Rāṛhī Bengali
Central Bengali
রাঢ়ী বাংলা
Native toIndia, Bangladesh
RegionIndia: Greater Nadia & Presidency Division, Murshidabad, Purba Bardhaman district, Hooghly District Bangladesh: Kushtia District, Meherpur District, Chuadanga District
EthnicityBengali people of Presidency Division and Greater Kushtia
Bengali alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologcent1983  Central Bengali

Rāṛhī Bengali (রাঢ়ী বাংলা) or Central Bengali,[1] is a dialect of the Bengali language spoken in the southeastern part of West Bengal, in and around the Bhagirathi River basin of Nadia district[2] and other districts of the Presidency division in West Bengal, as well as the Greater Kushtia region of western Bangladesh. It forms the basis of the standard variety of Bengali.[3][4][5][6][7]

Geographical boundaries

The Rarhi (Ghoti) dialect speaking region (Kolkata, Howrah, Dumdum, Barrackpore, Naihati and Bandel) of Bengal (Bangladesh or East Bengal and West Bengal) prospered economically since the British period and Kolkata was the capital (1758-1911) and the financial capital (1758-1947) of British India. Due to this, people from all over Bengal and British India used to travel to Kolkata for economic and political reasons. Hence, the Rarhi (Ghoti) dialect of this region emerged as Standard Bengali.

This dialect is prevalent in the West Bengali districts of Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly and Purba Bardhaman. It is also spoken natively in the Chuadanga, Kushtia and Meherpur districts of Bangladesh, which were a part of the Nadia district prior to the 1947 Partition of India. Along with Eastern Bengali dialect, Modern Standard Bengali has been formed on the basis of this dialect.

Features

Extensive use of Obhishruti (অভিশ্রুতি, /obʱisrut̪i/, umlaut). E.g. old Bengali Koriya (করিয়া, /koria/, meaning - having done) > Beng. Koira (কইর‍্যা, /koirya/) > Beng. Kore (করে, /kore/).[8]

  • The change of অ to ও, when অ is the first sound of a word where the অ is followed by ই(ি), ও(ো), ক্ষ or য. E.g. Ati (written অতি, means 'excess') is pronounced as Oti (ওতি, /ot̪i/).
  • Use of vowel harmony. E.g. Bilati (বিলাতি, /bilat̪i/, meaning - foreign) became Biliti (বিলিতি, /biliti/).[9]

Obhishruti and Opinihiti

Ôbhishruti (অভিশ্রুতি, /obʱisrut̪i/) and Ôpinihiti (অপিনিহিতি, /opinihit̪i/, epenthesis) are two phonological phenomena that occur in spoken Bengali. Opinihiti refers to the phonological process in which a ই or উ is pronounced before it occurs in the word. Obhishruti is the sound change in which this shifted ই or উ becomes removed and changes the preceding vowel. Observe the example above : Koriya (করিয়া, /koria/) > Koirya (কইর‍্যা, /koira/) > Kore (করে, /kore/). First Opinihiti changes Koriya to Koirya (notice how the I changes position.), then Obhishruti changes Koirya (কইর‍্যা) to Kore (করে).[10]

References

  1. ↑ Grierson, G A, ed. (1903). Linguistic Survey of India: Indo-Aryan Family Eastern Group. Vol. V. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  2. ↑ Chakrabarti, Kunal; Chakrabarti, Shubhra (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810880245. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  3. ↑ Karan, Sudhir Kumar (2004). Thus Flows The Ganges. Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788170999232. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  4. ↑ Calcutta, Philological Society of (1966). Bulletin of the Philological Society of Calcutta. Department of Comparative Philology, University of Calcutta. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  5. ↑ Bandyopadhyay, Anita (2001). "Problems of Phonetic Transcription in Bengali". Praci-Bhasha-Vijnan Indian Journal of Linguistics. 20: 79. OCLC 2256120. Archived from the original on 2021-06-10. Retrieved 2020-09-30. by the word standard Bengali pronunciation we normally understand the Bengali language as is spoken in Calcutta and round about the places on the banks of the river Bhagirathi.
  6. ↑ Bangladesh Quarterly. Department of Films & Publications, Government of Bangladesh. 2002. p. 6. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  7. ↑ Calcutta, Philological Society of (1966). Bulletin. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  8. ↑ Folk-lore. Indian Publications. 1975. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  9. ↑ SK Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, Calcutta University, Calcutta, 1926
  10. ↑ Sunitikumar Chattopadhyay (1939) ভাষা-প্রকাশ বাঙ্গালা ব্যাকরণ, Calcutta University
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