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Bas tray Cagayan Dts ‘esloqu ty forse si tom Tha Os cay ayo Cn Cay Ca tre Fr pte UK 1904 Hoots, 38 Eso Ps Lorn NS Fa pbtes in Us 80 by Cantar is, Done Me a amp, ctl Pn, Et Rao Sen, Cheap 1 08 USA ‘Wisdtion psd 200, ‘The Tah Yous bs rend ae markt Hor & Suton Lat epg © 196, 2003 Wan Fase (UK Mts ese, part of i pts my be ep er arta {ym orb ary a, eer mocarte,Plvay ony ergo ‘Simson tage se eal sya, wiutprmeon arg fa Dutt oud toes tom be Og Lars Ay Un Fart alt och tone or eprenaplepaurin) maybe ona fm te Caren {ta geo Lin 0 Tita Cut Racoon WIT LP ‘st a ers. ng pe ter hd Save Copy Ato eo pat ook ay edad oad ay a ya x oad n a atau aeva sys, wot he pot wits pemisn ot enter Bot “Yessy owting assy Br StEumnds Sto Psi ret renter & Sours esata dio of Hoda ae (G8 con ent London Sy Gc ran Rog, Ets Pee in th ok aa enable 2 rset The x rade from wane prom in tab vest Te og an rarlung rns ufos honorary ooh lowsionnanter 19887654 ‘er ar ote cs 2Aigo, an {itis eo ‘ieee et 20, txts, Sess 300 te iat ‘ha tn 90 aa he so, 3, Mose 0k sua rantatin ago to err fet deste econo yg se amar Ison ton She ya ase Prt ——— CONTENTS ——— Preface Script diagrams Part One: Sounds and script 1 akbuagnbsmntn HD, 2D, BOD, BO), BOI, AH, a, a 2 aond sasha eC), 64,4, 356 3 ekh ym: ng 0, % F&F 4 moikcke 0, BCD, 5B ach HE), BCD, & 6 Rend nem BO), &, 7 ith iy swe 30), SE 4a 8 thekd ctrks SECRET 9 1,80, p, ke. ni pre ry 8D), AD, 4, 4,7 10 ghe.bhicch de ), 5, Sy U1 hthdh hetead 4355600 2 16 19 28 aL2 13 KLEEET TEACH TOURSELF BENGALI ragh dhs sk, dy hr 6,8, Review of Part One ‘Table of letters; Sanstitic transliteration Part Two: Conversation and grammar “4 15 16 wv 18 19 Finding out about someone - Conversation in East London: %, °€; zero verb; interrogative; personal pro- nouns; demonstrative pronoun. Affirmative reply and demonstrative pronoun exercise; @, @, %, 3; ssubjec-complement exercise. Talking to a rickshawallah - Conversation at_San- tiniketan: &{; possessive case; ach; definite article hings); ‘demonstrative adjectives; negativeof the zero verb. Negative statement and demonstrative adjective exercise; word-order exercise. Buying fruit and vegetables - Conversation ata sta: ¥, “S, ®; diminutive article; indefinite article; how ‘muchimany, numbers; postpositions. Number and postposi- tion exercise; "™ j answering questions exercise. Finding out about schools - Conversation at gts’ school inSyhet: % %, ¥, GF; -fon and -khana; paricpal ostposi- tions; locativelinstrumental case; plural of personal nouns; reflexive pronoun; present tense, Pronoun and locatve case exercise; 51; gep-iling exercise. Arranging a visit — Telephone conversation in Caleta: 15, “1, %, 7; appointments; future tense; infinitive; ob- ject case; impersonal constructions. ‘Also’ particle and ap- ointments exercise; #, 4, #1, 4; week planning exercise, Health anil diet - Conversation in Rajshabi: %, 4%, 2; telling the time; obligation; more impersonal constructions; imperative; negative of past tenses. Time-tlling and ucit exercise; 1; translation from English exercise. Meeting an artist ~ Conversation with painter in Delhi: 65; past participle (connecting sentences, compound verbs, states, adverbs, double postposition kre and perfect tense exercise; %, —w— a 8 105 uz Part Three: Lit 27 The Tailor conreative | 29. Satyajit R from Beng 30 Tagore is 31 The Banga 2 22 23, 26 contents ‘Talking to a child — Conversation in Calcutta: present Continuous tense; comparisons; keldistke. Comparison and likeldisike exercise; tense exercise, Conversation on a train ~ Traveling with a student to Chittagong: ‘i, &, %, °F, 8, & ; past perfect tense; verbal oun ++ faoya; adjectival postpositions; case endings for words ending in conjuncts, Past perfect and verbal noun + faoya exercise; ©, "%; adjectival postposition exercise Telling stories ~ Conversation with a story-tller in = simple past tense: verbal noun a8 active (passive sentences); which and amy cempound verbs with deoyalneoya, Whichlanysome "and children's. sary exercise; diary-wniing exercise. feeting a writer — Conversation with lady-poe in Dhaka: ; conditional particle; habitual past tense; need. Catetia metro and shopping ist (need/obigaon) exercise concise sentence exercie. ‘Learning Bengali - Conversation about leaming Bengal: past continuous tense; extended verbs; yodh (conditions). Conditional sentence ad extended verb exercise; contimous prose exercise Review of Part Two ‘Numbers, dates, et.; verb tables, Part Three: Literature 27 28 29 30 31 The Tailor-bird and the Cat: "H; tense recognition ‘Sakuntala - Abanindranath’s Sakuntala: "4; relative! correlative pronoun exercise. Satyajit Ray - When I was smalt: i, ®6, @ ; translation ‘from Bengali exercise. Tagore in England - Letters from Europe: 6, %,%; ‘onomatopeia exercise, ‘The Bangladesh War ~ The Days of 71: *, 8; ‘grammatical recognition exercise. ua 12 164 176 191 a4 132 33 34 TEACH YOURSELF BENGALI ‘Shamsur Rahman — poems: &, % conjunct consonants exercise; ‘The Coming of the Monsoon - Guest by Tagore: side ohasa; 2, A, &, %, %, %, i; sddhu bhdsd exercise. Jibanananda Das - poems: %, % Bengal the Beautiful . Review of Part Three ‘Conjunct consonants; sddu bhdyd forms; Mustim/Hindu distinctions; vowel harmony; further reading. Key to the exercises Glossary Grammatical index Acknowledgements, 22 Seeg8 (fan the msc lange by foreign eamers. 