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Bangla Language next to Assamese, Bangla (Bangla) is
the easternmost of the languages belonging to the Indo-European language family.
This new Indo-Aryan (NIA) language is historically related to Irish, English,
French, Greek, Russian, persian
etc. Bangla is bounded by Oriya, Magadhi and Maithili to the west and Assamese
on the east. It is flanked by various Austric languages like Santali, Mundari,
Khasi and Sino-Tibetan languages like Kachhari, Boro, Garo, Tripuri etc, each of
them encroaching at times on the Bangla-speaking areas. Bangla is the state language of
Bangladesh
and one of 18 languages listed in the Indian Constitution. It is the
administrative language of the Indian states of Tripura and west
bengal as well as one of the administrative languages of Kachar
district, Assam. Bangla speakers number about 230 million today, making Bangla
the seventh language after Chinese, English, Hindi-Urdu,
Spanish, arabic
and Portuguese. It is perhaps the only language on the basis of which an
independent state was created.
History Bangla emerged as a new Indo-Aryan language by 900-1000
AD through Magadhi apabhrangsha
and abahattha,
two stages of Magadhi prakrit
(600 BC - 600 AD), along with two other Indo-Aryan languages, Oriya and
Assamese. Until the 14th century, there was little linguistic difference between
Bangla and Assamese.
The evolution of Bangla may be divided into three historical phases: Old
Bangla (900/1000-1350), Medieval Bangla (1350-1800) and Modern Bangla (1800- ).
The earliest example of old Bangla is to be found in the poems of the charyapada,
though the language of these poems is also related to eastern Magadhi
languages. srikrishnakirtan
or Srikrishnasandarbha of baru
chandidas is an example of the early form of medieval Bangla. Other
writings in medieval Bangla are the translations of the ramayana and
the mahabharata, Vaishnava lyrics, poetical biographies of
Sri chaitanya,
various forms of the mangalkavya, narrative poetry written at the court
of Arakan and Rosang, Shakta Poetry and purbabanga-gitika.
An influx of Perso-Arabic words into the language took place at this point of
evolution. Bangla also borrowed from sanskrit, the words known as
tatsama
and tadbhava, English and other languages in the modern Bangla phase.
The linguistic features of these three phases of the language can be
classified as follows: Old Bangla- phonological: 1. geminate clusters born out
of conjunct consonants were simplified into single consonants and the preceding
vowel grew longer as a result of compensatory lengthening; 2. the word-final a
(অ) remained in place and the word-final ia (ইঅ) turned
into long i (ঈ). Morphological: 1. feminine gender continued to be
used with genitive inflections and past verbal inflections ending in l (ল);
2. inflections as used in modern Bangla started surfacing at this stage; but
verbal inflexions ending in -ila (-ইল) and -iba (-ইব)
began to be used with the subject of the intransitive passive voice; 3. the
proto forms of modern Bangla pronouns like ahme (অােਜ਼),
tuhme (তুেਜ਼) etc. surfaced at this stage of the
Bangla language.
Medieval Bangla- Phonological: 1. In the early phase of medieval Bangla, the
half-vowels i (ই্) and u (উ্) started
weakening; 2. nasal aspirates lost aspiration; 3. nasalised vowel + consonant
started replacing nasal sound + consonant. Morphological: 1. verbal inflections
like -il (-ইল্) and -ib (-ইব্)
started to be used with the subject of the active voice, instead of intransitive
passive voice; 2. post-positions, rather than verbal inflections, started to be
used for intransitive passive voice; 3. phrasal and compound verbs gained
currency.
The last phase of medieval Bangla- Phonological: 1. the elision of the
word-final a (অ); 2. the evolution and currency of epenthesis; 3.
the evolution of the new vowel sound ae (অઘা) as
in 'hat'. Morphological: 1. the evolution of new inflections like -r
(-র), -gula (-ਊলা), -guli (-ਊিল),
-dig(e)r (-িদ(ে)গর)
etc. Lexical: huge loans of Sanskrit and Perso-Arabic words.
Modern Bangla- Phonological: 1. the widespread use of vowel harmony or vowel
height assimilation influenced by i (ই)
and u (উ);
2. the elision of epenthetic i (ই্)
and u (উ্);
3. an increase in the number of words beginning with the sound ae (অઘা),
pronounced as in 'hat', stemming from e (এ);
4. the separation of consonant clusters in spoken form with anaptyxis or
prothesis; 5. the assimilation of tatsama conjunct consonants formed with
b (ব), m
(ম) and y (য়).
