi̯kʰːɔ́ʃ] or [räi̯kːɔ́ʃ] in Eastern Bengali and [räkːʰoʃ] in Standard Bengali. Such is also the case for the conjunct জ্ঞ (ISO-15919: jña), which had the value of [gːĩ̯] in earlier Bengali. Hence, আজ্ঞা (ISO-15919: ājñā, 'order'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of [ägːĩ̯ä], has the Typical East Bengali pronunciation of [äi̯gːa̟] and the Standard Bengali [ägːä̃]. There is also a tendency to hypercorrect, leading to the frequent diphthongisation of vowels with [i̯] if they precede any consonant cluster, even when there is no etymological basis to do so. For example, ব্রাহ্ম (ISO-15919: brāhma, 'Brahmo') has the Standard Bengali pronunciation of [bɾämɦo], or, more commonly, [bɾämːo], but may be pronounced [bɾäi̯mːɔ̝] in Eastern Bengali as if it were spelt ব্রাম্য (ISO-15919: brāmya).
The aspiration and breathy voice present in Standard Bengali is notably mostly if not entirely absent in Eastern Bengali. The West Bengali linguists Chatterji and Sen described the deaspirated voiced consonants present in Eastern Bengali as being implosive consonants, such that the Standard Bengali phonemes /bʱ/, /d̪ʱ/, /ɖʱ/, /dʒʱ/, and /ɡʱ/ would respectively correspond to /ɓ/, /ɗ̪/, /ᶑ/, /ɗʒ/, and /ɠ/ in Eastern Bengali. However, Animesh K. Pal, a native speaker of Eastern Bengali from Narayanganj, disputed this claim, instead describing the deaspiration as leading to the development of tones.
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Eastern Bengali dialects
Eastern Bengali, Baṅgālī (Bengali: বঙ্গালী, romanized: bôṅgalī) or Vaṅga (Bengali: বঙ্গ, romanized: bôṅgô) is a set of vernacular dialects of Bengali, spoken in most of Bangladesh and Tripura, thus covering majority of the land of Bengal and surrounding areas.
It is also known as Baṅgālī (Bengali: বঙ্গালী, romanized: bôṅgalī), Pūrvavaṅgīẏa (Bengali: পূর্ববঙ্গীয়, romanized: pūrbôbôṅgīẏô), Prācya (Bengali: প্রাচ্য, romanized: prachyô), Vaṅga (Bengali: বঙ্গ, romanized: bôṅgô), or Vaṅgīẏa (Bengali: বঙ্গীয়, romanized: bôṅgīẏô). Chatterji often cited a more generalised variant of Eastern Bengali which he dubbed as, Typical East Bengali, for the sake of broader comparison with other varieties of Bengali. Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym Bangal Bhasha (Bengali: বাঙাল ভাষা, romanized: bangal bhasha) in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals. It may also be referred to by names such as Khaisi-Gesi Bangla (Bengali: খাইছি-গেছি বাংলা, romanized: khaisi-gesi baṅla, lit. 'I've eaten-I've gone Bengali'), emphasising the contrast between Eastern Bengali varieties and the standard language in terms of grammar by use of the example phrases "I have eaten" (খেয়েছি kheẏechhi in Standard Bengali but খাইছি khaisi in Typical East Bengali) and "I have gone" (গিয়েছি giẏechhi in Standard Bengali but গেছি gesi in Typical East Bengali). A similar name, Khaitesi-Zaitesi Bangla[citation needed] (Bengali: খাইতেছি-যাইতেছি বাংলা, romanized: khaitesi-zaitesi baṅla, lit. 'I'm eating-I'm going Bengali'), instead juxtaposes the examples of "I am eating" (খাচ্ছি khacchhi in Standard Bengali but খাইতেছি khaitesi in Typical East Bengali) and "I am going" (যাচ্ছি jacchhi in Standard Bengali but যাইতেছি zaitesi in Typical East Bengali).
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, describing the cluster as "Vaṅga Dialects", further divided it into two groups of two: "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga". Eastern Vaṅga is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi division of Sylhet and the Greater Comilla region of Chittagong along with the Barak Valley Division of Assam and the state of Tripura in India. Southeastern Vaṅga is spoken in the remaining area of the Chittagong division, corresponding to the former colonial territories of Noakhali District and Chittagong District, and historically extended further into Sittwe. Western Vaṅga is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, and Barisal. Southwestern Vaṅga is spoken across the Khulna Division, where Eastern Bengali transitions into Central Standard Bengali.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya (Bengali: প্রাচ্য, romanized: prachyô, lit. 'eastern') and Pāścātya (Bengali: পাশ্চাত্য, romanized: pashchatyô, lit. 'western'). Within his Prācya grouping, he created the divisions of "Southeastern" and "Extreme Eastern", which approximately correspond to Chatterji's "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga", respectively. The Southeastern group is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the Greater Noakhali region of the Chittagong division and eastern parts of the 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The Extreme Eastern group is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions Sylhet and Chittagong, including Greater Comilla and excluding Greater Noakhali, as well as the Barak Valley division of Assam.