1 tas thechest and the motberongue Dantreemtury Inia, the tate language © Ghaspor, in nea the Mile Bast, No become a closely nce was with Huge of Ratidnath Ta ‘Asian weiter, and makes, Satyeit Re nent over £ Tnguage of Bangla veh a people who——— PREFACE fall the major nguages ofthe workd, Bengal has been most neglected by foreign learners. It stands sixth in the world inits numberof speakers, ‘has the richest and most developed modern literature in South Asia, Was, the mother-tongue of many leading reformers and activists of 19th and 20th-century India, and is now the national language of Bangladesh and the state language of West Bengal. There is a sizeable Bengal-speaking diaspora, in India (especially the easter states of Assam and Tripura) the Middle East, North Americaand Britain. The East End of London has become as closely associated with its Syiheti-Bengai population as it ‘once was with Huguenot and Jewish migrants. Bengali was the lmguage of Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest and best known modem South Asian waiter; and it was the language of India's most celebrated fm. maker, Satyajit Ray. Bengali sintists, doctors and academics are prominent al over South Asia, and in Europe and North America. As the language of Bangladesh, Bengalihas become internationally identifiable with a people whose increasing numbers and precarious geographical circumstances present a huge cullenge not only to the’ Bangladesh Goverament but to other governments of good will. By the end of the millennium, there are likely be more than 250 milion Bengalispeakers. Yet despite its size, literary wea, historical importance and growing contemporary profile, there are still remarkably few faites for for- cigners to learit well Britain now has only one university lectureship in Bengali, and lectureships in other countries outside South Asia can be counted on the fingers of one bard, \ —wi—TEACH YOURSELF BENGALI ‘The same can be said of books from which to learn Bengal. Before the Second World War, there were perhaps more grammars and course ‘books for Bengali than for other modern South Asian languages. The Revd, William Sutton Page ran a department of Bengali at the School af Oriental and African Studies, and produced a number of pioneering ‘works; his efforts were extended by Professor T. W. Clark, who briefly hheld a unique London University Chair in Bengali from 1967 until his death in 1969, and by Dr Tarapada Mukherjee. Western-based scholar- ship was nourished by the achievements of Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (Dr “Mukherjee’s teacher) and other scholars in Calcutta and Dhaka in the fields of Bengali philology and lexicography. The materials that Clark and “Mulkherjee wrote for their students at SOAS were excellrt, and served me and other students well, But Dr Mukherjee was aware that they needed updating. He struggled againstllness to produce anew course, it ‘collaboration with Professor J.C. Wright, but even wile be was writing it the contexts and potential need for Bengali were changirg fast. Thave therefore adopted anew approach in thisbook. Apart from the sound and script exercises in Part One (which in their methodology gorightback to Satton Page), [have conceived my task afresh, aiming tc meet a wide variety ofneeds and contexts, and to make Bengalias easy and enjoyable to lear as possible. ‘This is a course in speaking, writing and reading standard Bengal. It assumes that any attempt to go beyond a phrase-book knowledge must teach the script clearly and fully. But a purely ‘reading knowledge’ of Bengali would not only neglect the wonderful music ofits sounds, it would ‘also leave unexplained many discrepancies between spelling and pronun- ‘ation. So this course teaches the sounds of Bengal with cae, a8 wellas its seript and grammar, and the accompanying tape is integral. At the same time, Thave tried to enable the leamer to progress to higher levels of reading and understanding. In this, asin other aims, T have been influenced by Dr Mukherjee's feeling thatthe ‘leap’ between any course in Bengali then available and reading a text, even a newspaper, was too great and dispiriting for most learners (unless they happened to be speakers of another South Asian language). ‘Those who want primarily to speak Bengali, who are planning to go to ‘Bengal to visit or work, or who are in contact with Bengal communities elsewhere, may fel that they do not wish toimake this lap: thata novel sound-system, script, grammar and vocabulary are encugh, that the ‘writings of Tagore or jibanananda Das may have to wait. Bat Lurge them not tobe daunted. If they persevere with Part Three, not only will hey refine their understanding of Bengali grammar, script and pronunciation, tomake improvement tolet me know of any wR School of Oriental ane [Note on the frst repr ‘Additional thanks a ‘careful review inthearnt soos vading knowledge’ of maa ‘spelling and pronun- =ame Sarre es ee Saree ‘e planning to g0 to cengali communities isleap: that a novel + enough, that the it. But urge