Morphological: 1. the short forms of pronouns and verbal forms in standard
colloquial Bangla (tahar > tar তাহার
>
তার; kariyachhila > karechhila
কিরয়ািছল
>
কেরিছল). Many
features of medieval Bangla are still found in many Bangla
dialects.
Mixture of languages Bangla has been greatly influenced
by two non-Aryan languages: Dravidian and Kol. Their influence is evident not
only in the vocabulary but also in the construction of sentences. A large number
of onomatopoeic words, repetitive words and conjunctive verbs in Bangla reveal
non-Aryan influence; for example, words such as ghoda-toda (horses etc),
kapad-chopad (clothes etc), tuk-tuk, khatkhat, khankha,
dhandha, basiya pada (sitting down), lagiya thaka (to
persevere), etc. There are plenty of Dravidian and other non-Aryan words in
Bangla, especially in place names, indicating that Bangla passed through many
stages and was influenced by various other languages.
One of the main influences on Bangla was that of Sanskrit as this language
was the vehicle of literature and culture for almost the whole of the
subcontinent since the beginning of the Christian era. (The religious discourses
of the Buddhists and the Jains were carried on in pali and Ardhamagadhi
respectively.) In the days of old Bangla, many Bengalis used to write poetic
works in Sanskrit. Even after the evolution of Bangla, many well-known Bengali
poets, such as jaydev,
umapatidhara and
govardhan acharya,
continued to compose their literary works in Sanskrit. The result was that many
pure Sanskrit words entered Bangla from the very early stages.
Following the establishment of Muslim rule in Bengal in the 13th century,
Bangla came under the influence of Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Persian was the
language of the court during Muslim rule in the 14th and 15th centuries. Because
of this special status as well as other cultural influences, Bangla picked up
many Persian words at this time. In the 16th century, with the Portuguese
inroads, several Portuguese words entered Bangla; for example, words such as anaras
(pineapple), ata (custard-apple) and tamak (tobacco).
From the 17th century, the Dutch, French and English started arriving in
Bengal. As a result, words from these languages started entering Bangla
vocabulary; for example, from the French: cartouche, coupon, depot;
Dutch: hartan, iskaban, iskurup; English: table, chair, lord/lat,
general/jadrel, etc. During the 17th and 18th centuries effective use of
Bangla prose began through the efforts of Christian missionaries. With the start
of British rule in the 18th century and the spread of English education, Bangla
started absorbing increasing numbers of English words. Following the
establishment of the Bengali Department at fort william college in
calcutta
in 1801, the efforts of its head, william carey, and his associate
Bengali scholars, made Bangla fit for fine prose. During the 19th century, the
efforts of Bengali writers contributed to the further growth of the language.
Among them were raja rammohun roy,
bhabanicharan bandyopadhyay,
iswar
chandra vidyasagar, bankimchandra chattopadhyay,
michael madhusudan dutt and
mir mosharraf hossain. The 20th century witnessed the elevation of
colloquial Bangla to a written literary medium through the work of many talented
writers such as
rabindranath tagore and
pramatha chowdhury.
Dialects suniti kumar chatterji classified Bangla
dialects into four broad groups: Radh, Banga, Kamarupa and Varendra; Sukumar Sen
(1939) added one more and defined five groups of dialects: Radhi, Bangali,
Kamrupi, Varendri and Jhadkhandi. Radhi is the basis of standard colloquial
Bangla, spoken in wide areas of south-western Bengal. Bangali is chiefly spoken
in the east and south-eastern areas of Bengal. Dialects in this group still
retain many of the medieval Bangla features that are extinct in Radhi, such as
epenthetic vowels (semi vowels), lack of vowel height assimilation,
pronunciation of the consonant g (গ্)
in conjunct -ng (-ਔ),
maintenance of nasal consonant + consonant as in chand (চা੯দ),
instead of chand (চঁাদ).
Bangali dialects lack d (ড়্)
and dh (ঢ়্),
and the affricates like ch (চ্),
chh (ছ্),
j (জ্)
and jh (ঝ্)
are pronounced like sibilants. But the dialects of
sylhet, noakhali
and chittagong are so different from Bangali that it is best to consider
these spoken forms as separate dialects. All the marginal dialects of the Bangla
language naturally get mixed up with the neighbouring forms. Remote Bangali and
Kamrupi bear close affinity with Assamese, Jhadkhandi with south-western Bihari,
and the language spoken in the Kanthi area with Oriya.
