Bengali language: Encyclopedia II - Bengali language - Variation in dialects

Bengali language - Variation in dialects

Dialectual differences in Bangla manifest themselves in three forms: standardized dialect vs. regional dialect, literary language vs. colloquial language and lexical influences.

Bengali language - Literary forms

In Bangla, there exists what is known as Shadhubhasha (the elegant language; literally "language of sages"; also called Shuddhobhasha) and Choltibhasha (the current, or colloquial, language; literally "the current or running language"; also called Cholitobhasha or Cholitbhasha in common speech). The major differences between the two are the adherence to traditional grammar (i.e. the archaic forms of Medieval Bangla) and to a heavily Sanskritized vocabulary in Shadhubhasha. Songs like the Indian national anthem Jôno Gôno Môno (by Rabindranath Tagore) and the national song of India (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (Chatterjee)) Bônde Matôrom were actually composed in the highly refined Sadhubhasha form of Bangla. However, Shadhubhasha is not spoken in commonplace settings but confined to literary and formal contexts.

Choltibhasha, which comprises the standard pronunciation of Bangla and thus serves as the basis for the orthography of most Bangla writing today, is modeled on the cultivated form of the dialect spoken in Kolkata by the educated people originally coming from districts bordering on the lower reaches of the Hooghly River. Choltibhasha, as the colloquial dialect, derives its lexicon from several sources. Though overwhelmingly Sanskrit-based, a large amount of vocabulary is taken from English, Arabic and Persian sources.

Greater laxity in grammatical expression, particularly the verbal conjugations, distinguishes between Choltibhasha (CB) and Shadhubhasha (SB). From a strictly linguistic view, Choltibhasha exhibits several marked departures from the traditional Shadhubhasha Bangla; most noticeably clipped verbal forms [SB cholitechhi ("I am going") corresponds to CB cholchhi], consonantal simplication [SB snan ("bath") corresponds to CB chan], and vowel raising [SB ôbbhash ("habit") corresponds to CB ôbbhesh].

The distinction between Shadhubhasha and Choltibhasha is not exactly clear-cut; it may be better to describe the two literary forms as ranges on a continuum, with Shadhubhasha on one end, and the local Kolkata/Calcutta dialect on the other. Choltibhasha is generally thought to be somewhat in between Shadhubhasha and the regional variety of West Bengali spoken in and around Kolkata. Speakers of Choltibhasha outside Kolkata may use less Kolkata-specific features, ranging from lexical choice to verbal conjugation. For example, the definite articles -ţa and -gula used in Shadhubhasha are often replaced by the diminutive definite articles -ţi and -guli in Kolkata speech, and speakers of Choltibhasha may vary between their usage of the two sets of articles. Even when not using the diminutive forms, many speakers of Choltibhasha may apply Kolkata vowel raising to the plural article -gula, giving -gulo. Thus, egula, eguli, and egulo can mean basically the same thing "these" in Choltibhasha, although Kolkata speakers will be more likely to use the last form. Similarly, words such as biŗal ("cat"), shondha ("evening"), and buŗa ("old") can be pronounced beŗal, shondhe, and buŗo in a more Kolkata-like Choltibhasha. With respect to verbal conjugation, many speakers of Choltibhasha will interchange the more Kolkata-specific inflections for first person simple past tense verbs -lem and -lum with the Shadhubhasha form -lam, so that banalam, banalem, and banalum can all mean "I made", although the second and third forms carry a distinctly regional or poetic flavor.

Bengali language - Regional variations

There are marked dialectual differences between the speech of Bengalis living on the Poshchim (western) side and Purbo (eastern) side of the Padma River. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern Bangladesh (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions), many of the stops and affricates heard in Kolkata Bangla are pronounced as fricatives.

Poshchim Bangla palato-alveolar affricates চ [tʃ], ছ [tʃ^h], জ [dʒ], and ঝ [dʒ^ɦ] correspond to Purbo Bangla চʻ [ts], ছ় [s], জʻ [dz], and ঝ় [z]. This pronunciation is also found in Assamese, a related language across the border in India.

The aspirated velar stop খ [k^h] and the aspirated labial stop ফ [p^h] of Poshchim Bangla correspond to খ় [x] and ফ় [f] in many dialects of Purbo Bangla. These pronunciations are most extreme in the 'Sylheti' dialect of extreme northeastern Bangladesh -- the dialect of Bangla most common in the United Kingdom. Additionally, the Sylheti dialect carries a greater Arab and Persian influence while sharing grammatical features with Assamese.

