Bengali

Bangla(বাঙলা) or Bengali is the language spoken by the populations in the Indian state of West Bengal and the neighboring country of Bangladesh. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in Assam (another Indian state also neighboring Bangladesh), and in immigrant populations in the West and the Middle East.

Bengali is an English word referring to both the language and the people speaking the language; in Bengali the language is called Bangla(বাঙলা) and the people are called Bangali(বাঙালী). The traditional area of habitation of Bengali peoples is called Bengal in English and Bongo in Bengali. The region is now broken into two fragments, the western part, West Bengal, (or Poshchim-Bongo) being a state in India and the eastern part, Bangladesh (East Bengal or PurboBongo), being an independent country.

During the period 1947-1971, when Eastern Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) was part of Pakistan, the Bengali language became the focus and foundation of the national identity of the people of East Bengal, leading ultimately to the creation of the sovereign state of Bangladesh. Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh, administrative and official work in Bangladesh is carried out in Bengali.

Around 1950-52, the emerging middle classes of East Bengal underwent an uprising known later as the "Language Movement", and 21st February is celebrated as the Language Martyrs' Day, in memory of students and activists who (on 21st February, 1952) walked into military fire in demand of the Bengali language being honored as a national language of erstwhile Pakistan. Bengali is thus arguably the only language for which people have sacrificed their lives. The UNESCO decided to observe February 21 as International Mother Language Day.The UNESCO General Conference took a decision to that effect on 17 November 1999 when it unanimously adopted a draft resolution submitted by Bangladesh and co-sponsored and supported by 28 other countries.

19th May, 1961, in Silchar, a small town of South Assam in North East India witnessed another fight for Bengali language and 11 people died in police firing to protest against the forcible imposition of Assamese on the Bengali speaking people there as a state policy. The martyrs of 19th May gave their everything for the language and later the Government had to back down.

One of the greatest authors in Bengali is Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Others include Kazi Nazrul Islam, Michael Madhushudhan Dutta, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

Script

The spelling system is based on an older version on the language without some vowel merges that have taken place in the spoken language, thus it cannot be described as a phonemic orthography.

Bengali is an Indo-European language.

Referenced By