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Bengali language

"Bangla language" redirects here. Not to be confused with Bangala language.

Bengali
বাংলা · Bangla
The word "Bangla" in the Bengali-Assamese script (Bengali alphabet)
Pronunciation[ˈbaŋla]
Native toBangladesh and India
Region
EthnicityBengalis
SpeakersL1: 237 million (2011–2021)[1][2]
L2: 41 million (2011–2021)[1]
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
Regulated by
Language codes
ISO 639-1bn
ISO 639-2ben
ISO 639-3ben
Glottologbeng1280
Geographical distribution of the Bengali language. Darker shades imply a greater percentage of native speakers.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Bengali
This article contains Bengali text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.
Part of a series on
Bengalis
Bengali history
Bengali homeland
Bengali people
Bengali culture
Bengali symbols
Bengali nationalism


Bengali,[a] also known by its endonym Bangla (বাংলা, Bāṅlā, [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024,[1] Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world.[7][8] It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language.[9]

Bengali is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh,[10][11][12] with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language.[13][14] It is the second-most widely spoken language in India. It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam. It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011.[3] It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal,[15] and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Uttarakhand.[16] Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas (Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions.[17]

Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024.[18][19] It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India, following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei (Manipuri), along with Gujarati, in the third place, according to the 2011 census of India.[20]

Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature, with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement.[21][22]

  1. ^ a b c d Bengali at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2011" (PDF). Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Jharkhand gives second language status to Magahi, Angika, Bhojpuri, and Maithili". The Avenue Mail. 21 March 2018. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  4. ^ "Bengali". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 7 February 2024. An Indic language spoken in India and Bangladesh.
  5. ^ "Bengal". The Chambers Dictionary (9th ed.). Chambers. 2003. ISBN 0-550-10105-5.
  6. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  7. ^ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  8. ^ "Summary by language size". Ethnologue. 2019. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  9. ^ Banerjee, Mou (21 February 2023). "The missionaries and the evolution of the Bengali language". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  10. ^ "Bangla Bhasha Procholon Ain, 1987" বাংলা ভাষা প্রচলন আইন, ১৯৮৭ [Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987] (PDF). Bangladesh Code বাংলাদেশ কোড (in Bengali). Vol. 27 (Online ed.). Dhaka: Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Bangladesh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  11. ^ "Bangla Language". Banglapedia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  12. ^ "The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh". Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  13. ^ "National Languages Of Bangladesh". einfon.com. 11 June 2017. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  14. ^ "5 Surprising Reasons the Bengali Language Is Important". 17 August 2017. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  15. ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). National Commission for Linguistic Minorities. 16 July 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  16. ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Bengali Language". www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  18. ^ Kumar, Vivek; Roy, Suryagni (3 October 2024). "Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, Bengali now among classical languages". India Today. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  19. ^ "Classical language status: Union Cabinet approves addition of Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit to list". The Hindu. PTI. 3 October 2024. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  20. ^ —R, Aishwaryaa (6 June 2019). "What census data reveals about use of Indian languages". Deccan Herald. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
    —Pallapothu, Sravan (28 June 2018). "Hindi Added 100Mn Speakers In A Decade; Kashmiri 2nd Fast Growing Language". Indiaspend.com. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
    —IndiaSpend (2 July 2018). "Hindi fastest growing language in India, finds 100 million new speakers". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
    —Mishra, Mayank; Aggarwal, Piyush (11 April 2022). "Hindi grew rapidly in non-Hindi states even without official mandate". India Today. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  21. ^ "Amendment to the Draft Programme and Budget for 2000–2001 (30 C/5)" (PDF). General Conference, 30th Session, Draft Resolution. UNESCO. 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
  22. ^ "Resolution adopted by the 30th Session of UNESCO's General Conference (1999)". International Mother Language Day. UNESCO. Archived from the original on 1 June 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2008.


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