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Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
( ''Bangla'') is one of the Eastern Indo-Aryan (Magadhan) languages, evolved from
Magadhi Prakrit Magadhi Prakrit (''Māgadhī'') is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali and Sanskrit. It was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language, replacing earlier Vedic Sanskrit. H ...
and
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...
languages native to the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...
. The core of Bengali vocabulary is thus etymologically of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali languages. However, centuries of major borrowing and reborrowing from
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, Persian, Turkish,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
,
Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
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.


Classifications of origin types

The typical Bengali dictionary lists 75,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67%) are considered to be তদ্ভব ''tôdbhôbô'' (native Bengali vocabulary with Sanskrit cognates), 21,100 (28%) are তৎসম ''tôtsômô'' (words directly re-borrowed from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
), and the rest being borrowings from দেশী ''deshi'' " indigenous (Austroasiatic)" and বিদেশী ''bideshi'' "foreign" sources. There are more than five lac Bengali vocabulary in this language overall including other languages which is used as Bengali. 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.


Differences in vocabulary

This table below compares the differences of spoken and used Bengali vocabularies in Dhaka (Bangladesh) & Shantipur (West Bengal, India).


Examples of borrowed words

Due to centuries of contact with
Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
,
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
,
Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
,
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (20 ...
, and East Asians, the
Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken ...
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 Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and the Middle East, followed by the invasions of the
Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
, numerous Turkish,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, and Persian words were absorbed and fully integrated into the lexicon. Later, East Asian travellers and European
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their reli ...
brought words from
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
, French,
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, and most significantly English. Some very common borrowings are shown below.


Sanskrit (সংস্কৃত ''Sôṁskr̥tô'')


Austroasiatic (Munda) languages (দেশী ''Deśi'' “Native”)


Foreign (বিদেশি ''Bideśī'')


Persian (ফারসি ''Pharsi'')


Arabic (আরবি ''Arbi'')


Turkish (তুর্কি ''Turki'')


Portuguese (পর্তুগিজ ''Pôrtugij'')


Dutch (ওলন্দাজ ''Olôndaj'')


English (ইংরেজি ''Iṁreji'')


French (ফরাসি ''Phôrasi'')


Greek (গ্রীক ''Grīk'')


Chinese (চীনা ''Cīna'')


Japanese (জাপানি ''Japani''/নিহোঙ্গো ''Nihoṅgo'')


Burmese (বর্মী ''Bôrmī'')


Spanish (স্পেনীয় ''Spenīẏô'')


German (জার্মান ''Jarman'')


Italian (ইতালীয় ''Italīẏô'')


Australian (অস্ট্রেলিয় ''Ôsṭrelīẏô'')


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengali Vocabulary Bengali language Languages of India Languages of Bangladesh