Bengali

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A language of Bangladesh

ISO 639-3
ben
Alternate Names
Bangala, Bangla, Bangla-Bhasa
Population

110,000,000 in Bangladesh (2001 census). 250,000,000 including L2 speakers. Population total all countries: 193,263,700.

Location

West. Also in Canada, India, Malawi, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1972, Constitution, Article 3).

Classification
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Eastern zone, Bengali-Assamese
Dialects

Barisal, Khulna, Mymensingh, Noakhali. Similar to Assamese [asm]. Lexical similarity: 40% with Nepali [npi].

Typology

SOV; postpositions; noun head both initial and final; 3 genders: male, female, neuter; content q-word initial and final; clause constituents indicated by case-marking and word order; tense; passives and voice; tonal; 35 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes

Language Use

All ages.

Language Development
Taught in primary and secondary schools. Fully developed. Bible: 1809–2000.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Bengali
Writing
Bengali script, primary usage. Braille script. Newar (Prachalit Nepal) script, no longer in use.
Other Comments

Muslim.

Also spoken in:

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