Eastern Bengali

Eastern Bengali
Vaṅga
বঙ্গ
Native to	Bangladesh Tripura
Region	Bangladesh Barisal Division, Chittagong Division, Dhaka Division, Khulna Division, Mymensingh Division, Sylhet Division India Assam, Tripura
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Zone Bengali-Assamese Bengali Eastern Bengali
Writing system	Bengali alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	vang1242  Vanga

Eastern Bengali^[1] is a nonstandard dialect cluster of Bengali spoken in most of Bangladesh and Tripura, as well as parts of Assam and Manipur, thus covering majority of the land of Bengal and surrounding areas. It includes most of the varieties in the eastern subgroup of Bengali-Assamese languages.

Names[]

It is also known as Baṅgālī (Bengali: বঙ্গালী, romanized: bôṅgalī),^[2] Pūrvavaṅgīẏa (Bengali: পূর্ববঙ্গীয়, romanized: pūrbôbôṅgīẏô),^[3] Prācya (Bengali: প্রাচ্য, romanized: prachyô),^[4] Vaṅga (Bengali: বঙ্গ, romanized: bôṅgô),^[5] or Vaṅgīẏa (Bengali: বঙ্গীয়, romanized: bôṅgīẏô). Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym Bangal Bhasha (Bengali: বাঙাল ভাষা, romanized: bangal bhasha) in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals.

Geographical distribution[]

Suniti Kumar Chatterji, describing the cluster as "Vaṅga Dialects", further divided it into two groups of two: "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga". Eastern Vaṅga is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi division of Sylhet and the Greater Comilla region of Chittagong along with the Barak Valley Division of Assam and the state of Tripura in India. Southeastern Vaṅga is spoken in the remaining area of the Chittagong division, corresponding to the former colonial territories of Noakhali District and Chittagong District, and historically extended further into Sittwe.^[6] Western Vaṅga is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, and Barisal. Southwestern Vaṅga is spoken across the Khulna Division, where Eastern Bengali transitions into Central Standard Bengali.^[7]

A map of Bengal (and some districts of Assam and Jharkhand) which shows the dialects of the Bengali Language according to Suniti Kumar Chatterji.

  Western Rāḍha

  Southwestern Rāḍha

  Eastern Rāḍha

  Varendra

  Kāmarūpa

  Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga

  Western and Southwestern Vaṅga

Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya (Bengali: প্রাচ্য, romanized: prachyô, lit. 'eastern') and Pāścātya (Bengali: পাশ্চাত্য, romanized: pashchatyô, lit. 'western'). Within his Prācya grouping, he created the divisions of "Southeastern" and "Extreme Eastern", which approximately correspond to Chatterji's "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga", respectively. The Southeastern group is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the region of the Chittagong division and eastern parts of the 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The Extreme Eastern group is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions Sylhet and Chittagong, including Greater Comilla and excluding Greater Noakhali, as well as the Barak Valley division of Assam.

Phonology[]

Eastern Bengali is characterised by a considerably smaller phoneme inventory when compared with Standard Bengali.

• The vowels [e] and [o] in the standard language are frequently raised to [ɛ] and [u], respectively.^[8][9][10] For example, Standard Bengali দেশ [d̪eʃ] 'country' and দোষ [d̪oʃ] 'blame' are respectively pronounced [d̪ɛʃ] and [d̪uʃ]. The vowel [e] is still usually retained as an allophone of [ɛ] that occurs when followed by a close vowel such as [i] or [u].^[11]
• There is a tendency to hypercorrect all geminates as being conjuncts with jôphôla, leading to the frequent diphthongisation of vowels that precede doubled consonants with [i̯] even when there is no etymological basis to do so.^[12] For example, আন্‌নে [änːɛ] 'you', from earlier আপনে [äpnɛ ~ äɸnɛ], is often pronounced [äi̯nːɛ].
• Although Standard Bengali features distinct nasalised forms of each of its vowels, nasalisation is absent in most dialects of Eastern Bengali with the notable exception of Southeastern Vaṅga.^[13]

