Global InformationBengali language information
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| Bengali | |
|---|---|
| Bangla | |
| বাংলা | |
 The word "Bangla" in the Bengali script | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈbaŋlaˑ] ⓘ |
| Native to | Bangladesh and India |
| Region |
|
| Ethnicity | Bengalis |
| Speakers | L1: 240 million (2011–2021)[1][2] L2: 41 million (2011–2021)[1] |
Language family | Indo-European
|
Early forms | Magadhi Prakrit
|
| Dialects |
|
Writing system |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |
|
| Regulated by |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | bn |
| ISO 639-2 | ben |
| ISO 639-3 | ben |
| Glottolog | beng1280 |
 Geographical distribution of the Bengali language. Darker shades imply a greater percentage of native speakers. | |
 Bengalophone diaspora worldwide.
National and official language with majority native speakers
Official language with large number of native speakers
Large diaspora (more than 100,000)
Smaller diaspora (more than 10,000) | |
| Part of a series on |
| Bengalis |
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Bengali,[a] also known by its endonym Bangla (বাংলা, Bāṅlā, [ˈbaŋlaˑ] ⓘ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With approximately 240 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2021,[1] Bengali is the sixth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world.[7][8] It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language.[9]
Bengali is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh,[10][11][12] with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language.[13][14] It is the second-most widely spoken language in India. It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam. It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011.[3] It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal,[15] and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Uttarakhand.[16] Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas (Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and other countries.[17]
Bengali is the fourth fastest growing language in India, following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei (Manipuri), along with Gujarati, in the third place, according to the 2011 census of India.[18]
Bengali has developed over more than 1,300 years. Bengali literature, with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement.[19][20]
- ^ a b c Bengali at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2011" (PDF). Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
- ^ a b "Jharkhand gives second language status to Magahi, Angika, Bhojpuri, and Maithili". The Avenue Mail. 21 March 2018. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ^ "Bengali". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
An Indic language spoken in India and Bangladesh.
- ^ "Bengal". The Chambers Dictionary (9th ed.). Chambers. 2003. ISBN 0-550-10105-5.
- ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
- ^ "The World Factbook". www.cia.gov. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
- ^ "Summary by language size". Ethnologue. 2019. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ^ Banerjee, Mou (21 February 2023). "The missionaries and the evolution of the Bengali language". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
- ^ "Bangla Bhasha Procholon Ain, 1987" বাংলা ভাষা প্রচলন আইন, ১৯৮৭ [Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987] (PDF). Bangladesh Code বাংলাদেশ কোড (in Bengali). Vol. 27 (Online ed.). Dhaka: Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Bangladesh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ "Bangla Language". Banglapedia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
- ^ "The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh". Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ "National Languages Of Bangladesh". einfon.com. 11 June 2017. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
- ^ "5 Surprising Reasons the Bengali Language Is Important". 17 August 2017. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
- ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). National Commission for Linguistic Minorities. 16 July 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ "Bengali Language". www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
- ^ —R, Aishwaryaa (6 June 2019). "What census data reveals about use of Indian languages". Deccan Herald. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
—Pallapothu, Sravan (28 June 2018). "Hindi Added 100Mn Speakers In A Decade; Kashmiri 2nd Fast Growing Language". Indiaspend.com. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
—IndiaSpend (2 July 2018). "Hindi fastest growing language in India, finds 100 million new speakers". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
—Mishra, Mayank; Aggarwal, Piyush (11 April 2022). "Hindi grew rapidly in non-Hindi states even without official mandate". India Today. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023. - ^ "Amendment to the Draft Programme and Budget for 2000–2001 (30 C/5)" (PDF). General Conference, 30th Session, Draft Resolution. UNESCO. 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
- ^ "Resolution adopted by the 30th Session of UNESCO's General Conference (1999)". International Mother Language Day. UNESCO. Archived from the original on 1 June 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
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