Bangladeshi English | |
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Native to | Bangladesh |
Early forms | |
Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
IETF | en-BD |
Bangladeshi English is an English accent heavily influenced by the Bengali language and its dialects in Bangladesh. [1] [2] This variety is very common among Bengalis from Bangladesh.
The code-mixed usage of Bengali/Bangla and English is known as Benglish or Banglish. The term Benglish was recorded in 1972, and Banglish slightly later, in 1975. [3]
Bengali is the sole official and national language of Bangladesh. However, English is often used secondarily in the higher tier of the judiciary in the country. Laws were written in English during the British Reign.
Since the introduction of Bangla Bhasha Procolon Ain, all the laws by parliament and all Ordinances promulgated by the President are being enacted in Bengali [4] in Bangladesh.
There are ten English language newspapers in Bangladesh. English medium schools are also operated in English. Mainly, the people of Bangladeshi descent residing in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US and students of English medium schools in Bangladesh use Benglish (though the teaching of Standard English is also attempted).
However, upon public demand in 2012, the High Court of Bangladesh banned the use of Benglish, described as a slang mixture of Bengali and English, in radio and television programs "to protect local tongue". [5]
Benglish is a term that has been used in academic papers to describe a mixture of Bangla and English. For example, Benglish verbs are described as a particular type of complex predicate that consists of an English word and a Bengali verb, such as æksiḍenṭ kôra 'to have an accident', in kôra 'to get/come/put in' or kônfyus kôra 'to confuse'. [6] [7] [8]
The East India Company adopted English as the official language of the empire in 1835. Replacement of the Persian language with English was followed by a surge in English language learning among Bengali babus. English remained an official language of the region until 1956 when the first constitution of Pakistan was adopted stating Bengali and Urdu as the official languages of the state following the Bengali language movement from 1947 to 1952.
After independence, Bengali became the sole official language of Bangladesh, and all English-medium universities, schools and colleges were converted to Bengali instruction in order to spread mass education.
The South Asian numbering system is preferred for digit grouping. When written in words, or when spoken, numbers less than 100,000/100 000 are expressed just as they are in Standard English. Numbers including and beyond 100,000 / 100 000 are expressed in a subset of the South Asian numbering system.
Thus, the following scale is used:
In digits | In words (long and short scales) | In words (South Asian system) |
---|---|---|
10 | ten | |
100 | one hundred | |
1,000 | one thousand | |
10,000 | ten thousand | |
100,000 | one hundred thousand | one lakh |
1,000,000 | one million | ten lakh |
10,000,000 | ten million | one crore |
Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, where it is also an official language alongside English. In India, Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language, the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the Constitution of India; and it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal, Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa, it is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, with no official status.
Assamese or Asamiya is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It serves as a lingua franca of the Northeast India from a long time, in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland of India the Assamese language developed as a creole and pidgin language known as Nefamese and Nagamese creole which has became a lingua franca in Nagaland. It has over 15 million native speakers according to Ethnologue.
"Amar Sonar Bangla" is the national anthem of Bangladesh. An ode to Mother Bengal, the lyrics were written by Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, while the melody is derived from Baul singer Gagan Harkara's "Ami Kothay Pabo Tare", set to Dadra tala. The modern instrumental rendition was arranged by Bangladeshi musician Samar Das.
The Language Movement Day, officially called Language Martyrs' Day, is a national holiday of Bangladesh taking place on 21 February each year and commemorating the Bengali language movement and its martyrs. On this day, people visit Shaheed Minar to pay homage to the movement's martyrs and arrange seminars discussing and promoting Bengali as the state language of Bangladesh.
Sylheti is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by an estimated 11 million people, primarily in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, Barak Valley of Assam, and northern parts of Tripura in India. Besides, there are substantial numbers of Sylheti speakers in the Indian states of Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland. as well as diaspora communities in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the Middle East.
Santali, also known as Santal or Santhali, is the most widely-spoken language of the Munda subfamily of the Austroasiatic languages, related to Ho and Mundari, spoken mainly in the Indian states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal by Santals. It is a recognised regional language of India as per the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is spoken by around 7.6 million people in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, making it the third most-spoken Austroasiatic language after Vietnamese and Khmer.
The Bengali language movement was a political movement in former East Bengal in 1952, advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as a co-lingua franca of the then-Dominion of Pakistan to allow its use in government affairs, the continuation of its use as a medium of education, its use in media, currency and stamps, and to maintain its writing in the Bengali script.
