Eastern Bengali

Eastern Bengali
Vaṅga
Bangali (বঙ্গালী)
Native to	Bangladesh India
Region	Bangladesh Barisal Division, Chittagong Division, Dhaka Division, Khulna Division, Sylhet Division India Tripura, Barak Valley
Language family	Indo-European Bengali-Assamese Bengali Eastern Bengali
Writing system	Bengali alphabet Banglish ) Sylhet Nagari (historical) Perso-Arabic (historical) Portuguese (historical)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	vang1242  Vanga

Eastern Bengali,

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.^[15] The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali".^[16] 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.^[17] 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.^[18] Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region.^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[21]

Phonology

Eastern Bengali is characterised by a considerably smaller phoneme inventory when compared with

Metathesis

Eastern Bengali notably preserves

• The vowels [e] and [o] in the standard language are frequently changed to [ɛ] and [u], respectively.[29]^[30][31] For example, দেশ (ISO-15919: dēśa) 'country' and দোষ (ISO-15919: dōṣa) 'blame' are respectively pronounced [d̪eʃ] and [d̪oʃ] in Standard Bengali and [d̪ɛʃ] and [d̪uʃ] in Typical East Bengali. The vowel [e] is still often retained as an allophone of [ɛ] that occurs when in the presence of a close vowel such as [i] or [u].^[32]
• Although Standard 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.^[33]

• Like Standard Bengali, Eastern Bengali lacks true
  apico-alveolar
  .
• Most Eastern Bengali dialects have a tendency to voice the intervocalic unvoiced apical postalveolar stops of Standard Bengali. For example, মাটি (ISO-15919: māṭi, 'soil') is pronounced [mät̠i] in Standard Bengali but [mädi] in Eastern Bengali.^[36] However, this does not occur in geminates,^[37] so টাট্টি (ISO-15919: ṭāṭṭi, 'latrine') remains relatively unchanged across varieties, being [t̠ät̠ːi] in Standard Bengali and [tätːi] in Eastern Bengali.
• The voiced retroflex flap of Standard Bengali is usually merged with [ɾ] in Eastern Bengali, such that the two phonemes become indistinguishable and allophonic to most speakers.^[38]
• Dialects of Eastern Bengali tend to
  spirantise the Standard Bengali palato-alveolar affricates [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], and [d͡ʒ ~ d͡ʒʱ] into [t͡s], [s], and [z], respectively.^[39] For example, চোর (ISO-15919: cōra, 'thief'), ছয় (ISO-15919: chaẏa, 'six'), and জাড় (ISO-15919: jāṛa, 'cold') are respectively pronounced [t͡ʃoɾ], [t͡ʃʰɔe̯], and [d͡ʒäɽ] in Standard Bengali but [t͡suɾ], [sɔe̯], and [zäɾ] in Typical East Bengali. [t͡s] in tends to merge with [s] as the areas of Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga are approached, such that চা (ISO-15919: cā, 'tea'), pronounced [tʃä] in Standard Bengali, is pronounced [tsä] in farther western varieties and [sä] in farther eastern varieties of Eastern Bengali.^[40] [d͡z] is an allophone of [z] that more frequently occurs in Southwestern Vaṅga. [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] occur respectively as allophones of [t͡s ~ s] and [z] in geminates and consonant clusters,^[41] e.g. বাচ্চা (ISO-15919: bāccā, 'child') /bät͡sːä ~ bäsːä/ [bäi̯t͡ʃːä], ইঞ্চি (ISO-15919: iñci, 'inch') /int͡si ~ insi/ [int͡ʃi], ইজ্জৎ (ISO-15919
  : ijjat, 'honour') /izːɔt̪/ [id͡ʒːɔt̪].
• The voiceless labial and velar plosives are often spirantised, such that [p] often becomes [ɸ] and [k] often becomes [x] or [ɦ], the latter transformation chiefly occurring intervocalically.^[42][43] Hence পাকা (ISO-15919: pākā, 'ripe'), pronounced [päkä] in Standard Bengali, may variably be pronounced [päɦä], [ɸäɦä], or [ɸäxä] in Eastern Bengali dialects.^[44] [k] is often deleted entirely instead of simply being spirantised, especially when in proximity of [i]. For example, বিকাল (ISO-15919: bikāla, 'afternoon'), pronounced [bikäl] in Standard Bengali, is frequently pronounced [biäl] in Eastern Bengali.^[45]
• When followed by a
  merger is expanded upon in the Noakhali dialect, where all word-initial [ɸ] (and, by extension, [p]) are pronounced [ɦ], e.g. পাগল (ISO-15919: pāgala) 'madman' [pägɔl] → [ɸägɔl] → [ɦägɔl],^[47] and by some speakers of the Mymensingh and Comilla dialects, who pronounce all [ɸ] as [ɦ], e.g. ঢুপি (ISO-15919
  : ḍhupi) [d̠ʱupi] → [dúɸi] → [dúɦi] 'dove'.
• Standard [ʃ] has a tendency to debuccalise to [ɦ] in word-initial position, e.g. শালা (ISO-15919: śālā) [ʃälä] → [ɦälä] 'brother-in-law', be deleted entirely in word-medial position, e.g. উশাস (ISO-15919: uśāsa) [uʃäʃ] → [uäʃ] 'breath', and be either retained or deleted in word-final position, e.g. মানুষ (ISO-15919: mānuṣa) [mänuʃ] → [mänuʃ ~ mänu] 'people'.^[48]

Tone

The aspiration and

Furthermore, the [ɦ] of Standard Bengali is most often deleted in Eastern Bengali dialects. This h-dropping has also been said to result in tone.

Comparison

References