Bengali language: Encyclopedia II - Bengali language - Phonology

Bengali language - Phonology

For the purposes of consistent transliteration, the following Romanization scheme is used throughout this article along with other Wikipedia articles related to the Bengali language. The tables below correspond to the IPA transcriptions used above.

Bengali language - Stress

Bangla words are virtually all trochaic; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered 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.

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 [ô].

Bengali language - Intonation

In a simple declarative sentence, most words and/or phrases in Bangla carry a rising tone (L*H), with the exception of the last word in the sentence, which only carries a low tone (L). This intonational pattern creates a musical tone to the typical Bangla 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 (L*H) only last until the focused word; all following words carry a low (L) tone. This intonation pattern extends to wh-questions, as wh-words are normally considered to be focused. In yes-no questions, the rising tones (L*H) may be more exaggerated, and most importantly, the final syllable of the final word in the sentence takes a falling tone (HL) instead of a flat low tone (L).

Bengali language - Vowel Length

Vowel length is not contrastive in Bangla; all else equal, there is no meaningful distinction between a "short vowel" and a "long vowel", 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. 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.

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).

Bengali language - Consonant Clusters

Native Bangla (tôdbhôb) words do not allow initial consonant clusters; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e. one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bangla restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as geram (CV.CVC) for gram (CCVC) "village" or iskul (VC.CVC) for skul (CCVC) "school".

Sanskrit (tôtshôm) words borrowed into Bangla, however, possess a wide range of clusters, expanding the maximum syllable structure to CCCVC. Some of these clusters, such as the mr in mrittu "death" or the sp in spôshţo "clear", have become extremely common, and can be considered legal consonant clusters in Bangla. Other commonly-heard clusters from Sanskrit include pr (proshno "question"), br (brishţi "rain"), bhr (bhromon "travel"), tr (trish "thirty"), dr (druto "rapid"), kr (krimi "worm"), gr (gram "village"), sr (sromik "worker"), str (stri "woman"), sth (sthanio "local"), and sn (snan "bath").

Less commonly-heard clusters from Sanskrit include dhr (dhrubo "fixed, permanent"), ghr (ghrina "disgust"), ml (mlan "melancholy"), nr (nritto "dance"), sph (sphurti "delight"), st (stômbho "tower"), and skh (skhôlon "slip").

English and other foreign (bideshi) borrowings add even more cluster types into the Bangla inventory, further increasing the syllable capacity to CCCVCCCC, as commonly-used loanwords such as ţren "train" and glash "glass" are now even included in leading Bangla dictionaries. Clusters from English borrowings include bl (blauz "blouse"), thr (thru or thrute "through, via"), ţr (ţrak "truck"), đr (đraivar "driver"), fr (frans "France"), fl (flaiţ "flight"), spl (splêsh "splash"), sţ (sţeshon "station"), sţr (sţreiţ "straight"), skr (skru "screw"), and sm (smarţ "smart"). Furthermore, some clusters occasionally found in Sanskrit borrowings are now more commonly heard in English borrowings. These clusters include pl (plen "plane"), kl (klash "class"), gl (glash "glass"), sl (sloli "slowly"), spr (spring "spring"), and sk (skarţ "skirt").

Most final consonant clusters were borrowed into Bangla from English, as in lifţ "lift, elevator" and bêņk "bank". However, final clusters do exist in some native Bangla words, although rarely in standard pronunciation. One example of a final cluster in a standard Bangla word would be gônj, which is found in names of hundreds of cities and towns across Bengal, including Nôbabgônj and Manikgônj. Some nonstandard varieties of Bangla 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 chand "moon". The Standard Bangla equivalent of chand would be chñad, with a nasalized vowel instead of the final cluster.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Phonology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki