Eastern Bengali, Baá¹ gÃÂlë Bengali (, ) or Vaá¹ ga Bengali (, ), is a set of vernacular dialects of Bengali, spoken in most of Bangladesh and Tripura, thus covering majority of the land of Bengal and surrounding areas.
It is also known as Baá¹ gÃÂlë (), Pà «rvavaá¹ gëáºÂa (), PrÃÂcya (), Vaá¹ ga (), or Vaá¹ gëáºÂa (). Chatterji often cited a more generalised variant of Eastern Bengali which he dubbed as, Typical East Bengali, for the sake of broader comparison with other varieties of Bengali. Eastern Bengali is often colloquially referred to by the exonym BÃÂá¹ gÃÂl BhÃÂshà() in West Bengal due to its association with Bangals. It may also be referred to by names such as Khaisi-Gesi Bangla (), emphasising the contrast between Eastern Bengali varieties and the standard language in terms of grammar by use of the example phrases "I have eaten" ( kheáºÂechhi in Standard Bengali but khaisi in Typical East Bengali) and "I have gone" ( giáºÂechhi in Standard Bengali but gesi in Typical East Bengali). A similar name, Khaitasi-Jaitasi Bangla (), instead juxtaposes the examples of "I am eating" ( khacchhi in Standard Bengali but khaitasi in Typical East Bengali) and "I am going" ( jacchhi in Standard Bengali but jaitasi in Typical East Bengali).
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, describing the cluster as "Vaá¹ ga Dialects", further divided it into two groups of two: "Western and Southwestern Vaá¹ ga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaá¹ ga". Eastern Vaá¹ ga is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi division of Sylhet and the Greater Comilla region of Chittagong along with the Barak Valley Division of Assam and the state of Tripura in India. Southeastern Vaá¹ ga is spoken in the remaining area of the Chittagong division, corresponding to the former colonial territories of Noakhali District and Chittagong District, and historically extended further into Sittwe. Western Vaá¹ ga is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, and Barisal. Southwestern Vaá¹ ga is spoken across the Khulna Division, where Eastern Bengali transitions into Central Standard Bengali.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: PrÃÂcya () and PÃÂà ÂcÃÂtya (). Within his PrÃÂcya grouping, he created the divisions of "Southeastern" and "Extreme Eastern", which approximately correspond to Chatterji's "Western and Southwestern Vaá¹ ga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaá¹ ga", respectively. The Southeastern group is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the Greater Noakhali region of the Chittagong division and eastern parts of the 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The Extreme Eastern group is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions Sylhet and Chittagong, including Greater Comilla and excluding Greater Noakhali, as well as the Barak Valley division of Assam.
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. The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali". 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. 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. Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region. 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. 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.
Eastern Bengali is characterised by a considerably smaller phoneme inventory when compared with Standard Bengali.
Eastern Bengali notably preserves epenthesis () from an earlier stage of Bengali. Thus, the equivalent of Standard Literary Bengali (ISO-15919: kariáºÂÃÂ) 'having done' in Typical East Bengali is [kÃÂÃÂiïþaÃÂ], having gone through the medial phase of *[kÃÂiïþiä]; by comparison, the Standard Colloquial Bengali equivalent is [kore], as the standard language has undergone the additional phonological processes of syncope and umlaut, unlike most Eastern Bengali dialects. Similar occurrences of metathesis occur in the case of consonant conjuncts containing âÂÂà §Âà ¦¯ jôphôla, due to the fact that it had, in earlier Bengali, also represented the addition of the semivowel [iï] at the end of a conjunct containing it in addition to its current standard usage of simply geminating the previous consonant in the conjunct. (ISO-15919: satya, 'truth'), for example, pronounced [ÃÂÃÂtêÃÂiïÃÂ] in earlier Bengali, is pronounced [ÃÂÃÂÃÂiïtêÃÂo] in Eastern Bengali and [ÃÂotêÃÂo] in Standard Bengali. Metathesis also occurs in the case of consonant conjuncts which were once pronounced with [iï] as a component even if they do not contain âÂÂà §Âà ¦¯ jôphôla itself, such as à ¦Âà §Âà ¦· (ISO-15919: ká¹£a), whose value in earlier Bengali was [kÃÂðiï]. Hence (ISO-15919: rÃÂká¹£asa, 'rakshasa'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of [räkÃÂðiïÃÂÃÂ], is pronounced [räiïkðÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ] or [räiïkÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ] in Eastern Bengali and [räkÃÂðoÃÂ] in Standard Bengali. Such is also the case for the conjunct à ¦Âà §Âà ¦ (ISO-15919: jña), which had the value of [gÃÂéï] in earlier Bengali. Hence, (ISO-15919: ÃÂjñÃÂ, 'order'), with the earlier Bengali pronunciation of [ägÃÂéïä], has the Typical East Bengali pronunciation of [äiïgÃÂaÃÂ] and the Standard Bengali [ägÃÂäÃÂ]. There is also a tendency to hypercorrect, leading to the frequent diphthongisation of vowels with [iï] if they precede any consonant cluster, even when there is no etymological basis to do so. For example, (ISO-15919: brÃÂhma, 'Brahmo') has the Standard Bengali pronunciation of [bþämæo], or, more commonly, [bþämÃÂo], but may be pronounced [bþäiïmÃÂÃÂÃÂ] in Eastern Bengali as if it were spelt (ISO-15919: brÃÂmya).
