Language Materials for Learning Bengali

Swami Vivekananda had written a very fantastic essay on the Bengali language of Calcuttans and why it should be the standard for all literature and official use etc. It used to be part of school text book in my sister's school in the 70s. I used to feel very proud of it.
Manik Bandopadhyay changed this concept somewhat. Syed Mujtaba Ali (one of my all time favourites) used to use a lot of Arabic and Urdu words. Nazrul Islam struck the best balance I think.
From a global point of view - the Hindu Bengali community is a minority and the language that we speak might have its days numbered. I hope my stating this does not create any unpleasant controversy. That's not the intention.

X-posted with Calcuttan


Now that we have so many Bengalis on the thread at once, may I enquire:

How did you learn the alphabet in school? By rote? With the Alphabet book by Bornoporichoy? And how many years of schooling did you do in Bangla before switching to English medium? I hope this question is not too intrusive or too politically loaded.

No. It is not. I am not inclined to write all the words that Muslim Bengalis use here in Bengal that are different from the ones that we use. Try to talk to one of them and you will understand what I mean. You have obviously not done it ever. Otherwise a sensitive person like you would have noticed it.

Bornoporichoy it is for me.

I have done my education in Bengali medium school/s where English was the second language, but was much emphasized - until after that I moved to do my Engineering - that is almost 15 years of education in Bengali medium starting from the preparatory classes.

Wars have started over less.

Hitting a Bengali in the intellect(s) is asking for trouble, as I discovered playing chess in school in Calcutta.

you havent been bought up [it is evident] in a bangal household - or had friends/acquaintances from sylhet [for example].

unfortunately - them bangla dialects are all dead with the former generation.

OF COURSE bangal spoken in BD is different to bangla spoken here.
but it has to do with a tad more than just the shaheb bibi aur gulam that you're presenting here.



for chrissakes... bengali is phool of dialects.
nothing to do with hindu-bengali. what the hell is that ??

:brishti

From Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language

I have heard that the Bengali spoken in Tripura and Assam are also a bit different to the one spoken in West Bengal.

Not sure..am I opening up a Pandora's box?

Nevertheless...

Oops...

Bangal (People who are originally from Bangladesh but took refuge in West Bengal during riots/partition etc) vs ghoti (People who are from West Bengal)?

East Bengal Vs Mohan Bagan? (used to be one of the most famous (read hot) topics of an 'adda')...

aabaar correction - not ALL bangals crossed the border during partition !!!! my mom was born in agra - if you must know !!!!
gosh the stereotyping !!!!




worship both elish and chingri same to same
:brishti

ami-o (me too)

Can we get back to Bengali Teaching Weapons, hmm, I mean Teaching Tools?

I have never mentioned that all people from Bangladesh moved to WB during partition..Was just explaning the generalized definition...

do you really think that one should know/explain each and every exception....

Phew...you didn't get the whole point

For chrissake...
please don't be a stereotype to think everyone's a stereotype...

am guessing the 'etc' makes it non-generalised - because the rest of that statement totally read as = Bangal (People who are originally from Bangladesh but took refuge in West Bengal during riots/partition etc).

if you had stopped at 'originally from Bangladesh' - phew - then it'd be much easier to 'get'
East Bengal would've been better - since we still have West Bengal

incidentally - there was another wave that came across - when east pakistan became bangladesh


:brishti

calcuttan - are there not different dialects in bengal itself ?
do folks from say - medinipur speak bangla the same way as one does in kolkata ?
or say... folks who say 'nuchi' for 'luchi' or 'nokkhi pujo' for 'lokkhi pujo'.
there are places too - that speak in 's' and have very few 'sh' words.

has nothing to do with religion, nah ?
its like you said - the language differs from region to region.
except for the form of address - which differes between a muslim and a hindu and a christian [shri derek o'brian ? ] - the language itself cannot be distinguished as muslim or hindu-bengali.

yes, you are correct - pani is a 'bangal' word as is 'lobon' salt - 'noon' in bengal another word difference is 'naite' bathe - snaan.
nothing to do with religion. that is where i differ from how you were differentiating the language.


trivia:
pujo'r ghor [place of worship] in sylheti is - faak'er ghor.
pujo [worship] = faak in sylheti

if you ever heard chaadga and/or sylheti - you'd never understand a word.


and yyam - you want to learn bangla as spoken in kolkata.
poschimbongo has a whole lotta bangla dialects


bornoporichoy is how we began and learnt the spellings from.
there was another set of books - with huge graphics - black and white.
forget the name.


:brishti

"Mekurey hooroom khaiya hokkor korchey" (Chittagunge dialect)

=

"Beral doodh kheye eto korochey" (Kolkata dialect)

=

"the cat has sipped the milk and spoilt it" = English.

There is Bengali and Bengali ........

Bristi - You are confusing Bangal and Ghoti with Hindu and Muslim. Hindus would call a dream "shapno" in whatever accent - Bangal or Ghoti. Muslims whether on this side or that will call it "khawab" and will call it shapno only if they were talking to another Hindu. Hindus will call their father baba. Muslims - whether on this side or that - will call him abba. I could go on till the cocks wake up to crow. The list will not end.
What I am saying is this - Hindus have a different language. Muslims have a different language. BBC tries to strike a balance between the two and ends up creating a mishmash that is neither here nor there.
There cannot be any argument on this. It is almost like self evident truth. This is all that I tried to say.

TD - I studied Bengali till class twelve. In our school - a Christian missionary school in Calcutta - the medium of instruction used to be Bengali till class six. After that the medium of instruction for all subjects was English. I am lucky. Our school was unique in this regard.
My daughter is learning all the subjects (except Bengali) in English from her age 2 and a half. It is unfortunate but it cannot be helped.
Personally I do not remember how I learnt the Bengali alphabet. But most Bengalis will not be able to tell you the entire alphabet in correct sequence, particularly towards the end most will start fumbling. It is not important to know the sequence, they will tell you !! And probably it is true as well.