Eastern Bengali

Eastern Bengali or Vaṅga ( bn, বঙ্গ, bôṅgô)is a nonstandard dialect cluster of Bengali spoken in most of Bangladesh and Tripura, thus covering majority of the land of Bengal and surrounding areas.

Names

It is also known as Baṅgālī ( bn, বঙ্গালী, bôṅgalī), Pūrvavaṅgīẏa ( bn, পূর্ববঙ্গীয়, pūrbôbôṅgīẏô), Prācya ( bn, প্রাচ্য, prachyô), Vaṅga ( bn, বঙ্গ, bôṅgô), or Vaṅgīẏa ( bn, বঙ্গীয়, bôṅgīẏô). Chatterji often cited a more generalised variant of Eastern Bengali which he dubbed Typical East Bengali for the sake of broader comparison with other varieties of Bengali. Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym Bangal Bhasha ( bn, বাঙাল ভাষা, bangal bhasha) in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals. It may also be referred to by names such as Khaisi-Gesi Bangla ( bn, খাইছি-গেছি বাংলা, lit=I've eaten-I've gone Bengali, khaisi-gesi baṅla), emphasising the contrast between Eastern Bengali varieties and the standard language in terms of grammar by use of the example phrases "I have eaten" ( ''kheẏechhi'' in Standard Bengali but ''khaisi'' in Typical East Bengali) and "I have gone" ( ''giẏechhi'' in Standard Bengali but ''gesi'' in Typical East Bengali). A similar name, Khaitesi-Zaitesi Bangla ( bn, খাইতেছি-যাইতেছি বাংলা, lit=I'm eating-I'm going Bengali, khaitesi-zaitesi baṅla), instead juxtaposes the examples of "I am eating" ( ''khacchhi'' in Standard Bengali but ''khaitesi'' in Typical East Bengali) and "I am going" ( ''jacchhi'' in Standard Bengali but ''zaitesi'' in Typical East Bengali).

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. 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.

Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya ( bn, প্রাচ্য, prachyô, lit=eastern) and Pāścātya ( bn, পাশ্চাত্য, lit=western, pashchatyô). 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 Greater Noakhali 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.

Gopal Haldar, in his study of Eastern Bengali, divided all East Bengali dialects into four groups. Group I or "Central East Bengali" spans the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur, and Barisal, as well as the district of Chandpur in Chittagong Division. The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali". Group II or "Central North East Bengali" is spoken in eastern areas of the Mymensingh and Dhaka divisions, the western half of the Sylhet Division, as well as the Brahmanbaria District of the Chittagong Division. Group III or "North East Bengali" is spoken in the eastern half of the Sylhet Division as well as the bordering Barak Valley division of Assam, India. Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region. The Comilla District and Tripura state of India, the Bengalis in the latter chiefly being migrants from the former, sit at the confluence of all the major groupings and thus the speech of this region shares features with all the major groups classified by Haldar. Transitionary East Bengali is spoken in the Khulna division as well as Western Greater Faridpur i.e. Rajbari District, which shares features with both Standard Bengali and Eastern Bengali dialects.

Phonology

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

Metathesis

Eastern Bengali notably preserves metathesis ( bn, অপিনিহিতি, ôpinihiti) from an earlier stage of Bengali. Thus, the equivalent of Sādhu Bhāṣā ( ISO-15919: ''kariẏā'') 'having done' in Typical East Bengali is oi̯ɾä having gone through the medial phase of * ɔi̯ɾiä by comparison, the Standard Bengali equivalent is ore as the standard language has undergone the additional phonological processes of syncope and umlaut, unlike most Eastern Bengali dialects. Similar occurrences of metathesis occur in the case of consonant conjuncts containing ‍্য ''jôphôla'', due to the fact that it had, in earlier Bengali, also represented the addition of the semivowel ̯at the end of a conjunct containing it in addition to its current standard usage of simply geminating the previous consonant in the conjunct. ( ISO-15919: ''satya'', 'truth'), for example, pronounced �ɔt̪ːi̯ɔin earlier Bengali, is pronounced �oi̯t̪ːoin Eastern Bengali and �ot̪ːoin Standard Bengali. Metathesis also occurs in the case of consonant conjuncts which were once pronounced with ̯as a component even if they do not contain ‍্য ''jôphôla'' itself, such as ক্ষ ( ISO-15919: ''kṣa''), whose value in earlier Bengali was ːʰi̯ Hence ( ISO-15919: ''rākṣasa'', 'rakshasa'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of äkːʰi̯ɔʃ is pronounced äi̯kːʰɔʃor äi̯kːɔ́ʃin Eastern Bengali and äkːʰoʃin Standard Bengali. Such is also the case for the conjunct জ্ঞ ( ISO-15919: ''jña''), which had the value of ːĩ̯in earlier Bengali. Hence, ( ISO-15919: ''ājñā'', 'order'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of �gːĩ̯ä has the Typical East Bengali pronunciation of �i̯gːäand the Standard Bengali �gːä̃ There is also a tendency to hypercorrect, leading to the frequent diphthongisation of vowels with ̯if they precede any consonant cluster, even when there is no etymological basis to do so. For example, ( ISO-15919: ''brāhma'', 'Brahmo') has the Standard Bengali pronunciation of ɾämɦo or, more commonly, ɾämːo but may be pronounced ɾäi̯mːoin Eastern Bengali as if it were spelt ( ISO-15919: ''brāmya'').