Forms of language Written Bangla has two forms: sadhu
or chaste and chalita or colloquial or spoken. The two differ basically in verbs and pronouns. The verbs and pronouns get shortened in the
colloquial form. For example: কিরয়া
(kariya; to do) কের
(kare); তাহার (tahar;
his/hers) তার (tar).
The importance of the colloquial form arose at the beginning of the 20th century
but the use of chaste Bangla did not disappear totally. Chaste language
continued to be used in contemporary newspapers, works of documentation and in
statements by the government and on matters of serious import. Colloquial Bangla
was the language of the Calcutta gentry, a considerable number of whom used the
colloquial form to write literary works.
The parallel currents of chaste and colloquial streams created a unique
phenomenon of diglossia in Bangla. Although the main peculiarity of the
colloquial stream is the shortened form of verbs and pronouns, their real
difference is in temperament. The mix of sadhu and chalita, as used in poetry,
has been on the wane since World War II, giving way to the chalita form only.
Since March 1965, many Bangla newspapers have adopted the chalita form,
discarding the sadhu one. The ittefaq, which had retained
the sadhu form, has also started using the chalita form since 2001.
Hindus and Muslims differ in their ways of using the language, and even West
Bengalis and Bangladeshis differ somewhat in their practices. The Muslim rule in
Bengal prior to the British rule led to an extensive development of Bangla and a
plentiful influx of Arabic, Persian and Turkish vocabulary. Towards the end of
the 18th century, even high-caste Hindus used to cultivate the court language,
Persian, allowing their Bangla to be influenced by it. Even today over 2,000
Arabic and Persian words relating to war, taxation, legal and cultural matters,
and crafts are in use in Bangla. Such words and their impact increased
substantially in the language of the Muslim rural masses of East Bengal prior to
the partition of India in 1947. A major difference exists in the language used
by Hindus and Muslims in respect of words that refer to relatives or food.
Hindus use Sanskrit and Bangla words, while Muslims use Urdu and Arabic words,
eg kaka/chacha (uncle), ma/amma (mother), baba/abba
(father), didi/bubu (sister), dada/bhaiya (brother), jal/pani
(water) mangsa/gosht. At the same time, it should be noted that Muslims in the Jessore area also use
the so-called 'Hindu terms' of didi and dada. Although the written
language of West Bengal and Bangladesh is more or less similar, spoken Bangla
differs widely. There are also many regional Bangla dialects. Some dialects,
such as those of Sylhet, Noakhali and Chittagong, differ so greatly from each
other and standard Bangla, that people of one region can hardly communicate with
people of the other.
Standard colloquial Bangla: structural description Standard
colloquial Bangla is used by educated people for speaking and writing. It is the
language of literature and the media.
Phonology There are seven standard phonemes in
standard colloquial Bangla (SCB): i (ই)
as in pin, u (উ)
as in put, e (এ)
as in get, o (ও)
as in go (but monophthongal), ae (অઘা)
as in hat, a (অা)
as in father, a (অ)
as in not (but a bit higher). Each of these sounds has nasalised
counterparts. There are 30 consonant phonemes: p (প্)
ph (ফ্) b (ব্)
bh (ভ্) m (ম্),
t (ত্) th (থ্)
d (দ্) dh (ধ্)
n (ন্), t (ট্)
th (ঠ্) d (ড্/ড়্)
dh (ঢ্/ঢ়্),
k (ক্) kh (খ্)
g (গ্) gh (ঘ্)
n (ঙ্), ch
(চ্) chh (ছ্)
j (জ্) jh (ঝ্)
Sh (শ্), r
(র্) l (ল্)
s (স্) h (হ্).
S (স্) is
said to be a contextual variant of Sh (শ্)).
There are four non-syllabic vowel sounds: i (ই্),
u (উ্),
e (এ্)
and o (ও্).
The phonological behaviour of standard colloquial Bangla is marked by the
following characteristics: 1. vowel height assimilation, in which low vowel
sounds gain height, such as, pyancha > penchi (ya > e)
পঁઘাচা
> েপঁিচ (অઘা
> এ), nat ->
nati (a > o) নট
> নটী (অ
> ও), lekhe
> likhi (e > i) েলেখ
> িলিখ (এ
> ই) and khoka
> khuku (o > u) েখাকা
> খুকু (ও
> উ); 2. Sh
(শ্)
becoming s (স্)
in loan words; 3. doubling of consonant sounds conditioned by semantic control: bado
> baddo (বেড়া
> বেਝা),
chhoto > chhotto (েছােটা
> েছােਜা).