them rRerace but they willencountera whole new imaginative world, breathtskinginits vigour and variety and delight. And their combined endeavour wiley to make the beauties of Bengal know to lovers of language and Strate everywhere. Of the many friends who have asisted me, Ishould specially ike to thank Professor Maniruzzaman, ofthe Department of Bengaliat the University ‘of Chittagong, where 1 was invited to work on this book as a Visling, Fellow at the end of 1990. Part Two is incalculably indebted to his aoute Sonia Kati, Ajt Banerjee and Nurul Islam for their enthusiastic recording ‘of the cassette that accompanies the book, and to Biman Muli fr his beautiful handwritten script forms. Finally thank all my pupils t SOAS, ‘who, by cheerfully learning from very imperfect drafts, have helped me tomake improvements, Thope tat they and other users wil not hesitate ‘to let me know of any remaining mistakes or unclarities or omissions. WR. School of Oriental and Aftican Studies, University of London, 1993 Note om the frst reprint Additional thanks are due to Professor Pabitra Sarkar, whose very careful review in the Statesman (Calcutta, 28 January 1995) has enabled. ‘me tomake a number of improvements and corrections, and to Sabia Al, the most sharp-eyed of my students in the frst year ofthe book's se. 1995 ‘Note on the 2002 edition Further corrections have been made; te bibliography (pp-276-7) has been updated; and the exercise on pp. 89-90 now takes accoust of Syiher's status, since 1995, as a division of Bangladesh,rE PRM nD I F Ie br IS & BRO TER {19 Ww Ra ar 49rw rervo w ir is Bb ke p in nD AY F I br is ADIn Memoriam ‘TARAPADA MUKHERJEE, (41928-1990) PA SOUNDPART ONE SOUNDS AND SCRIPT 1 ‘The languages of South Asia are rchly endowed with sounds, particularly consonants; and the Hindus were the fist people inthe wot to realise that the sounds ofa language can be grouped scientifically according to Where and how they are made in the mouth, Unlike the Greek and Roman alphabets, which follow @ haphazard order, Indian scripts are based on a logical table of letters: vowels frst, then the ‘velar’ consonants, the ‘palatal’ consonants, the ‘etrofler’ consonants and so on, ‘The Bengali script, like other South Asian scripts (except Urdu) was ‘originally devised forthe writing of Sanskrit. As the modern languages developed (growing not exactly from Sanskrit but from the PPrakrits, the spoken languages of ancient India), regional varieties of ‘hat was essentially the same waiting system were used to write themTEACH YOURSELF BENGALI down. Nowadays Sanskrit is usually written and printed in Devandgari, the script that is also used for Hind, But t can just as wellbe written in the Bengali script, and when Bengali children learn their letters, they Jearn them according to the Sanskrit sequence. ‘The complete table of letters will be found in the Review section at the end of Part One. You will need to know it, otherwise youwon't be able to use a Bengal dictionary. In the first 12 units, however, you'll be introduced to the sounds and letters according to a different sequence. ‘There are three reasons for this. First, [have found from my experience of teaching Bengali that itis best to begin with sounds that are easy for foreigners to make, and progress gradually to more dificult sounds. ‘Second, it is important to practise the sounds by repeating words and phrases, not by pronouncing themin isolation. There are very few words made of vowels alone, which is what you would start with if you followed the traditional sequence. Third, the pronunciation of Benga does not it the speling perfectly. The mis-match between spelling and pronunciation is nothing ike as great as in English, but it is enough to make Bengali pronunciation quite tricky, harder than Hind Both languages have essentially ‘Sanskrtc’speling systems, but Bengali has diverged from its classical roots more than Hindi. It is essential to explain and learn ‘Bengali sounds and script with care. If folowed the traitional table, 1 ‘would have to begin by confusing you with the etter that causes more ‘pronunciation problems than any other! We begin with three vowel sounds. The first vowel is very much the sound you make when the doctor wants to examine your throat: a asin English star ‘The second also approximates to an English sound: i asin English see ‘The third sound does not realy exist in most pronunciations of English, ‘utif you take the ‘o0'soundin moon and push your lips right forwards if you were whisting, you will get it: Unlike most peopk’s pronunciation of English ‘o', Bengali u is a pure sound: ie. the lips do not move when uttering it. Most Engish vowel- ‘sounds are impure: they sli from one sound to another. This is often reflected in English speling: break, fear, boat, etc. When pronouncing Bengal ai, u, make sure thatthe sounds are absolutely pure.Printed in Devandgar, 'stas well be written in cam their letters, they Review section at the ‘wise you won't be able 3, however, you'll be » a different Sequence, ad from my experience vunds that are easy for more dificult sounds, "repeating words and vteare very few words et with ifyou followed of Bengali does not fit ling and pronunciation ough to make