Dhakaiya Kutti

Features

Dhakaiya Kutti Bengali is a typical eastern dialect of Bengali. As a result of interaction with the Urdu-speaking people in Old Dhaka, many Urdu loanwords entered in the dialect. It has only a few voiced aspirated sounds in comparison to Standard Bengali. Some voiced aspirated sounds such as [gʱ], [d̪ʱ], [bʱ] are pronounced like deaspirated and implosivised sounds [ɠ], [d̪] and [ɓ] respectively. The uses of epenthesis are extensively seen in the dialect like other typical eastern Bengali dialects whereas the standard dialect shows features like syncope and umlaut. The use of double sounds in certain words are also quite common. The word for younger brother-in-law, shala (শালা) in Standard Bengali and hala (হালা) in Dhakaiya Kutti Bengali and other eastern dialects, is seen as offensive in almost all Bengali dialects; in the Dhakaiya Kutti dialect, however, this is a common and inoffensive word which can be applied to teachers, parents and animals.