Consonant conjuncts are simplified in loan words in spoken language. Stress
usually falls on the first syllable of a word and on the first word of a
meaningful phrase. The primary stress of a question falls on the neuter gender
interrogative pronouns ke, ki, keno (who, what, why). General statements
end in low pitch, and questions, affirmative or negative, end in high pitch. The
length of vowel sounds is sometimes prolonged, influenced by emotion or voice
projection ki-i? ya-i! (কী-ই৶
যা-ই৲). Stress is also
employed to put emphasis on a word. In compound sentences, the connecting words
have the least stress.
Morphology The morphology of Bangla is
accidence-based, although its analytical nature has gradually evolved. It has
more than 50 verb-inflections, and a fewer number of case endings. The case of
the nominal word is expressed in three ways: by case endings (indirect object-
dative, genitive and locative cases), by case endings and post-positions
(instrumental case, gerundial) and by only post-positions (ablative case). The
nominative case does not primarily take any case ending, but in case of
'collective' agents, the case takes the case ending -e (-এ),
such as, manuse eman kaj kare na (মানুেষ
এমন কাজ কের না).
There is also no case ending for inanimate indirect objects. In standard
colloquial Bangla, the case ending for indirect objects is -ke (-েক),
the genitive case-ending is -(e)r [-(এ)র]
and the locative case ending is -(e)te [-(এ)েত].
The word-final sound determines where the ending should be in -r or -er,
and -te or -ete.
The accidence of verbs is fairly complex. Finite verbs are
chiefly split into two groups based on the verb inflections: indicative and
imperative. In addition to the second-person imperative, Bangla has another mood
called the third-person imperative. The second-person imperative has three
forms: honorific (karun, করઔন),
ordinary (karo, কেরা)
and familiar or contemptuous (kar, কর্).
The third-person imperative has two forms: ordinary and honorific (karuk,
করઔক,
karun, করઔন).
The second-person imperative is used in both present and future tenses (karben-karun,
করেবন-করઔন,
koro-karo, েকােরা-কেরা,
kar-karis, কর্-কিরস্).
The indicative mood has three tenses: present, past and
future. The present and the future tenses have three and four aspects
respectively. The present tense includes simple (kari, কির),
progressive (karchhi, করিছ)
and perfect (karechhi, কেরিছ),
while the past tense includes simple (karlam, করলাম),
progressive (karchhilam, করিছলাম),
perfect (karechhilam, কেরিছলাম)
and habitual (kartam, করতাম).
There is only one aspect of the future tense: simple (karba, করব).
The progressive future requires more than one verb to express the aspect. The
verb usually takes five inflections depending on the person, such as
first-person (ami, অািম),
second-person ordinary (tumi, তুিম),
second-person familiar (tui, তুই),
second-third person honorific (apni, অাপিন),
third-person ordinary (se, েস),
and third-person honorific (tini িতিন).
These sets of verb-inflections are different for different tenses. The
inflections for aspect and tense do not change depending on the person; only the
personal endings--that end the verb forms--change (present: -i (-ই),
-o (-ও), -is
(-ইস্),
-e (-এ), -en
(-এন): kari
(কির),
kar (কর),
karis (কিরস),
kare (কের),
karen (কেরন).
The causative verbs are formed with an -a (-অা)
appended to the verb root (kare > karrai, কের
> করাই);
an -a (-অা)
appended to root can also be classified as nominal verb root: ghumai, santrai
(ঘুমাই৴
সঁাতরাই)
etc. The order of endings in a verb root has the following order: (root) +
causative ending + aspect ending + tense ending + personal ending (kar + ai
> i + echh + il + am, কর্
+ অাই > ই
+ এছ্ + ইল্ + অাম).
The Bangla roots are basically either monosyllabic or
bisyllabic, such as, kar-, kara- (কর্-৴
করা-). The causative and the
nominal verb roots are by nature bisyllabic. But there are also roots with more
than two syllables: jhalmala-, chakmaka- etc. The conjunctive has
four forms: verbal noun (kara, করা),
completive (ka're, ক'ের),
conditional (karle, করেল)
and inchoative (karte, করেত).
