Central Bengali dialects

Central Bengali or Rāṛhī/Rāḍhī Bengali (, ) is a group of dialects of the Bengali language, spoken in the West-Central part of Bengal, in and around the Bhagirathi River basin of Nadia district and other districts of the Presidency division in West Bengal, as well as the undivided Kushtia district region of western Bangladesh. Associated with the upper Delta and eastern Rarh region of Bengal, it forms the basis of the standard variety of Bengali.

Geographical boundaries

This dialect is prevalent in Central Bengal specifically in the West Bengal districts of Kolkata, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, Ghatal and Tamluk in Midnapore, Murshidabad 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 dialects, Modern Standard Bengali has been formed on the basis of this dialect.

Features

Phonology

• Extensive use of Obhishruti (অভিশ্রুতি, /obʱisrut̪i/, umlaut). E.g. Beng. Koriya (করিয়া, /koria/, meaning - having done) > Beng. Koira (কইর‍্যা, /koirya/) > Beng. Kore (করে, /kore/).
• 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, /bilit̪i/).
• Most of the time, if the first sound of a word is 'n', it becomes 'l' and if it is 'l', it becomes 'n'. E.g. newa (নেওয়া, /nēwa/) became lewa (লেওয়া, /lēwa/) and lebu (লেবু, /lēbu/, meaning - lemon) became nebu (নেবু, /nēbu/).
• The Aspirated 'chh' at the after of a word is pronounced like not aspirated 'ch'. E.g Giyechhi (গিয়েছি, /giyēchhi/, meaning - have gone) became gechi (গেচি, /gēchi/).

Morphology

• The common standard Bengali plural affix 'gulô' (গুলো) is pronounced 'gunô' (গুনো) in the dialect, whereas it becomes 'gulā' or 'gulān' in eastern Bengali dialects.
• The past first person affix (i)lām in standard dialect becomes (i)lum, or (i)nu. E.g the word in standard dialect 'kôr(i)lām' (কর'লাম) became kôr(i)lum (কর'লুম) or kôr(i)nu (কর'নু).
• The 'go' suffix which is added to the singular genetive to form the genetive plural is also found in Rarhi dialect speaking areas but it is commonly used in Vanga dialects. E.g āmā-gô (our), tômā-gô (your).

Obhishruti and Opinihiti

Ôbhishruti (অভিশ্রুতি, /obʱisrut̪i/) and Ôpinihiti (অপিনিহিতি, /opinihit̪i/, epenthesis) are two phonological phenomena that occur in spoken Bengali dialects. Opinihiti refers to the phonological process in which a i or u is pronounced before it occurs in the word. Obhishruti is the sound change in which this shifted i or u 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).

References