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Bengali (বাংলাBangla) is one of the Eastern Indo-Aryan (Magadhan) languages, evolved from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali languages native to the Indian subcontinent.[1] The core of Bengali vocabulary is thus etymologically of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali languages. However, centuries of major borrowing and reborrowing from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sanskrit, Austroasiatic languages and other languages has led to the adoption of a wide range of words with foreign origins; thus making the origins of borrowed and re-borrowed words in the Bengali vocabulary numerous and diverse, due to centuries of contact with various languages.[2]
দেশী Deshi (indigenous loans) and বিদেশী Bideshi (foreign loans)
The typical Bengali dictionary lists 75,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67%) are considered তদ্ভব tôdbhôbô (native Bengali vocabulary with Sanskrit cognates), 21,100 (28%) are তৎসম tôtsômô (words directly re-borrowed from Sanskrit), and the rest being borrowings from দেশী deshi "indigenous (Austroasiatic)" and বিদেশী bideshi "foreign" sources.[3] There are more than five lac Bengali vocabulary in this language overall including other languages which is used as Bengali.[4]
However, these figures do not take into account the fact that a huge chunk of these words are archaic or highly technical, minimising their actual usage. The productive vocabulary used in modern literary works, in fact, is made up mostly 67% of native tôdbhôbô words, while tôtsômô re-borrowings only make up 25% of the total. Deshi and bideshi borrowings together make up the remaining 8% of the vocabulary used in modern Bengali literature.[5]
Differences in vocabulary[]
This table below compares the differences of spoken and used Bengali vocabularies in Dhaka & Shantipur in West Bengal.
Word
Dhakaiya dialect
Dhakaiya IPA
Shantipuri dialect
Shantipuri IPA
Water
পানি
pāni
জল
jôl
Salt
লবণ
lôbôn
নুন
nun
Invitation
দাওয়াত
daoāt
আমন্ত্রণ/নিমন্ত্রণ/নেমন্তন্ন
āmantraṇ/nimantraṇ/nemôntônnô
Chili
মরিচ
môrich
লঙ্কা
laṅkā
Maternal Aunt
খালা
khālā
মাসি
māsi
Paternal Aunt
ফুফু
fufu
পিসি
pisi
Bath
গোসল
gôsôl
স্নান/চান
snān/chān
Wind
বাতাস
bātās
হাওয়া
haoā
Examples of borrowed words[]
Due to centuries of contact with Mughals, Arabs, Persians, Europeans, and East Asians, the Bengali language has absorbed countless words from foreign languages, often totally integrating these borrowings into the core vocabulary. The most common borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. After centuries of contact from Persia and the Middle East, followed by the invasions of the Mughal Empire, numerous Turkish, Arabic, and Persian words were absorbed and fully integrated into the lexicon.[6][7] Later, East Asian travellers and European colonialism brought words from Portuguese, French, Dutch, and most significantly English. Some very common borrowings are shown below.