Another set of verbs like dakadaki (ডাকাডািক),
ghoraghuri (েঘারাঘুির) is formed in compliance with the rules of
correlative compounds. Phrasal verbs are formed with finite forms of verbal
roots like kar (কর্),
ha (হ) or mar
(মার্)
placed after nouns or adjectives, such as upakar kara (উপকার
করা), bhalo haoya (ভােলা
হওয়া), chokh mara (েচাখ
মারা) etc. Compound verbs are formed with verbs like uth
(উঠ্),
pad (পড়্),
phel (েফল্),
thak (থাক্) and the like placed after completive or inchoative
conjunctives, as in ka're otha (ক'ের
ওঠা), base pada (বেস
পড়া), bale phela (বেল
েফলা), etc.
The formation of the substantive with affixes is not an
unlimited proposition in Bangla. There are not many original Bangla affixes. It
borrows -ta (-তা),
-tv (-তઁ),
-ima (-ইমা)
very often from Sanskrit for substantive formation. Comparatives (-tara -তর,
-tama -তম)
and ordinals (pratham পચথম,
dvitiya িਦতীয় etc)
are dependent on Sanskrit affixes. Although there are not many primary and
secondary affixes in Bangla, affixes for enclitic definitives (-ta -টা,
-ti -িট,
khana খানা),
suggesting largeness or ungainliness (jhola, েঝালা),
suggesting smallness or prettiness (jhuli, ঝুিল),
loveableness (ramu, রামু)
and unloveableness (rama, রামা)
are worth considering.
Sequence The order of words in Bangla is what is
called left branching, ie, adjectives are placed on the left of nouns; and
adverbs precede the verbs. The sequence of words in a sentence is as follows:
subject + temporal phrase + locative phrase + indirect object + direct object +
adverbial phrase + verb: ami kal steshane runake kathata kane kane balechhi
(অািম কাল
েੈশেন রઔনােক
কথাটা কােন
কােন বেলিছ,
I uttered the words into Runa's ear yesterday at the station). The place of the
locative phrase can change, affecting the meaning of the sentence. Sentences
without the copula, as in Russian, Tamil or Japanese, are in use in Bangla-amar
nam ruhul kuddus (অামার
নাম রઔਗ਼ল
কুਣুুস, My name
[is] Ruhul Quddus). Intransitive passive voice as in English is rare in Bangla,
but the passive voice formed with a verb used as a noun is a common feature of
the language: tomar khaoya hayechhe? e pathe faridpur jaoya chale? (েতামার
খাওয়া হেয়েছ৶
এ পেথ ফিরদপুর
যাওয়া চেল৶
Has your eating been done? Can going to Faridpur be done through this road?).
Interrogative sentences in Bangla are formed with question words. The connective
words in complex and conditional sentences are worth noting: yakhan o asbe
takhan ar ami thakba na (যখন
ও অাসেব তখন
অার অািম থাকব
না, I will not be here when he comes).
Lexicon The main inherited elements of the
Bangla language are: tadbhava (produced from that, ie Sanskrit; the Sanskrit
word that has changed at least twice in the process of becoming Bangla), tatsama
(same as that, i.e. Sanskrit; the Sanskrit word loaned into Bangla, with changed
pronunciation but retaining the original spelling) and ardha-tatsama
(half tatsama in nature; the Sanskrit words changed in the spoken form in Bangla,
such as pratyasha > pityesh, পચতઘাশা
> িপেতઘশ).
In addition, Bangla has a large number of words of unknown etymology, also known
as deshi or local words, which might have their origin in old loans from
Dravidian, Austric or Sino-Tibetan languages. The new loans are from Persian,
Arabic, English, Portuguese and other languages. Sunitikumar Chatterji, taking jnanedra
mohan das's Bangala Bhashar Abhidhan into account, showed that Bangla
has 51.45 per cent tadbhava words, 44.00 per cent tatsama words,
3.30 per cent Perso-Arabic words and 1.25 per cent from English, Portuguese and
other languages. But these figures are not quite accurate. Although Jnanendra
Mohan Das's lexicon has around 150,000 words, the total number of Bangla words,
including dialect words, is much more.
The Bangla alphabet The Bangla alphabet evolved
from Kutila lipi, which in turn evolved from ancient Indian Brahmi. The
first printed book to use Bangla type was nathaniel brassey halhed's A
Grammar of Bengal Language, which refined and standardised Bangla letters.