Bengali Both languages have ‘al has diverged from | to explain and learn the traditional table, T ‘ter that causes more wel is very much the ve your throat: ications of English, Sips right forwardasif « Bengali wis a pure Most English vowel other. This is often When pronouncing ately pure. SOUND AND SeRiPT Here are four consonants, none of which should cause any difcuty: 2 asin English get asin English nat basin English bone m asin Engish mat ‘The next sound shouldbe rolled cc ‘trilled’ asin Scots or Italian but don't overdoit. At the end of words, particularly, the tongue Rap only once or twice: + asin Italian Roma ‘The last sound is perfectly familar to English speakers, but make sure you always pronounce it atthe font ofthe mouth: 1 asin English lend, never as in English il ‘When pronouncing Bengali consonants on their own, or when referring to them in order to spell a word or name, it is customary to give them a {following vowel-sound ~the so-called inherent vowel o, pronounced as, in British English hot. (There wil be more about the inherent vowel in Unit 2.) The advantage of this is that you don't have to learn names for the leters. You simply say: ® mo. bo b ‘You now need to lear the Bengali letters for the vowels and consonants above. All South Asian scripts (except Urdu, whichis Persian in origin) follow two basic principles: 1 Ifa syllable consists of a vowel alone, or a vowel followed by a consonant, full vowels are used. 2 Ifasyllable consists ofa consonant followed by vowel, vowel signs are used. To see how this works, let's fist ofall leam the letters for the five ‘consonants above. Youneed toleam to write them, andalso torecognise ‘them in print. You'l see at once that printed forms are not always quite the same as hand-written forms and ofcourse hand-vritng styles vary. If you want to acquire elegant Bengal handwriting, the best thing is to find a native speaker who can tach you. You can also acquire hand- ‘writing books such as Bengali schoolchildren use (see p. 276). For theTEACH YOURSELF BENGALI ‘sequence of strokes, refer to the diagrams on pp. x—xi. You will see that some letters (e.¢. the D begin with a small loop or blob Handwriting Print t * a n a a > 7 a m 3 3 r 4a a 1 a a I you want to write aon its own, you need the full vowel a a "SH (ull vowel} “This letters also used if the sylable consists of a vowel + consonant: om ma om ‘Arrmuch more common sequence, however, is a consonant + vowel, ‘and you'll be relieved to learn that the vowel sign is simply 1. Thus: B ” ‘tt ma a a ma, ™ a ‘So far 30 good. With i and u, however, there are two complications to explain. (@) Each of these sounds can be represented by one or ather of two letters. In Sanskrit, there is a‘short’ and ‘lng’, a‘short’ wand a Tong’ u, Inthe standard Roman transiteration of Sanskrit (see p. 47), these are ‘istinguished by the use of bar or ‘macron’ over the long vowels, and 1 propose to adopt the same convention here. The transcrgtion system. tused in this book derives, with some modifications, from the work of Professor T. W. Clark (see Preface, p. vii). Itborrows letters from the Intemational Phonetic Alphabet, but it is a transliteration in that it indicates precisely which letters should be used in writng words in Bengaliscript. The distinction between short and Tong’ and uin Bengali has not survived in Bengali pronunciation, bat is still present in Bengali spelling. Thus for two sounds we have four letters and vowel signs to learn. tdonot necessarily follow th the short iis written defo ‘writen afer the consonant below the consonant: €. o> a 297" i R a be q qapp. x-xi. You will se that 0p or ‘bob cae T > fall vowel: (ull vowel) Vowel + consonant: m \consonant + vowel, signs simply 1. That © two complications to ¥ one or other of two short wand a ong” (seep. 47), these are ong vowels, and tion system 28, from the work of rows leters from the siteration in that it in writing words in ong’ and uin Bengal ‘present in Bengali + and vowel signs to () Bengalis read, lke English, from lft to right; but the vowel signs o not necessarily follow the consonant on the page. The vowel sign for ‘the short | is written defore the consonant; the sign for the long | is ‘writen afer the consonant; the signs for the short andlong ware written below the consonant: ‘ R 2% ull vowed tr TF (vowel sign i ® % hull vowe) q J (vowel sien) . 8 Ball vowey * 5 (vowel sien) o & Batt vowey . 5 (vowel sign) Syllables consisting of, say, 6 +i, u, or 0 would be written as follows: bi R a or a a bu q a ba q q ‘You are now ready to start pronouncing, reading and writing some ‘Bengali words and phrases. Exercises 1 Practise saying the words and phrases overleaf withthe help ofthe cassette or the previous few pages. In this and in all the first (sound) exercises in Units 1 to 12, you need not worry about ‘analysing the grammar. By the end of the book, you willbe able to do ‘0, and you'll know about dstintions between, for example, the diferent pronouns for he and she. For the moment, however, Concentrate on producing the right sound, and on picking up wocabul ary items ~ particularly nouns and adjectives. You have already seen the fist four words:TEACH YOURSELF BENGALI am mango Aamraniint we did not lake ma mother ‘amraniina edo not take a 10, not fam anun Bring (same) ram name mangos. body ‘un nil!