Gopal Haldar, in his study of Eastern Bengali, divided all East Bengali dialects into four groups. Group I or "Central East Bengali" spans the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur, and Barisal, as well as the district of Chandpur in Chittagong Division. The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali". Group II or "Central North East Bengali" is spoken in eastern areas of the Mymensingh and Dhaka divisions, the western half of the Sylhet Division, as well as the Brahmanbaria District of the Chittagong Division. Group III or "North East Bengali" is spoken in the eastern half of the Sylhet Division as well as the bordering Barak Valley division of Assam, India. Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region. The Comilla District and Tripura state of India, the Bengalis in the latter chiefly being migrants from the former, sit at the confluence of all the major groupings and thus the speech of this region shares features with all the major groups classified by Haldar. Transitionary East Bengali is spoken in the Khulna division as well as Western Greater Faridpur i.e. Rajbari District, which shares features with both Standard Bengali and Eastern Bengali dialects.
Eastern Bengali is characterised by a considerably smaller phoneme inventory when compared with Standard Bengali.
Eastern Bengali notably preserves epenthesis (Bengali: অপিনিহিতি, romanized: ôpinihiti) from an earlier stage of Bengali. Thus, the equivalent of Standard Literary Bengali করিয়া (ISO-15919: kariẏā) 'having done' in Typical East Bengali is [kɔ̝i̯ɾa̟], having gone through the medial phase of *[kɔi̯ɾiä]; by comparison, the Standard Colloquial Bengali equivalent is [kore], as the standard language has undergone the additional phonological processes of syncope and umlaut, unlike most Eastern Bengali dialects. Similar occurrences of metathesis occur in the case of consonant conjuncts containing ্য jôphôla, due to the fact that it had, in earlier Bengali, also represented the addition of the semivowel [i̯] at the end of a conjunct containing it in addition to its current standard usage of simply geminating the previous consonant in the conjunct. সত্য (ISO-15919: satya, 'truth'), for example, pronounced [ʃɔt̪ːi̯ɔ] in earlier Bengali, is pronounced [ʃɔ̝i̯t̪ːo] in Eastern Bengali and [ʃot̪ːo] in Standard Bengali. Metathesis also occurs in the case of consonant conjuncts which were once pronounced with [i̯] as a component even if they do not contain ্য jôphôla itself, such as ক্ষ (ISO-15919: kṣa), whose value in earlier Bengali was [kːʰi̯]. Hence রাক্ষস (ISO-15919: rākṣasa, 'rakshasa'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of [räkːʰi̯ɔʃ], is pronounced [räi̯kʰːɔ́ʃ] or [räi̯kːɔ́ʃ] in Eastern Bengali and [räkːʰoʃ] in Standard Bengali. Such is also the case for the conjunct জ্ঞ (ISO-15919: jña), which had the value of [gːĩ̯] in earlier Bengali. Hence, আজ্ঞা (ISO-15919: ājñā, 'order'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of [ägːĩ̯ä], has the Typical East Bengali pronunciation of [äi̯gːa̟] and the Standard Bengali [ägːä̃]. There is also a tendency to hypercorrect, leading to the frequent diphthongisation of vowels with [i̯] if they precede any consonant cluster, even when there is no etymological basis to do so. For example, ব্রাহ্ম (ISO-15919: brāhma, 'Brahmo') has the Standard Bengali pronunciation of [bɾämɦo], or, more commonly, [bɾämːo], but may be pronounced [bɾäi̯mːɔ̝] in Eastern Bengali as if it were spelt ব্রাম্য (ISO-15919: brāmya).
The aspiration and breathy voice present in Standard Bengali is notably mostly if not entirely absent in Eastern Bengali. The West Bengali linguists Chatterji and Sen described the deaspirated voiced consonants present in Eastern Bengali as being implosive consonants, such that the Standard Bengali phonemes /bʱ/, /d̪ʱ/, /ɖʱ/, /dʒʱ/, and /ɡʱ/ would respectively correspond to /ɓ/, /ɗ̪/, /ᶑ/, /ɗʒ/, and /ɠ/ in Eastern Bengali. However, Animesh K. Pal, a native speaker of Eastern Bengali from Narayanganj, disputed this claim, instead describing the deaspiration as leading to the development of tones.
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