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Bengali

Bangla (বাংলা) or Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language of South Asia that evolved as a successor to the earlier Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit languages. Bengali is the English word for the name of the language (as well as the people speaking the language); in the language itself the tongue is called Bangla (বাংলা), a term now finding more usage in English. From this point forward, Bangla will be used to refer to the language.

Bangla is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. There are also significant Bangla-speaking communities in the Indian states of Assam and Tripura and in immigrant populations in the West and the Middle East. With more than 200 million native speakers, it is the fourth or fifth most widely spoken language in the world (after Mandarin, Spanish, English and, arguably, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)) [1]. Along with Assamese, the Bengali language is geographically among the easternmost of the Indo-European languages. Assamese, Oriya and Maithili, three other languages belonging to the Eastern Maghadan Branch of Indo-Aryan language family, are very closely related to Bangla. Standard Assamese, Oriya, and Bangla are considered by some to be nearly mutually intelligible and certain local dialects of one language bear striking resemblances to one of the other two languages.

Bangla is the second most commonly spoken language in India (after Hindi). As a result of the Bengal renaissance in the 19th and 20th centuries, much of India's most famous literature, poetry, and songs are in Bangla: the works of Rabindranath Tagore (the first Asian to be awarded a Nobel Prize), for example, were written in Bangla. Additionally, many of the reformist religious, philosophical, and political movements that began in that era were led by Bengalis.

Tip: To open ads in a new window keep Shift key pressed while clicking . mmmm . Sample text in Bengali   Transliteration Shômosto manush shadhinbhabe shôman môrjada ebong odhikar nie jônmogrohon kôre. Tãder bibek ebong buddhi achhe; shutorang shôkoleri êke ôperer proti bhratrittoshulobh mônobhab nie achoron kôra uchit. Translation All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)   Recommended books Free bengali fonts http://www.ekushey.org/projects/otf_bangla_fonts/ http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/bengali.html http://www.barnamala.com/badda/fonthelp.html http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/Lang/bengali.html Ekushey - an add-on for MS Word which enables you to type in Bengali or Assamese http://www.altruists.org/projects/ek/ Online Bengali Dictionaries http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/dictionary.html http://www.bangladict.org BBC Worldservice in Bengali http://www.bbc.co.uk/bengali/ Online Bengali magazines http://www.parabaas.com http://www.kheyal.com http://ajantrik.8m.net http://www.abasar.net http://www.freewebs.com/guruchandali/ http://www.sulekhapatrika.com Viswayan - information about Bengali language, literature, drama, video, etc. http://www.viswayan.com/ Bengali Primer - online lessons http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bengali_index.html Send email in Indian languages, including Bengali http://www.rediff.com http://www.sify.com http://www.banglaexpress.org