Boro (बरʼ), also rendered Bodo, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken primarily by the Boros of Northeast India and the neighboring nations of Nepal and Bangladesh. It is an official language of the Indian state of Assam, predominantly spoken in the Bodoland Territorial Region. It is also one of the twenty-two languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Since 1975 the language has been written using the Devanagari script. It was formerly written using Latin and Eastern-Nagari scripts. Some scholars have suggested that the language used to have its own now lost script known as Deodhai.
Bengali is one of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, which evolved from Magadhi Prakrit, native to the eastern Indian subcontinent. The core of Bengali vocabulary is thus etymologically of Magadhi Prakrit origin, with significant ancient borrowings from the older substrate language(s) of the region. However, in medieval times, more borrowings have occurred, from Sanskrit, Arabic, Classical Persian, Turkish and other languages has led to the adoption of a wide range of words with foreign origins; thus making the origins of borrowed words in the Bengali vocabulary numerous and diverse, due to centuries of contact with various languages.
Garo, also referred to by its endonym A·chikku, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Northeast Indian states of Meghalaya, Assam, and Tripura. It is also spoken in certain areas of the neighbouring Bangladesh. According to the 2001 census, there are about 889,000 Garo speakers in India alone; another 130,000 are found in Bangladesh.
The national language and official language of Bangladesh is Bangla according to the third article of the Constitution of Bangladesh. Almost 99% of Bangladeshis speak Bengali as their first language. Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 made it mandatory to use Bengali in all government affairs except in the cases of foreign relations. According to a 2022 census, Bengali is predominantly spoken by 99% of the country's population and it also serves as the national language of the nation. The indigenous people of northern and southeastern Bangladesh speak a variety of native languages. According to the Ethnologue, there are 36 indigenous living languages, which include 17 Tibeto-Burman, 10 Indo-Aryan, 7 Austroasiatic and 2 Dravidian languages in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has 44 indigenous languages according to Professor Shameem Reza.
Bengali, also known by its endonym Bangla, is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language.
The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet is the alphabet used to write the Bengali language based on the Bengali-Assamese script, and has historically been used to write Sanskrit within Bengal. It is one of the most widely adopted writing systems in the world . It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. It is used as the official script of the Bengali language in Bangladesh, West Bengal, Tripura, and Barak valley of Assam Until recently, it was the usual script for the Meitei language in Manipur, but is being replaced by Meitei mayek. two of the official languages of India.
Koda, also known as Kora, Kaora, Korali, Korati, Kore, Mudi, or Mudikora, is an endangered Munda language of India and Bangladesh spoken by the Kora. The Kora mainly live in West Bengal, in the districts of Paschim Medinipur and Bankura, with a few in neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand. In 2005, there were 1,300 speakers in the Rajshahi Division of Bangladesh, though many said that Bengali was their best language. Koda is closely related to the Kol language.
The Bengali Language Movement is a campaign to preserve Bengali language and Bengalis culture and to oppose anti-Bengali sentiment in India. The movement was started in Manbhum in 1940, ahead of the Partition of India which allocated eastern Bengal to the new nation of Pakistan and led to the relocation of many Bengali communities. In 1947 British India bifurcated into India and Pakistan. The population of the eastern part of Bengal was majority Muslim, and was incorporated into Pakistan. Bengali Hindus in this eastern region migrated to India, principally settling in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Dandakaranya and Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka. The Movement remains prominent in Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.
Banglish, which is also known as Bangreji, Benglish and Bonglish, is the mixed use of Bangla and English language. The first usage of the word "Benglish" was found in 1972 and "Banglish" in 1975.
The Bangla Language Introduction Act, 1987 is an Act passed by the Jatiya Sangsad to give full effect to Article 3 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The statute states all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings in court and other legal actions must be written in the Bangla language in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh.
Dobhashi is a neologism used to refer to a historical register of the Bengali language which borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It became the most customary form for composing puthi poetry predominantly using the traditional Bengali alphabet. However, Dobhashi literature was produced in the modified Arabic scripts of Chittagong and Nadia. The standardisation of the modern Bengali language during the colonial period, eventually led to its decline.
Bangla Pokkho is a pro-Bengali advocacy organisation that focuses on rights for Bengalis in the Republic of India. Based on Bengali nationalism, it works against the enforcing of the Hindustani language in West Bengal. It is organised along linguistic lines and is aimed at protecting Bengali culture. It uses the state slogan "Joy Bangla".
Noakhailla (নোয়াখাইল্লা), Noakhali Bengali also known by the demonym Noakhalian, is a dialect of Bengali, spoken by an estimated 7 million people, primarily in the Greater Noakhali region of Bangladesh as well as southern parts of Tripura in India. Outside of these regions, there are substantial numbers of Noakhailla speakers in other parts of Bangladesh; as well as diaspora population in the Middle East, Italy, Europe and the United States.