Bengali vocabulary

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This article contains Bengali text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

Bengali (বাংলা Bangla) is one of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, which evolved from Magadhi Prakrit, native to the eastern Indian subcontinent.^[1] The core of Bengali vocabulary is thus etymologically of Magadhi Prakrit origin, with significant ancient borrowings from the older substrate language(s) of the region. However, in medieval times, more borrowings have occurred, from Sanskrit, Arabic, Classical Persian, Turkic and other languages has led to the adoption of a wide range of words with foreign origins; thus making the origins of borrowed words in the Bengali vocabulary numerous and diverse, due to centuries of contact with various languages.^[2]

Classifications of origin types[edit]

The typical Bengali dictionary lists 75,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67%) are considered to be তদ্ভব tôdbhôbô (inherited Indo-Aryan vocabulary), 21,100 (28%) are তৎসম tôtśômô (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit), and the rest being borrowings from দেশী deśi "indigenous" and বিদেশী bideśi "foreign" sources.^[3] There are more than five lac Bengali vocabulary in this language overall including other languages which is used as Bengali.^[4]

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 tôtśômô borrowings only make up 25% of the total. Deśi and bideśi borrowings together make up the remaining 8% of the vocabulary used in modern Bengali literature.^[5]

Differences in vocabulary[edit]

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

Examples of borrowed words[edit]

Due to centuries of contact with Mughals, Arabs, Persians, Central Asians, and Europeans the Bengali language 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 and the Middle East, followed by the invasions of the Mughal Empire, numerous Turkic, Arabic, and Persian words were absorbed and fully integrated into the lexicon.^[6][7] Later, European colonialism brought words from Portuguese, French, Dutch, and most significantly English. Some very common borrowings are shown below.

Sanskrit (সংস্কৃত Sôṅskritô)[edit]

Substrate languages (দেশী Deśi “Native”)[edit]

Foreign (বিদেশী Bideśi)[edit]

Classical Persian (ফারসি Farsi)[edit]

Arabic (আরবি Arbi)[edit]

Turkic (তুর্কি Turki)[edit]

Portuguese (পর্তুগিজ Pôrtugij)[edit]

Dutch (ওলন্দাজ Olôndaj)[edit]

English (ইংরেজি Iṅreji)[edit]

French (ফরাসি Phôrasi)[edit]

Chinese (চীনা Cīna)[edit]

Japanese (জাপানি Japani/নিহোঙ্গো Nihoṅgo)[edit]

Burmese (বর্মী Bôrmī)[edit]

German (জার্মান Jarman)[edit]

Italian (ইতালীয় Italīẏô)[edit]

References[edit]