“ May I take (some) an song salt? amar my sin na Please tae some). bar again in amar ma She is my mother. bbagan garden ‘uni amar mama Heis my ami I (maternal) uncle. run salt ‘amar nam raul My name is ink helshe Raul, un helshe ‘amar rumal nin Tae my rumal handlerchief hhanderchief. rit blue uni umar baba? Is he Uma's bl red ‘Sather? mal root uni rimic baba No, he's ami anini 1 did not bring Rim’ father. ami anlam I brought 2. Now see if you can write the words and phrases above in Bengali script. If a vowel comes between two consonants, itis always {thought of as ‘belonging’ to the consonant before, not the consonant that follows. Thus amar is written amar, not amar: ars Ifa vowel follows a vowel, it has tobe written as full vowel: so nina feat ‘The sequence r followed by u as in rumal generally has a special letter-form, perhaps because the ordinary vowel sign for u(.) would interfere with the dt in: HS. F | however, does occur in some modern typefaces. Keys to this and subsequent exercises are on pp. 278-293.Romanised spelings of Bengalinames often use‘ forthe inherent vowel and for the ‘ong’ vowel a that we learnt in Unit 1. Satyagt Rey for Cxample, the famous film director, would have pronounced his game With an © sound for the first ard second ‘a’, and an a sound or the third. In Bengali speling, the ‘y's in ‘Satyajit’ are inherent vowel the ‘lin ‘Ray’ is a( ). ‘A Bengali friend of mine writes his nase iy English ‘Sukanta’. The ‘x’ in the middle is an a: the ‘x at the eas on inherent vowel, pronounced o. Very confusing! ‘Bengalis are not always consciousy aware that ther pronunciation the jthetent vowel varies. They think oft as one sound. How f the fen leamer to know whether to pronomnce the inherent Vowel as ret TeeTEACH YOURSELF BENGALI answer's that he or she willhave to develop fee! for which is right, and this only comes gradually. A brief analysis ofthe processes involved is given on p. 275. Two principles can be remembered atthe outset: (@ Inwords which have inherent vowelsin two consecutive syllables, the sequence will usually be ao, not o/s. Exceptions occur with prefixes such as pro-2-or>-) Thus the word for hati pronounced gorom, not ‘gorom’ (@) la words which end with a‘conjunct’ consonant + isherent vowel, the inherent vowel is always pronounced o. Thus ‘Sukanta’ above has to be pronounced ‘sukanto’, not ‘kant’. Often the inherent vowelis not pronounced atall. In gorom, for example, the inherent vowel is not added to the m at the end ofthe word. Again, ‘when to pronounce the inherent vowel and when to drop itis something, that one can leam only with practice. People with a background in ‘Sanskrit, where the inherent vowel is pronounced unless indicated Dtherwise by a special sign (see p. 95), sometimes have difficulty with ‘this aspect of Bengal; but most (English-speaking) leamers seem to ‘cope with it quite easily and intuitively, pechaps because English has so ‘many words ending with a consonant without a vowel. ‘Somuch forthe pronunciation ofthe inherent vowel. There is, however, ‘further cause for confusion. The o sound in Bengal ca be represented either by the inherent vowel, o by the ‘proper’ vowel, for which there is a separate leter: © asin French mot or German so Learners of Bengali sometimes have dificlty distinguishing between this sound and w/d (Unit 1, p. 2). Inboth the lip are pushed right forward and rounded as when whistling, but in w/a the tongue is raised higher ‘towards the roof of the mouth. But another sort of confusion arses in the spelling. Because the inherent vowel can be pronounced exactly the ‘same a8 the proper vowelo, Bengal speling snot always consistent in this regard: there are some words, such as the common word bhalo (Good, wel, and many verb forms, which can be spelt either with inherent vowel or with the proper vowel o. inthis book, I have tried to settle forthe spellings that occur most frequently today. But with verb forms especialy it i dificult to be completely consistent: sometimes ‘one speling ‘looks better in a particular context than anether. ‘The Romanisation used in this book needs to distinguish between o when itis aninherent vowel, ando when itisa proper vowel. For the former, I ave decided to use a circumflex accent: 6. Thus the Bengali word forSOUND AND scarier ‘good can either be spelt bhalo orbhal6. In most Bengali words enting an‘ sound, the spelling is periectly fixed: but be prepared to fad is inconsistency in some. [Now some consonants: the fists not difficult for most learners, eanept ‘when the letter is pronounced on its own: 5 asin English finger Ineferring to this letter, Bengals generally put an u before, and you ‘may also ind t easier to say ‘ug. When t occurs in words, the arg ‘The next sound doesnot exist inEngsh. It isa‘ sound, but nite the English itis dental, made by pressing the tongue finaly agaist the top front teeth. Speakers of French or Spanish or the otter Remuace languages will be used to making their's dents ¢ asin French docu ‘The last sound in this chapter can be represented by three dierent Jettersin the script. The three ‘sibiants'that are distinguishedia