Thanks to efforts by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, the increasing use of Bangla type
in the printing presses helped to stabilise the shape of the letters. Iswar
Chandra also introduced new letters and rearranged the order of the alphabet. He
dispensed with ঋৃ
and ৯৯ and
placed anusvara (ং)
and visarga (ঃ) at the end of the consonant section of the alphabet and introduced ড়,
ঢ় and ਅ. Nevertheless, the Bangla alphabet continues to be based on the scheme of the
Sanskrit alphabet, consisting of 12 vowels and 30 consonants. These symbols do
not, however, always represent the spoken sound of the language. The long vowels
and letters such as ঞ্৴
ণ্৴ য্৴ ষ্
etc do not have specific sounds associated with them. At some points in history,
Bangla was written in Perso-Arabic script and sylheti nagri. Apart from the dadi (|), or full stop, the other punctuation marks are European.
Generally, the peculiarities and distinctions between
consonants that pertain in Sanskrit exist in Bangla as well, such as alpapran
(non-aspirated)/mahapran (aspirated), aghosa (voiceless)/ghosa
(voiced), dantya (dental)/pratibestita (alveolar-retroflex). As
in Sanskrit, every independent consonant syllable has the inherent vowel অ
(a), unless another vowel is specified. For
instance, ক্ (k)
is actually ক+ অ (k
+ a), ত is ত্+
অ (t + a). However, there are significant
variations in pronunciation. Thus, unlike Sanskrit, the pronunciation of অ is not always regular and stable. At times it is pronounced almost as o (ও).
Such instability creates problems of spelling in Bangla. However, as in the
case of many languages of the Indo-Aryan family, অ
(a) at the end of syllables in Bangla often
disappears. Some vowels are nasalised, changing the meaning and import of the
word; for instance, the pronunciation of the honorific pronoun for third person
is the nasalised তঁার (tanr),
clearly distinguishing the pronoun from the third person general তার (tar).
If the basic ড (d)
of Sanskrit falls within or at the end of a Bangla word, the sound is pronounced
ড় (d). In this
way the letters ড়
(d) and ঢ় (dh)
were added to Bangla in the 19th century. Sanskrit distinguishes between a
consonant ব (b)
and a semi-vowel ব (v).
However, in Bangla both letters are pronounced ব
(b). Compound consonants are often pronounced as
double consonants; for instance, িবশੴ
> িবশ্শ /
লਉী > লক্খী
(bishva > bishsha, laksmi > lakkhi).
The Sanskrit letter য
(y) is pronounced জ (j)
in Bangla. Thus the following Bangla words from Sanskrit are spelled যম
(yam) and যাਠা
(yatra) but are pronounced as if spelled জম
(jam) and জাਠা
(jatra). There are three s letters in Bangla, শ৴
ষ৴ স (sh,
s, s). In most cases,
however, all three letters are sounded শ (sh). However, if স (s) is compounded, its pronunciation remains intact.
For example, অাসেত
(aste) is pronounced as if it had been spelled অাশ্েত
(ashte), but
অােએ੪- is pronounced aste. Similarly,
রাએ੪া- is
pronounced rasta.
Language situation Bangla is the country's
state language and is used extensively except in some isolated tribal
habitations. Most official work within the country is done in Bangla, but
English is used in diplomatic communications, trade contacts and in higher
education and research. People speak in dialect at home, but will generally use
spoken Bangla outside and standard colloquial Bangla for academic and literary
purposes. Usually, standard Bangla is used in literary and artistic work, plays
and mass communication, but recently the use of dialects in these activities has
increased.
[Mohammad Daniul Huq and Pabitra Sarkar]
Bibliography
SK Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language,
Calcutta University, Calcutta, 1926; Muhammad Shahidullah, Bangla Bhasar
Itibrtta, Dhaka, 1965; PS Ray and Abdul Hai, Bengali Language Handbook,
Washington DC, 1966; Sukumar Sen, Bhasar Itibrtta (The History
of Language, 13th edn), Eastern Publishers, Calcutta, 1979; MH Klaiman,
Volitionality and Subject in Bengali: A Study of Semantic Parameters
in Grammatical Process, Bloomington, 1981; Humayun Azad ed, Banla
Bhasa, Bangla Academy, Dhaka, 1984-85; CP Masica, The Indo-Aryan
Languages, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991; AKM Morshed
and William Radice, 'Bengali Language' in RE Asher ed, The Encyclopedia
of Language and Linguistics, Vol. l, Oxford, 1994.
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