Bengali is an eastern Indo-Aryan language with around 265 million speakers, mainly in Bangladesh and northern Indian. In 2017 there were about 159 million Bengali speakers in Bangladesh, and in 2011 there were about 104 million speakers of Bengali in India, particularly in the states of Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal, and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are also Bengali speakers in the UAE (337,000), Pakistan (290,000), Myanmar (286,000), the USA (258,000), UK (221,000), and a number of other countries.
Bengali is the sole official language of Bangladesh, and is used in all courts, government offices and other institutions. It is also the de-facto national language.
Bengali is the official language of the India states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam, and the second official language of Jharkhand state. It is recognized as a secondary language in Karachi in Pakistan.
There are some differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the Bengali of Bangladesh and the Bengali spoken in India.
The Bengali alphabet (বাংলা লিপি - Bangla lipi) is derived from the Brahmi alphabet. It is also closely related to the Devanagari alphabet, from which it started to diverge in the 11th Century AD. The current printed form of Bengali alphabet first appeared in 1778 when Charles Wilkins developed printing in Bengali. A few archaic letters were modernised during the 19th century.
Bengali has two literary styles: one is called Shadhubhôsha (সাধুভাষা - "elegant language") and the other Chôlitôbhasha (চলিতভাষা "current language"). The former is the traditional literary style based on Middle Bengali of the sixteenth century, while the later is a 20th century creation and is based on the speech of educated people in Calcutta. The differences between the two styles are not huge and involve mainly forms of pronouns and verb conjugations.
Some people prefer to call this alphabet the Eastern Nagari script or Eastern Neo-Brahmic script
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
Hear another recording of the Bengali vowels by Amuk F.
More consonant-vowel combinations
How to write Bengali vowels:
Hear another recording of the Bengali consonants by Amuk F.
How to write Bengali consonants:
Hear another recording of the Bengali numerals by Amuk F.
Download a spreadsheet with these charts (Excel)
Shômôstô manush shadhinbhabe shôman môrjada ebông ôdhikar niye jônmôgrôhôn kôre. Tãder bibek ebông buddhi achhe; shutôrang shôkôleri êke ôpôrer prôti bhratrittôsulôbh mônobhab niye achôrôn kôra uchit
ʃɔmost̪o manuʃ ʃad̪ʱinbʱabe ʃɔman mɔɾd͡ʒad̪a eboŋ od̪ʱikaɾ nije d͡ʒɔnmogɾohon kɔɾe. t̪ãd̪eɾ bibek eboŋ bud̪ːʱi at͡ʃʰe, ʃut̪oɾaŋ ʃɔkoleɾi ɛke ɔpoɾeɾ pɾot̪i bʱɾat̪ɾit̪ːoʃulɔbʱ monobʱab nije at͡ʃɔɾon kɔɾa ut͡ʃit̪.
Transliteration and IPA transcription by Amuk F.
Hear another recording of this text by Amuk F.
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)
Information about Bengali | Phrases | Numbers | Kinship words | Time | Tower of Babel | Learning materials
Bengali language resources on Amazon
Information about Bengali
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language
http://www.betelco.com/bd/bangla/bangla.html
http://www.viswayan.com/
Online Bengali lessons
http://www.bangla-online.info
http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bengali_index.html
http://mylanguages.org/learn_bengali.php
http://www.bangla-online.info
http://www.bangalinet.com/learn_bangla.htm
Numbers in Bengali
http://mylanguages.org/bengali_numbers.php
http://www.connect-bangladesh.org/bangla/Numbers.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iQtAKx8K40
Bengali phrases
http://www.17-minute-world-languages.com/en/bengali/
http://mylanguages.org/multimedia/bengali_audio_phrases.php
http://www.masteranylanguage.com/c/p/o/Bengali
http://www.bengali-dictionary.com
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Basic_Bengali_phrases
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bengali/Common_phrases
https://www.memrise.com/course/971816/bangla-100-basic-banglabengali-phrasesnotyping/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Bengali_phrasebook
Online Bengali Dictionaries
http://www.bengali-dictionary.com
http://www.bdword.com/english-to-bengali-dictionary
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/biswas-bengali/
http://ovidhan.org
http://www.aldictionary.com/dictionary/english-to-bengali.html
Bengali fonts
http://scriptsource.org/scr/Beng
http://www.omicronlab.com/bangla-fonts.html
http://www.nongnu.org/freebangfont/
http://banglafont.com
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Bengali.html
Online radio in Bengali
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bengali/
http://www.washingtonbanglaradio.com/
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,615,00.html
http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/bengali/top/
http://www.banglaradio.org.au
Online Bengali news
http://www.parabaas.com
http://www.kheyal.com
http://ajantrik.8m.net
http://www.abasar.net
Bengali and Sylheti Language Services
https://www.bengaliandsylheti.org/
ALPHABETUM - a Unicode font specifically designed for ancient scripts, including classical & medieval Latin, ancient Greek, Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, Faliscan, Messapic, Picene, Iberian, Celtiberian, Gothic, Runic, Old & Middle English, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Old Nordic, Ogham, Kharosthi, Glagolitic, Old Cyrillic, Phoenician, Avestan, Ugaritic, Linear B, Anatolian scripts, Coptic, Cypriot, Brahmi, Old Persian cuneiform: http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/~jmag0042/alphabet.html
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
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
Ahom, Aima, Arleng, Badagu, Badlit, Basahan, Balinese, Balti-A, Balti-B, Batak, Baybayin, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bhujimol, Bilang-bilang, Bima, Blackfoot, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Carrier, Chakma, Cham, Cree, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dham Lipi, Dhankari / Sirmauri, Ditema, Dives Akuru, Dogra, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Fox, Fraser, Gond, Goykanadi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gunjala Gondi, Gupta, Gurmukhi, Halbi Lipi, Hanifi, Hanuno'o, Hočąk, Ibalnan, Incung, Inuktitut, Jaunsari Takri, Javanese, Kaithi, Kadamba, Kamarupi, Kannada, Kawi, Kharosthi, Khema, Khe Prih, Khmer, Khojki, Khudabadi, Kirat Rai, Kōchi, Komering, Kulitan, Kurukh Banna, Lampung, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Lota Ende, Magar Akkha, Mahajani, Malayalam, Manpuri / Meitei (Modern), Manpuri (Old), Marchen, Meroïtic, Masarm Gondi, Modi, Mon, Mongolian Horizontal Square Script, Multani, Nandinagari, Newa, New Tai Lue, Ojibwe, Odia, Pahawh Hmong, Pallava, Phags-pa, Purva Licchavi, Qiang / Rma, Ranjana, Rejang (Kaganga), Sasak, Savara, Satera Jontal, Shan, Sharda, Siddham, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sukhothai, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Tanchangya (Ka-Pat), Tani, Thaana, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tigalari, Tikamuli, Tocharian, Tolong Siki, Vatteluttu, Warang Citi
Page last modified: 13.04.23
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