• Like Standard Bengali, Eastern Bengali lacks true retroflexes.^[14][15] However it further fronts the apical postalveolar plosives of the standard language to apico-alveolar.
• Most Eastern Bengali dialects have a tendency to voice the intervocalic unvoiced apical postalveolar stops of Standard Bengali, such that মাটি [mät̠i] 'soil' becomes [mädi]. However, this does not occur in geminates,^[16] so Standard Bengali টাট্টি [t̠ät̠ːi] 'latrine' has the largely similar Eastern Bengali pronunciation of [tätːi].
• The voiced retroflex flap of Standard Bengali is usually merged with [ɾ] in Eastern Bengali, such that the two phonemes become indistinguishable and allophonic to most speakers.^[17]
• Dialects of Eastern Bengali tend to spirantise the Standard Bengali palato-alveolar affricates [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], and [d͡ʒ ~ d͡ʒʱ] into [t͡s], [s], and [z], respectively.^[18] For example, Standard Bengali চোর [t͡ʃoɾ] 'thief', ছয় [t͡ʃʰɔe̯] 'six', and জাড় [d͡ʒäɽ] are respectively pronounced [t͡suɾ], [sɔe̯], and [zäɾ] in Typical East Bengali. [ts] in tends to merge with [s] as the areas of Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga are approached, such that Standard Bengali চা [tʃä] 'tea' is pronounced [tsä] in farther western varieties and [sä] in farther eastern varieties of Eastern Bengali.^[19] [d͡z] is an allophone of [z] that more frequently occurs in Southwestern Vaṅga. [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] occur respectively as allophones of [t͡s ~ s] and [z] in geminates and consonant clusters,^[20] e.g. বাচ্চা /bät͡sːä ~ bäsːä/ [bäi̯t͡ʃːä] 'child', ইঞ্চি /int͡si ~ insi/ [int͡ʃi] 'inch', হাইঞ্জা /ɦäi̯nzä/ [ɦäi̯nd͡ʒä] 'evening', ইজ্জত /izːɔt̪/ [id͡ʒːɔt̪] 'honour'.
• The voiceless labial and velar plosives are often spirantised, such that [p] often becomes [ɸ] and [k] often becomes [x] or [ɦ], the latter transformation chiefly occurring intervocalically.^[21][22] Hence Standard Bengali পাকা [päkä] 'ripe' may variably be pronounced [päɦä], [ɸäɦä], or [ɸäxä] in Eastern Bengali dialects. [k] is often deleted completely instead of simply being spirantised, especially when in proximity of [i]. For example, Standard Bengali বিকাল [bikäl] 'evening' is frequently pronounced [biäl] in Eastern Bengali.
• When followed by a rounded vowel, [ɸ] and [ɦ] are treated as allophones in most dialects of Eastern Bengali. For example, কাহই [käɦɔi̯] 'comb' may often be pronounced [käɸɔi̯] and ফহীর [ɸɔɦiɾ] 'beggar' may often be pronounced [ɦɔɦiɾ]. This merger is expanded upon in the Noakhali dialect, where all word-initial [ɸ] (and, by extension, [p]) are pronounced [ɦ] (e.g. পাগল [pägɔl] → [ɸägɔl] → [ɦägɔl] 'crazy'),^[23] and by some speakers of the Mymensingh dialect, who pronounce all [ɸ] as [ɦ] (e.g. ঢুপি [d̠ʱupi] → [dúɸi] → [dúɦi] 'dove').
• Standard [ʃ] has a tendency to debuccalise to [ɦ] in word-initial position (e.g. শালা [ʃälä] → [ɦälä] 'brother-in-law'), be deleted entirely in word-medial position (e.g. উশাস [uʃäʃ] → [uäʃ] 'breath'), and be either retained or deleted in word-final position (e.g. মানুষ [mänuʃ] → [mänuʃ ~ mänu] 'people').

Tone[]

The aspiration and breathy voice present in Standard Bengali is notably mostly if not entirely absent in Eastern Bengali. The West Bengali linguists Chatterji and Sen described the deaspirated voiced consonants present in Eastern Bengali as being implosive consonants,^[24] such that the Standard Bengali phonemes [bʱ], [d̪ʱ], [ɖʱ], [dʒʱ], and [ɡʱ] would respectively correspond to [ɓ], [ɗ̪], [ᶑ], [ɗʒ], and [ɠ] in Eastern Bengali. However, Animesh K. Pal, a native speaker of Eastern Bengali from Narayanganj, disputed this claim, instead describing the deaspiration as leading to the development of tones.^[25][26]

These tones are not limited to voiced aspirates, but are also present as compensation for the aspiration of consonants that were voiceless aspirates in Standard Bengali. Tone continues to exist in words even if they are not part of a near-identical pair that requires it for the sake of contrast.

Furthermore, the [ɦ] of Standard Bengali is most often deleted in Eastern Bengali dialects. This h-dropping has also been said to result in tone.

Comparison[]

References[]

Bibliography[]