The aspiration and breathy voice present in Standard Bengali is notably mostly if not entirely absent in Eastern Bengali. The West Bengali linguists Chatterji and Sen described the deaspirated voiced consonants present in Eastern Bengali as being implosive consonants, such that the Standard Bengali phonemes /bñ/, /dêñ/, /ÃÂñ/, /dÃÂñ/, and /áñ/ would respectively correspond to //, //, //, /ÃÂÃÂ/, and // in Eastern Bengali. However, Animesh K. Pal, a native speaker of Eastern Bengali from Narayanganj, disputed this claim, instead describing the deaspiration as leading to the development of tones.
These tones are not limited to voiced aspirates, but are also present as compensation for the aspiration of consonants that were voiceless aspirates in Standard Bengali. Tone continues to exist in words even if they are not part of a near-identical pair that requires it for the sake of contrast.
Furthermore, the [æ] of Standard Bengali is most often deleted in Eastern Bengali dialects. This h-dropping has also been said to result in tone.
Mymensinghi Bengali () is an eastern dialect of the Bengali language, spoken primarily in the greater Mymensingh region of Bangladesh. Mymemsinghi Bengali closely resembles the dialect of greater Dhaka region. It is also highly mutually intelligible with other dialects of Bengali. It is commonly classified among the "Central East Bengali" varieties of Bengali language.
The word "Mymensinghi" is locally pronounced as Momensinga and Moimensinga. It is also referred to as Mymensingiyo, Moymonsingha, Maimensingha or simply Mymensingh.
The Mymensinghi dialect is common in almost all districts of Mymensingh Division of Bangladesh. It is also spoken by many local residents of Kishoreganj and Tangail districts of Dhaka division outside Mymensingh division. Additionally, it is spoken by people in adjacent areas of the Meghalaya state in India, as well as the Gazipur, Kurigram and Sunamganj districts of Bangladesh.
Mymensinghi dialect shows almost same features like others eastern dialects of Bengali language. Mymensinghi Bengali speakers generally produce consonantal sounds with reduced aspiration. For example, the Standard Bengali consonants /táÃÂ/ and /táÃÂð/ are pronounced as [tás] and [s] respectively. Similarly, the sound corresponding to âÂÂpâ sometimes articulated in a less aspirated manner and becomes akin to [ø]. In addition, the dialect shows variation in the realization of certain affricates and fricatives. Moreover, there are extensive uses of epenthesis of âÂÂiâ and âÂÂuâ vowels, developed from an earlier stage of Bengali language. The vowel sound âÂÂoâ may shift toward a pronunciation akin to âÂÂuâÂÂ. For example, (ISO-15919: bà ÂkÃÂ, 'dumb') is pronounced bukàin this dialect.
The morphology of the Mymensinghi Bengali retains several features that differentiate it from the standard dialect. A notable example along with other eastern Bengali dialects, Mymensinghi Bengali agree in having âÂÂrÃÂâ as the proper affix for objective case whereas the standard dialect prefer âÂÂkÃÂâÂÂ. For example, the word "ÃÂmÃÂkÃÂ" (to me) becomes "ÃÂmÃÂrÃÂ" in all eastern and southern Bengali varieties. Furthermore, in forming the future tense, speakers add the suffix 'mu' or 'ÃÂm' to the first-person singular verb root (e.g., âÂÂKormu/koramâ for âÂÂI will doâÂÂ), reflecting a systematic morphological variation in verbal inflection. The Mymensingh dialect has mid-front and back vowel mergers.
A comparison of Standard Bengali and Eastern Bengali dialects are presented below: