West Bengali or Central Bengali, simply known as Rāṛhī (), is the

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, 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 m ...

spoken in the southeastern part of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, in and around the

Bhagirathi River The Bhāgīrathī (Pron: /ˌbʌgɪˈɹɑːθɪ/) is a turbulent Himalayan river in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and one of the two headstreams of the Ganges, the major river of Northern India and the holy river of Hinduism. In the Hindu fa ...

basin of

Nadia district Nadia () is a district in the state of West Bengal, India. It borders Bangladesh to the east, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts to the south, Purba Bardhaman to the west, and Murshidabad to the north. Nadia district is highly influentia ...

and the

Presidency division Presidency Division is an administrative division within the Indian state of West Bengal. The headquarters and the largest city of the Presidency division is Kolkata, the state capital. Presidency division is bounded by Medinipur division to Sout ...

, as well as the Greater Kushtia region of western

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It forms the basis of the standard variety of Bengali.

Geographical boundaries

This dialect is prevalent in the West Bengali districts of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, North 24 Parganas,

South 24 Parganas South 24 Parganas (Pron: pɔrɡɔnɔs; abbr. 24 PGS (S)), or sometimes South Twenty Four Parganas and Dakshin 24 Parganas, is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Alipore. It is the largest district of West Bengal by ...

Nadia Nadia is a female name. Variations include Nadja, Nadya, Nadine, Nadiya, and Nadiia. Most variations of the name are derived from Arabic, Slavic languages, or both. In Slavic, names similar to ''Nadia'' mean "hope" in many Slavic languages: Uk ...

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

, Hooghly and

Purba Bardhaman Purba Bardhaman district is in West Bengal. Its headquarters is in Bardhaman. It was formed on 7 April 2017 after the division of the previous Bardhaman district. Great revolutionary Rash Behari Bose was born in village Subaldaha in the district ...

. It is also spoken natively in the

Chuadanga Chuadanga ( bn, চুয়াডাঙ্গা) is a prosperous city in the western part of Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous cou ...

Kushtia Kushtia ( bn, কুষ্টিয়া) is a city in the Khulna Division of southwestern Bangladesh. Kushtia is the second largest municipality in Bangladesh and the eleventh largest city in the country. The second largest city in Khulna div ...

and

Meherpur Meherpur ( bn, মেহেরপুর, pron: ''meɦeɾpuɾ'') is the northwestern district of Khulna Division in southwestern Bangladesh. It is bordered by the Indian state of West Bengal to the west, and by the Bangladeshi districts of Kushtia ...

districts of

, which were a part of the Nadia district prior to the 1947

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

. Along with

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

dialect, Modern Standard Bengali has been formed on the basis of this dialect.

Features

Extensive use of ''Obhishruti'' (অভিশ্রুতি, /obʱisrut̪i/, umlaut). E.g. old Bengali Koriya (করিয়া, /koria/, meaning - having done) > Beng. Koira (কইরা, /koira/) > Beng. Kore (করে, /kore/). * The change of অ to ও, when অ is the first sound of a word where the অ is followed by ই(ি), ও(ো), ক্ষ or য. E.g. Ati (written অতি, means 'excess') is pronounced as Oti (ওতি, /ot̪i/). * Use of

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...

. E.g. Bilati (বিলাতি, /bilat̪i/, meaning - foreign) became Biliti (বিলিতি, /biliti/).SK Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, Calcutta University, Calcutta, 1926

Obhishruti and Opinihiti

''Ôbhishruti'' (অভিশ্রুতি, /obʱisrut̪i/) and ''Ôpinihiti'' (অপিনিহিতি, /opinihit̪i/,

epenthesis In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...

) are two phonological phenomena that occur in spoken Bengali. Opinihiti refers to the phonological process in which a ''ই'' or ''উ'' is pronounced before it occurs in the word. Obhishruti is the sound change in which this shifted ''ই'' or ''উ'' becomes removed and changes the preceding vowel. Observe the example above : Koriya (করিয়া, /koria/) > Koira (কইরা, /koira/) > Kore (করে, /kore/). First Opinihiti changes Koriya to Koira (notice how the I changes position.), then Obhishruti changes Koira (কইরা) to Kore (করে).Sunitikumar Chattopadhyay (1939) ভাষা-প্রকাশ বাঙ্গালা ব্যাকরণ, Calcutta University

References

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