Chittagonian (চিটাইঙ্গা)

Chittagonian is a member of the Eastern Bengali-Assamese branch of the Indo-Aryan language family. It is spoken by about 13 million people in the Chittagong Division in southeast Bangladesh, particularly in the city of Chittagong, and in the Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari districts.

Chittagonian is also known as Chatgaiyan Buli, Chatgaya or Chittagonian Bengali. It is closely related to Rohingya and is more or less mutually intelligible with it.

Chittagonian vocabulary comes mainly from Sanskrit, with quite a few words borrowed from Arabic, Persian and Turkish, as well as English and Portuguese.

There are many songs in Chittagonian, and it is used to some extent on the TV and radio.

Chittagonian is written with the Bengali alphabet. There are ways to write it with the Arabic and Latin alphabets. However, few Chittagonian speakers are literate in their language and tend to write in Bengali instead.

Bengali alphabet for Chittagonian

Bengali alphabet for Chittagonian

Latin alphabet for Chittagonian

Latin alphabet for Chittagonian

Arabic alphabet for Chittagonian

Arabic alphabet for Chittagonian

Download alphabet charts for Chittagonian (Excel)

Details of the Chittagonian alphabets provided by Wolfram Siegel (PDF) and Biswajit Mandel

Sample text

বিয়াক মানুশ ইজ্‌জত এদ‌্দে অ়কর ই়শাবে আজাদ আর উ়য়াইন্‌না অ়ইয়েরে ফ়য়দা অ়য়। ই়তারাত্‌তু আহল এদ্‌দে বিবেক আছে ; এতল্‌লায় এজ্‌জন আরেজ্‌জনর উ়য়ারে ভাইয়ুর নান বেভার গরন দরহার।

Transliteration

Biyak manuś ijjôt edde ókôr íśabe ajad ar úyainnaa óiyere fôyda óy. Ítarattu ahôl edde bibek ase; etôllay ejjôn arejjônôr úyare bhaiyur nan bebhar gôrôn dôrhar.

Hear a recording of this text by Syed Mohammad Moin Uddin

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Details supplied by Biswajit Mandal (biswajitmandal[dot]bm90[at]gmail[dot]com)

Sample videos in Chittagonian

Links

Information about Chittagonian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chittagonian_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ctg
https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/chit1275
https://wikitravel.org/en/Chittagonian_phrasebook

Indo-Aryan languages

Awadhi, Assamese, Bagri, Bengali, Bhili, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Braj, Chakma, Chhattisgarhi, Chittagonian, Desiya, Dhatki, Dhivehi, Dhundari, Fiji Hindi, Gawar Bati, Gujarati, Hajong, Halbi, Haryanvi, Hindi, Hindko, Kannauji, Khandeshi, Konkani, Kotia, Kumaoni, Kutchi, Lambadi, Marathi, Marwari, Mewari, Modi, Nimadi, Noakhailla, Odia, Parkari Koli, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Rajbanshi, Rangpuri, Rohingya, Saraiki, Sarnámi Hindustani, Sindhi, Sinhala, Sourashtra, Sugali, Sylheti, Tanchangya, Urdu

Languages written with the Eastern Nagari (Bengali) alphabet

Atong, Bengali, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Bodo, Bhumij, Chittagonian, Garo, Hajong, Karbi, Kharia, Khasi, Koch, Kokborok, Kurmali, Malto, Manipuri, Mundari, Noakhailla, Rangpuri, Sadri, Santali, Sylheti, Toto, Tanchangya

Languages written with the Arabic script

Adamaua Fulfulde, Afrikaans, Arabic (Algerian), Arabic (Bedawi), Arabic (Chadian), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Gulf), Arabic (Hassaniya), Arabic (Hejazi), Arabic (Lebanese), Arabic (Libyan), Arabic (Modern Standard), Arabic (Moroccan), Arabic (Najdi), Arabic (Syrian), Arabic (Tunisian), Arwi, Äynu, Azeri, Balanta-Ganja, Balti, Baluchi, Beja, Belarusian, Bosnian, Brahui, Chagatai, Chechen, Chittagonian, Comorian, Crimean Tatar, Dargwa, Dari, Dhatki, Dogri, Domari, Gawar Bati, Gawri, Gilaki, Hausa, Hazaragi, Hindko, Indus Kohistani, Kabyle, Kalkoti, Karakalpak, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Khowar, Khorasani Turkic, Khwarezmian, Konkani, Kumzari, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Lezgi, Lop, Luri, Maguindanao, Malay, Malay (Terengganu), Mandinka, Marwari, Mazandarani, Mogholi, Morisco, Mozarabic, Munji, Noakhailla, Nubi, Ormuri, Palula, Parkari Koli, Pashto, Persian/Farsi, Punjabi, Qashqai, Rajasthani, Rohingya, Salar, Saraiki, Sawi, Serer, Shabaki, Shina, Shughni, Sindhi, Somali, Soninke, Tatar, Tausūg, Tawallammat Tamajaq, Tayart Tamajeq, Torwali, Turkish, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Wakhi, Wanetsi, Wolof, Xiao'erjing, Yidgha

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

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