*The vowels and in the standard language are frequently raised to �and respectively. For example, ( ISO-15919: ''dēśa'') 'country' and ( ISO-15919: ''dōṣa'') 'blame' are respectively pronounced ̪eʃand ̪oʃin Standard Bengali and ̪ɛʃand ̪uʃin Typical East Bengali. The vowel is still often retained as an allophone of �that occurs when in the presence of a close vowel such as or
* 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.

*Like Standard Bengali, Eastern Bengali lacks true retroflexes. 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. For example, ( ISO-15919: ''māṭi'', 'soil') is pronounced ät̠iin Standard Bengali but ädiin Eastern Bengali. However, this does not occur in geminates, so ( ISO-15919: ''ṭāṭṭi'', 'latrine') remains relatively unchanged across varieties, being ̠ät̠ːiin Standard Bengali and ätːiin Eastern Bengali.
* The voiced retroflex flap of Standard Bengali is usually merged with �in Eastern Bengali, such that the two phonemes become indistinguishable and allophonic to most speakers.
* Dialects of Eastern Bengali tend to spirantise the Standard Bengali palato-alveolar affricates ͡ʃ ͡ʃʰ and ͡ʒ ~ d͡ʒʱinto ͡s and respectively. For example, ( ISO-15919: ''cōra'', 'thief'), ( ISO-15919: ''chaẏa'', 'six'), and ( ISO-15919: ''jāṛa'', 'cold') are respectively pronounced ͡ʃoɾ ͡ʃʰɔe̯ and ͡ʒäɽin Standard Bengali but ͡suɾ ɔe̯ and äɾin Typical East Bengali. ͡sin tends to merge with as the areas of Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga are approached, such that ( ISO-15919: ''cā'', 'tea'), pronounced ʃäin Standard Bengali, is pronounced säin farther western varieties and äin farther eastern varieties of Eastern Bengali. ͡zis an allophone of that more frequently occurs in Southwestern Vaṅga. ͡ʃand ͡ʒoccur respectively as allophones of ͡s ~ sand in geminates and consonant clusters, e.g. ( ISO-15919: ''bāccā'', 'child') /bät͡sːä ~ bäsːä/ äi̯t͡ʃːä ( ISO-15919: ''iñci'', 'inch') /int͡si ~ insi/ nt͡ʃi ( ISO-15919: ''ijjat'', 'honour') /izːɔt̪/ d͡ʒːɔt̪
*The voiceless labial and velar plosives are often spirantised, such that often becomes �and often becomes or � the latter transformation chiefly occurring intervocalically. Hence ( ISO-15919: ''pākā'', 'ripe'), pronounced äkäin Standard Bengali, may variably be pronounced äɦä �äɦä or �äxäin Eastern Bengali dialects. is often deleted entirely instead of simply being spirantised, especially when in proximity of For example, ( ISO-15919: ''bikāla'', 'afternoon'), pronounced ikälin Standard Bengali, is frequently pronounced iälin Eastern Bengali.
*When followed by a rounded vowel, �and �are treated as allophones in most dialects of Eastern Bengali. For example, ( ISO-15919: ''kām̐kai'', 'comb') äɦɔi̯may often be pronounced äɸɔi̯and ( ISO-15919: ''phakīra'', 'beggar') �ɔɦiɾmay often be pronounced �ɔɦiɾ This merger is expanded upon in the Noakhali dialect, where all word-initial �(and, by extension, are pronounced � e.g. ( ISO-15919: ''pāgala'') 'madman' ägɔl→ �ägɔl→ �ägɔl and by some speakers of the Mymensingh and Comilla dialects, who pronounce all �as � e.g. ( ISO-15919: ''ḍhupi'') ̠ʱupi→ úɸi→ úɦi'dove'.
* Standard �has a tendency to debuccalise to �in word-initial position, e.g. ( ISO-15919: ''śālā'') �älä→ �älä'brother-in-law', be deleted entirely in word-medial position, e.g. ( ISO-15919: ''uśāsa'') ʃäʃ→ äʃ'breath', and be either retained or deleted in word-final position, e.g. ( ISO-15919: ''mānuṣa'') änuʃ→ änuʃ ~ 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, such that the Standard Bengali phonemes /bʱ/, /d̪ʱ/, /ɖʱ/, /dʒʱ/, and /ɡʱ/ would respectively correspond to //, //, //, / ɗʒ/, and // 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.: "Glottalization is often connected with tone and in the East Bengali cases seem to be related to the evolution of tone from the voiced aspirates."

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 �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

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{{Bengali language

Eastern Indo-Aryan languages
Bengali dialects
Languages of West Bengal
Languages of Bangladesh
Languages of Tripura