Many Purbo Bangla dialects also share additional phonological features with Assamese, including the debuccalization of শ [ʃ] to হ [h] or খ় [x].

Some Purbo Bangla dialects do not include the breathy voiced stops ঘ [g^ɦ], ঝ [dʒ^ɦ], ঢ [ɖ^ɦ], ধ [d̪^ɦ], and ভ [b^ɦ].

The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on the phonology of Purbo Bangla is seen through the lack of nasalized vowels, a more fronted place of articulation for the apico-postalveolar stops ট [ʈ], ঠ [ʈ^h], ড [ɖ], and ঢ [ɖ^ɦ], and the lack of distinction between র [ ɾ] and ড়/ঢ় [ɽ].

The Chittagong and Chakma Bangla dialects are heavily influenced by the neighboring Tibeto-Burman languages; these dialects are often considered separate languages from Bangla.

During standardization of Bangla in the late 19th and early 20th century, the cultural elite were mostly from West Bengal, especially Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Hence, the dialect of that area was considered to be standard. To this day, the accepted standard language in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the dialect of the 19th century Kolkata elite. This has helped create a state of diglossia in most of Bangladesh, with many speakers familiar with or fluent in both the particular Purbo dialect of their community and the standard Poshchim dialect used in the media.

Bengali language - Lexical variations

The third major factor in dialectical difference, specifically between the dialects of West Bengal and Bangladesh, is a lexical one. Even in Standard Bengali, vocabulary items often divide along the split between the predominantly Muslim Bangladeshi populace and largely Hindu West Bengali populace. Due to their cultural and religious traditions, Muslims occasionally utilize Perso-Arabic words instead of the Sanskrit-derived forms.

Some examples of lexical alternation between standard West Bengali forms (or commonly called Hindu forms) and their corresponding standard Bangladeshi forms (or commonly called Muslim forms) are as follows:

• hello: nômoshkar (S) corresponds to assalamualaikum/slamalikum (A)
• invitation: nimontron/nimontonno (S) corresponds to daoat (A)
• guest: otithi (S) corresponds to mehman (P)
• sir: môshae (S) corresponds to shaheb (A)
• bath/shower: snan/chan (S) corresponds to gosol (A)
• water: jôl (S) corresponds to pani (S/Hindi)
• meat: mangsho (S) corresponds to gosh/goshto/gosto (P)
• prayer: prarthona (S) corresponds to doa (A)
• god: bhôgoban, ishshor (S) corresponds to allah (A), khoda (P)
• mother: ma (S) corresponds to amma (A)
• father: baba (S) corresponds to abba (A)
• maternal aunt: mashi (S) corresponds to khala (A)
• paternal aunt: pishi (S) corresponds to fupi/fupu (P)
• paternal uncle: kaka (S) corresponds to chacha (S/Hindi)

(here S = derived from Sanskrit; A = derived from Arabic, P = derived from Persian)

The differences above depend on the region contemplated and are not always clearly distinct. For example, many people in West Bengal continue to use the words chan and gosol (or nimontron and daoat) interchangeably with no particular bias towards one word or the other; a similar situation prevails (even among Muslims) in Hindu majority and Western regions of Bangladesh. Additionally, baba and ma are also heard often in Bangladesh.

Though jôl, pani, kaka, and chacha are all Sanskrit derivatives, pani and chacha became more associated with the Hindustani language that imbibed so much of Mughal culture and so became the word of choice for Muslim speakers of Bangla.

Furthermore, there are cases where speakers of Standard Bangla in West Bengal will use a different word than a speaker of Standard Bangla in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bangla descent. Because each pair of words is made up of only native vocabulary, the choice of which word to use is not based on one's religion, but on regional usage. Examples of such cases are listed below, with the West Bengali standard marked (W) and the Bangladeshi standard marked (E):

• salt: nun (W) corresponds to lôbon (E)
• turmeric: holdi (W) corresponds to holud (E)
• chili pepper: lôngka (W) corresponds to morich (E)
• with: shôngge (W) corresponds to shathe (E)
• husband's sister: thakurjhi (W) corresponds to nônod (E)

Note that these differences reflect the vocabulary of the standard varieties of Bangla in West Bengali and Bangladesh. Variation in the vocabulary of the countless regional dialects of both West Bengal and Bangladesh are even more pronounced.

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