Sart (2) are generally all pronounced as ‘sh in standard Bengak (except ‘sometimes when combined with ther letters see pp. 269-70). InEast ‘Bengal (Bangladesh) you wil often hears’ rather than sh’ even ined. cated speech, (Thereis alsa tendency topronounce chas s.)Itissafet, ‘however, to sick to ‘sh’, unless the word is English (bus, ye ete): Les asin English ship All the information given so far in this chapter is easier to understand ‘when you tum to the script. Far the inherent vowel there i by Give more dai ani fenibar asbona I shall ci sob amar? Is al of that sot come (on) Saturday. mine? ‘ornam botS Tell (me) hisher or didir nam sordla Histher name. elder sister's name is Sarala. ami ar bésbona I shall not sit’ uni amar bon non She is not wait any more my sister. See if you can write the words and phrases above in Bengal sctpt. For the sylable fu there is variation similar to ruin Unit 1 (p. 6). ra, you remember, is usually writen 7. fu can be written in the way ‘you would expect: Ps 4 1 is form curiae peices expec innewspaper. Bt and older typefaces, the form ® is common. ee eed ‘To putin fll stops, usea short vertical line, The last sentence above would be written: BA ema ca A Question marks and other punctuation marks are the same as EnglishSpeakers of English are used to the same sound being achieved by different spellings. In principle, each leter of the Bengali script rep- resents 2 separate sound. You have seen, however, that | and 1 are ‘pronounced the same, and u and G; the three sibilans are all pronounced as'sh; and the ‘0’ gound can be achieved either by the proper vowel oor by the inherent vowel. ‘This unit contains further anomalies ofthis kin, arising trom what is sometimes know as ‘phonological decay’: phonemic distinctions that ‘existed in Sanskrit have been eroded in speech, while the script remains ‘essentially Sansktitic. Decay’ is, of course, a rather loade word; one ‘could say thatthe evolution of Bengali a purification and improvement rather than a decline, Certainly its streamlined grammatical system is a relief to those who find complex inflections dificult. One might wish that the writing system had been similarly simplified: but as with English ‘spelling, to reform it would be to sever the language from its history. ‘The vowel sound introduced in this unit s purer than its nearest English ‘equivalent: © as in French café rather than in English play ‘The new consonant to learn is quite easy for English speakers to ‘pronounce. It is aspirated in a way that is quite normal in English: kh asin English hing —ano— ‘The vowel sign is write: ‘You can se thatthe vow this is true for Hindi and In good Bengal printing, the middle ofa word; bu! form used. When the sound e follow vowel y is used. Word pronounced as ‘bhoe' between vowels. Betwe English 'y, and this is th own. Often, however, i ‘example, s pronounced ‘normal speech. Betwer ‘win the verbal nc ‘This is rather like the below contains exampl have the eassete, liste y ¥ “The letter for the cons ie cs Final, ounce tolea “Thisis derived fom the sed in Sasi, bet msalsaion sig with nugeris used, forex bana aR ”nnd being achieved by ve Bengali script rep. fever, that j and tare sare all pronounced the proper vowel or arising from what is smic distinctions that ‘ile the script remains her loaded word; one +ion and improvement ‘uumatical system isa ‘One might wish that but as with English ‘fe from its history. amits nearest English v English speakers to ormal in English: SOUND AND ScarPr Aspirateit alittle more heavily than in English, especially atthe beginning ‘of words. When it occurs in the middle or at the end of words, the aspiration is much lighter. “The letter for eis: Handwrit Print e 4 ‘8 (ull vowed t € (vowel sign) ‘The vowel sign is writen before the consonant; so be is written ‘You can see that the vowel signfor 0 (C1, p. 10) is made ofe + a and this is true for Hindi and other South Asian languages too. In good Bengali printing, (is used at the beginning of a word and Tin the middle of a word; but in some modern ‘computer’ fonts is the only form used. ‘When the sound e follows another vowel, especially 9, , oF o, the ‘semi vowel’ y is used. Words like bhoy, khay, pay, or dhoy are therefore pronounced as ‘bhoe’, ‘ke’, ‘pe’ and ‘doe’. also serves asa gde’ between vowels. Between ande, aand or eand eit can sound ike an English y’, and thisis the sound you can give it when referring toitonits ‘own. Often, however, itis scarcely pronounced at all. meye (gr), for ‘example, is pronounced witha lengthened’ sound— the y disappears in ppormal speech. Between o and. itis pronounced like a ligt English ‘w': in the verbal nouns khaoya, foya, and deoya for example. ‘This is rather like the ‘w' sount in French oui, ‘The sound exercise below contains examples of these various pronunciations of y. If you hhave the cassette, listen careful toit. The letter for y is: y a q ‘The letter for the consonant kh is kh # a Finally, younced to lear letter thatis sometimes used forthe sound 9. ‘This is derived from the Sanskrit nasalisation sign, anusedra frequent fused in Sanskrit, but much less so in Bengali (which has a diferent nasalisation sign with a different function: see Unit 5, p. 