Manuel da Assumpção (then spelled ''Manoel da Assumpçam'') was a Portuguese

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

who wrote the first grammar of 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 o ...

, in 1743, titled "Vocabulario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez" (''Vocabulary of Bengali language and Portuguese. Divided into two parts'') (archaic pt, Vocabulario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez. Dividido em duas partes).Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2003.

Grammar and dictionary

The grammar was written in the

Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau ...

. Assumpção wrote this first grammatical instructions of the Bengali language between 1734 and 1742 while in

Bhawal estate Bhawal Estate was the second largest zamindari in Bengal (in modern-day Bangladesh) until it was abolished according to ''East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950''. History In the late 17th century, Daulat Ghazi was the zami ...

, now in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

. The book was published in 1743 in Lisbon. The grammar was based on the model of the

Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, number, ...

and used

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

for writing Bengali words.

Crepar Xastrer Orth, Bhed

Manuel da Assumpção wrote another book under the title “Crepar Xastrer Orth, Bhed” (কৃপার শাস্ত্রের অর্থ-ভেদ). It was a bilingual book Crepar Xastrer Orth, Bhed, / Cathecismo da Doutrina Christãa (Bengali / Portuguese) written in 1735 in Bhawal estate in Bengal, now Bangladesh and published in Lisbon in 1743. It was a missionary book, in format a dialogue between a clergyman and his disciple. The main text was printed on the right page while the translation in

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 ...

appeared on the left. The whole book was, however, printed in Roman type.Iffat Ara, Janar Ace Onek Kichu, 1999, Deshprokashon, Dhaka.

References

External links

* Bengali language Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in India Year of death unknown 18th-century Portuguese people Year of birth unknown Roman Catholic missionaries in Bangladesh Portuguese expatriates in India Missionary linguists {{Portugal-linguist-stub