Eastern Bengali dialects


Eastern Bengali, Baṅgālī or Vaṅga is a set of vernacular dialects 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, Pūrvavaṅgīẏa, Prācya, Vaṅga, or Vaṅgīẏa. Chatterji often cited a more generalised variant of Eastern Bengali which he dubbed as, Typical East Bengali, for the sake of broader comparison with other varieties of Bengali. Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym Bāṅgāl Bhāshā in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals. It may also be referred to by names such as Khaisi-Gesi Bangla, emphasising the contrast between Eastern Bengali varieties and the standard language in terms of grammar by use of the example phrases "I have eaten" and "I have gone". A similar name, Khaitasi-Jaitasi Bangla, instead juxtaposes the examples of "I am eating" and "I am going".

Geographical distribution

, 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.
File:Suniti Kumar Chatterji Bengali Dialects.svg|right|thumb|A map of Bengal which shows the dialects of the Bengali Language according to Suniti Kumar Chatterji.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya and Pāścātya. 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.

Epenthesis

Eastern Bengali notably preserves epenthesis from an earlier stage of Bengali. Thus, the equivalent of Standard Literary Bengali করিয়া 'having done' in Typical East Bengali is , having gone through the medial phase of *; by comparison, the Standard Colloquial Bengali equivalent is , 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. সত্য, for example, pronounced in earlier Bengali, is pronounced in Eastern Bengali and in 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, whose value in earlier Bengali was . Hence রাক্ষস, with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of , is pronounced or in Eastern Bengali and in Standard Bengali. Such is also the case for the conjunct জ্ঞ, which had the value of in earlier Bengali. Hence, আজ্ঞা, with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of , has the Typical East Bengali pronunciation of and the Standard Bengali . 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, ব্রাহ্ম has the Standard Bengali pronunciation of , or, more commonly, , but may be pronounced in Eastern Bengali as if it were spelt ব্রাম্য.

Vowels

  • The vowels /e/ and /o/ in the standard language are shifted to /ɛ/ and /u/, respectively. For example, দেশ 'country' and দোষ 'blame' are respectively pronounced and in Standard Bengali but and in Typical East Bengali. /o/ may be considered a marginal phoneme due to it not merging with /u/ in rare instances, such as in ধো 'wash'.
  • /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ have raised allophones, and , that occur when followed by a close vowel such as /i/ or /u/. This raising may also occur in open syllables.
  • /a/ is centralized, generally pronounced . A major exception to this is when the previous vowel is /i/, especially in cases of metathesis, where a fronted allophone is used instead.
  • Although Western 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. This lack of nasalisation also characterises the Standard Bengali of Bangladesh.

    Consonants

  • Phonemic voiceless aspirated stops—/kʰ/, /tʰ/, and /t̪ʰ/—have been attributed to some Vaṅga dialects, only contrasting with their unaspirated counterparts in initial position. However, their phonemic status is based on analogy with Western Bengali. Učida provides the alternative interpretation that these aspirates are allophones—, , and —of corresponding voiceless unaspirated stops—/k/, /t/, and /t̪/—which occur when followed by a suprasegmental change in pitch, i.e. tone. Furthermore, some dialects invariably aspirate initial /t̪/ to .
  • Like Standard Bengali, Eastern Bengali lacks true retroflexes. However it further fronts the apical postalveolar stops of the standard language to apico-alveolar.
  • Voiceless stops—/k/, /t/, and /p/—undergo lenition in most varieties.
  • * The voiceless labial and velar plosives also undergo lenition into spirants, such that becomes and becomes or , especially intervocalically. Hence পাকা, pronounced in Standard Bengali, may variably be pronounced , , or in Eastern Bengali dialects. is often deleted entirely instead of simply being spirantised, especially when in proximity of . For example, বিকাল, pronounced in Standard Bengali, is frequently pronounced in Eastern Bengali.
  • * When followed by a rounded vowel, and are interchangeable in most dialects of Eastern Bengali. For example, কাঁকই may often be pronounced and ফকীর may often be pronounced . This merger is expanded upon in the Noakhali dialect, where all word-initial are pronounced , e.g. পাগল 'madman' → → , and by some speakers of the Mymensingh and Comilla dialects, who pronounce all as , e.g. ঢুপি → → 'dove'.
  • * Intervocalic /t/ lenites to a voiced allophone in most Eastern Bengali dialects. For example, মাটি is pronounced in Standard Bengali but in Eastern Bengali. However, this does not occur in geminates, so টাট্টি remains relatively unchanged across varieties, being in Standard Bengali and in Eastern Bengali.
  • The voiced retroflex flap found in Standard Bengali is almost always merged with /ɾ/ in Eastern Bengali, though it may occur in a minute number of speakers. This merger of /ɽ/ and /ɾ/ also characterises the Standard Bengali of Bangladesh.
  • Eastern Bengali dialects tend to spirantise the Standard Bengali palato-alveolar affricates /t͡ʃ/, /t͡ʃʰ/, as well as /d͡ʒ/ and /d͡ʒʱ/ into , , and , respectively. For example, চোর, ছয়, and জাড় are respectively pronounced , , and in Standard Bengali but , , and in Typical East Bengali. /t͡s/ in tends to merge with /s/ as the areas of Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga are approached, such that চা, pronounced in Standard Bengali, is pronounced in farther western varieties and in farther eastern varieties of Eastern Bengali. is an allophone of /z/ that more frequently occurs in Southwestern Vaṅga. occurs as an allophone of /t͡s/ and /s/ while occurs as an allophone of /z/ in geminates and consonant clusters, e.g. বাচ্চা /bat͡sːa ~ basːa/ , ইঞ্চি /int͡si ~ insi/ , ইজ্জৎ /izːɔt̪/ .
  • /ʃ/ has a tendency to debuccalise to in word-initial position, e.g. শালা /ʃälä/ → 'brother-in-law', be deleted entirely in word-medial position, e.g. উশাস /uʃäʃ/ → 'breath', and be either retained or deleted in word-final position, e.g. মানুষ /mänuʃ/ → 'people'.