19). Bengali ‘nusvar is used, for example, inthe word fr the Bengal language tsel, bamla at ” x £ \ —p—TEACH YOURSELF BENGALI ‘There are sorne words, particulary those where n or mare combined withanoteriterin conn, where Bena pings conse The word colloquially used for lem, tremendous, et. for example, can be spelt sanghatie (GUfEs) or sarmghank (FATE); the ‘word for colour can be spelt ron (216) or rom (ait) .. But for other words, the spelling is fixed (41671 is now an archaic spelling for ‘2ST ), and it is never possible to add a vowel to §. banali (the Bengali race or nation, as opposed to the Bengali language) must always be written aTehA}- Exercises 11_Listen to the tape, or refer back to previous pages, and practise saying the following words and phrases: se he, she cee having come fone having brought er hisher mmeye gir, daughter bye marrage tay helshe eats rahe helshe ulshocs lobe helshe wil eat Kmoya-daoya food, meal feke helhe leans Kab very seul illess makh _fingeritoe nail tmamsé. meat songe with monger Tuesday amiloab6 I shall eot Sn bona T shall nol write amar soqge sun Come wit, amader debenna Don't give Gil) to. ole khabet Will he/she eat ‘when helshe comes? bikharaniye es6 Bring the book. cebhane ese bésun Come and sit here unk aren? na Hasn't helshe come? No. ‘esab he neb6? Shall I write al this dawn? oekhuni elo Helshe has just sektane ub gorém 1?’ very ht ther ami kheye eam I came afer cating. se mongbtbar asbena Helshe sill not come (on) Tuesday In Unit 1 you learnt the variation # for ru, and Unit 2 included the similar vatiation © for %. This unit contains your frst consonantal ‘conjunet: ng. Some Bengali conjunets are immediately recognis- able: they are made up of two letters on top of each cther or side by —u—SOUND AND scnipr side. gh for example, is written (51 + 21). Others ae less recognisable, and pg is of ths type: eR ™ Jn moder typefaces you wilsometimes finda more easly recaps: able frm; but the form above is more common, and always weet handwriting See te tee ess xe a Bengali script. Watch out ‘which is underined, ke conjunts inthe transcription used inthis book“There are two vowel sounds toleamin this unit. The firsts similar to one ofthe vowel sounds of English: = asin English bat “The ather sound is a diphthong: i. itis made up of two vowels joined together: the vowels o and u joined to produce: “Make sure that you retain the ‘purty’ ofboth the o and the u, but et the stress ofthe syllable fllon theo. You have to push you ips right forward tomake this sound. “There is only one new consonant to learn, butt canbe dificult for the foreign learner. I's the unaspirated version of the consonant you learnt, in Unt 3, Inorder to produce it eorectly, say an English word ke beak (eotice that we do not normally aspirate the sound a the end ofthe ‘word). Now say the Bengal sound, givingit as usual theinherent vowel k ‘The sound zis represented in two ways in Bengali scrip, but unlike the variations between & and o or 9 (-& ) and m ( &) the speling is ‘generally fixed nowadays: words spelt in one way will act be spelt in the other. ‘The first way is to use the letter for e, which you learnt in Unit 3 —6—SOUND AND senier Handwriting Print = 4 ‘§ Gall vowe) t 6 (vowel sign) ‘The diphthong 0d is written: ot @ 2 Callvowey a 1° (vowel sign) ‘The consonant kis writen: k = * ¥) Exercises ——___ 2 1 Listen to the tape, or refer back to previous pages, and practise ‘saving the folowing words and phrase kt What? Al direction ket Wha? lok person ke hin, her kal yesterdaylomorrow ke him her Stal amake me ‘okst all far? Whose? totem ‘pen lesmént How? BEé eleven kend? Why? ‘ROdKO boat ‘keu anyone ‘8216 he/she went oka? When? aiken 7 do auni karen helshe does ‘ekhin deb8? Shall (1) give ameakini we bigy Gi) now? ee kene! Who bys? ew amake boleni No one fold for nam kit What is hither me. ‘name? se noiko kére onek dar gl6 ‘ekhane golmal kérona Don't Helshe went along way mate a noise here. by boat. cebsikhana kar! Whose i this orasobai fulsobar gel They book? «all went (on) Friday. “The last sentence above contained the conjunc kr: eras F = ‘See Unit 8, p. 30 for more information about conjuncts with ras the second member. ‘Remember that in this same word fucan be written 6 (hough * is also possible). [Now see if you can write the words and phrases in Exercise 1 in Bengali sri.In Unit 3 you learnt the letter derived from anusedra, the Sanit nasalisation sign: < @ ~ which functions in Bengali as an alternative to ® (a). To indicate the nasalisation of vowels, Bengal hs a different sign called Softpalte atthe back of the mouthso thatthe ar flow is directed though the nose rather than the mouth There are no nasalsed vowels Standard British English, In French there are plenty nom pref ps etc.) though none of them are quite lke the Bengali nasalised vowelst ‘The other sound to learn in this wit isa consonant, easy for Emgish speakers to make: ch as in English chaff Make sure this sound is well aspirated (more than in English) when t Comes at the begining ofa word, Inthe middle or atthe end of sword, aspiration tends to be much lighter (cf. kh, p. 12). ‘The nasalisation sign, candrébindy is writen ike this: \Handwriting Print “This is placed dlectly above