Bengali, also called Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language, the official language of Bangladesh and of the Indian state of West Bengal, and among the most-spoken languages in the world by native speakers. It has its own script, the Bengali-Assamese script, descended like Devanagari from the ancient Brahmi script but distinct from it, not a variant of Devanagari itself.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker CountFigure is for first-language speakers across Bangladesh and India; estimates vary by several tens of millions depending on how second-language speakers in the wider Bengali-speaking diaspora are counted. RegionBangladesh and India's West Bengal; Barak Valley in Assam and Tripura 4 Disputed
Attested From (Year)8th century CE; a Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary compiled in 782 CE contains 51 Bengali words, the earliest documented evidence, though whether this represents a fully differentiated language is not certain. Classification
Language Kind Official Status Connections
In Family
Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)
Written In
Source Wikipedia: Bengali-Assamese Script
In the Other Atlases
Cases Where Used
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Original Language Of
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Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.
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Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Wikipedia: Bengali LanguageLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
It is primarily spoken by the Bengali people, native to the Bengal region (Bangladesh, India's West Bengal) as well as in Barak Valley in Assam and Tripura in South Asia.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Wikipedia: Bengali LanguageLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
It is primarily spoken by the Bengali people, native to the Bengal region (Bangladesh, India's West Bengal) as well as in Barak Valley in Assam and Tripura in South Asia.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Bengali (Glottolog languoid beng1280)
GlottologEndangerment, AES statusQuote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
2. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010Official status, Bengali entity page
Bengali, also called Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language, the official language of Bangladesh and of the Indian state of West Bengal, and among the most-spoken languages in the world by native speakers.
- In Family: Indo-European
3. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
4. Wikipedia: Bengali Language
Wikipedialead section
also known by its endonym Bangla
infobox
Native to Bangladesh and India
Quote
A Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary compiled by the Chinese poet Li-Yen in 782 CE shows the presence of Bengali
View the Source Wikipedia: Bengali-Assamese Script
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