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Bengali

Bengali

2 4.9
The language spoken in Bengal, mainly in Bangladesh and West Bengal
  • noun
  • /bɛŋˈɡɑli/
: bengalí
  • Many people in West Bengal speak Bengali as their first language.

Examples

  • She enjoys reading stories written in Bengali to connect with her roots.

  • Bose has read his English translations and provided brief historical context of each of the songs, while Parmita Malik has sung the Bengali originals.

  • The Bengali language has a rich literary tradition that includes poetry and novels.

Synonyms

Bangla
vsBengali
1 5.3

The official language of Bangladesh and West Bengal, also called Bengali

gives the language family and main regions where its speakers live
Bangla language
vsBengali
3.8

The language spoken by Bengali people in Bangladesh and West Bengal

is the broader Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in those same regions

Surface Forms

Bengali singular
Bengalis plural

Morphology

Bengali = Bengal (transparent) = Bengal + i

The language name is a standard derivation from the place-name by adding '-i', so the relation is predictable.

Etymology

Bengali for the language comes from the region Bengal, whose people call the language Bangla. So Bengali (or Bangla) is the language spoken mainly in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.