a full vowel, but fa vowel sign is used tix placed over the consonant to which the vowel sgn is attached: asad In leaming to write the leter for eh, itis probably helpil to learn the letter for the unaspirated sound c, which willbe introduced properly in 2 Unit 10. The leter for eis contained within the letter for ch: « 5 i x 6 & Exercises —————— 1. Listen to the tape, or refer back to previous pages, and practise saying the folowing words and phrases. Pronouns are more ‘polite’ when they are nasalised! This will be explained in Part Two (see choy sit chur nife ari chi I am (presen arora chilam we were (present) se china helshe was not present) fama kheyechilam me ale se asche helshe i coming ‘ami bésechilam Isat ami kbrehi Tam doing cokhane rakhechi (1) have pul (i there ke aro mach dio. Give Iimbher more fish x kache ese boxé Come and sf near himbher olal kbrch6 land? Why are Gow) making a noise? ‘ke balbo ra Ske bébbo? ‘Shall () tel this person (or that person? uni kb rag kérechen, Hel she is very angn. 6 khub osukh kérechil6, He sas very ill —»w—SouNC AND senior ima zkh6nlaschen. Mother is ra mach marys kichul Just coming. ‘khanna. They don't eat fk bichana rode dao. Put the (ot) meat at all ‘bedding in the sunshine ‘ke bol6 amraesechi. Tell ‘imiher (hal) we have come. 2 ‘There are no conjunct letters to lea inthis unit. You may be ‘wondering how you can know whether two consecutive consomnts are written as a conjunct of not. The answer to tis is tha youcomeos ‘know just from the sound of a word, but grammar and HCG + 3) because it is made up ofthe present tense form kien lus the negative sufix na. Kircho is not written with the conunet & (a + &) because it consists ofthe stem kér- from tarsal the present continuous ending -ché (see Unit 21, p. 133). ‘Now see if you can write the words and phrases in Exercise 1 in Bengal script. aYou have three more nasalsed vowels toleam: this unit introduces you to the nasalised form of the first Bengali sound that you learnt (see p.2. ‘This is more or less the sound you would make iyou had bad catarsh and the doctor asked to look at your throat. ‘The two nev: consonants inthis wit introduce you to one ofthe most important consonantal Gistnction to be found inthe languages of South ‘Ass In Unit2, twas stessedthat the consonant was dental: made by pressing the tongue against the upper teeth. Itis essential to pronounce Bengali dental consonants corectly, $038 to distinguish them from a corresponding set of retroflex or ‘cerebral ‘consonants, made by pressing the tongue aginst the rear edge of the hard ‘alveolar ridge’ behind the upper teeth. ‘Cerebral, implying the pointing of the tongue up towards the cerebralcorex, iscnsideredtobe | ‘mn archaic term now; ‘retroflex, implies the curling ofthe tip of the tongue backwards. Neither termis very appropriate to Bengal, because the tongue snot curled round or pointed vertically upwards asin some South Asian languages; but the consonants in question are nevertheless anute distinct from the dental consonants. Fale to distinguish dental ffom retroflex consonants is often parodied in Bengali novels, when Englishmen are shown trying to speak Bengal (or Hind), Tiss rather Ie stereotyped Chinese in Engish novels confusing T with *, or ‘Germans pronouncing ‘w’ a8‘ —n—ie tre consonants introduced here are both ‘unvoiced and asi Inte. The sti dental made ike) on the teeth, but witht wnt? Ge. you can whisper itt you ike) asin French Pate ‘The second consonant is the etre’ equivalent. Put your gu ia such the same positions for an English’, bt point timene A ea “Te apy tering the tip af the tongue aginst the anes sige ‘Te Bengal sound is made withthe tp of hc toner t Bene regarddentalrasa‘soft sound, and retrofee as tad send, an may sometimes correct you pronunciation using these wast ‘The mal Ue the ober nal vowel is writen vith chide Handwriting Print tt a Remember that when the vowel sim is used, the rasl sgn goes over the consonant: 4 a ‘The letters for the two new consonants ae a flows: . . s t 2 6 ay Exercises ‘explained flyin Part Two: ‘uml you ake him, her tomar” your {aka money rape) omake (to) sou lukro ite piece toma you (pL) chot® small, ar they tebil table tira they kia one .duzo 00 ‘omra fal tar somay tinte three let What time did you come ete this esterday? ofa that sattarsomay AL seven olock kota How muchimany? macht be tata The fish is cetuku this lite bit nice and fresh. elqu a ite ‘oma matte juyechS toma ar deri kérona Don't anno! Why did you te delay any more. (sleep) om the ground? tumitGbu bse acho? Are you ci ele take Boste bolo Tell still siting waiting? him to wait when he comes. tui kheye nin (Please) eat ami kat taka debe! How ‘thst bit. ‘much shall I pay (ou)? {hits tomar tache tene amjasundér, kings ke The rao. Pull he table near you. mang is beau, bul sour 2. Therearetwonew conjuncts that result from this Unit a+ dandn + © ate 8 = Ate. 6 @ Aswithu(Usit2,p. 1D, thereis an alternative way of writing eu, so that nes (bu can ether be writen fg or FF. Inpiat, the older typefaces usually use the frst option, but in'modem typefaces ‘Gwsprint especialy) you wil often see the second. Now see if you can write the words and phrases in Exercise 1 in Bengal script.