Easy Learn Bangla

About Bangla Language

Today over 250 million people speak Bangla in Bangladesh , West Bengal and Assam . In terms of world languages Bangla ranks six. Bangla is the easternmost language of the Indo-European group of languages and finds its roots in Sanskrit. Like all living languages, modern Bangla has absorbed words from other languages such as Arabic, Urdu, English and Persian. The vocabulary was further expanded through contacts with Portuguese traders and other merchants. Today Bangla has a number of regional variations but remains essentially the same throughout the region.

About International Mother Language Day

Bangla is the official language of Bangladesh . But this was not always the case as the establishment of Bangla was one of the major causes behind the formation of an independent Bangladesh.

International Mother Language Day is national holiday in Bangladesh . A remembrance day to honor the language martyrs who sacrificed their lives on 21st February, 1952 to establish Bangla as the national language of the then East Pakistan . After partition from British India in 1947 the majority of Pakistan ’s population was living in East Pakistan-modern day Bangladesh . Initially Urdu was established as the national language. The people of East Pakistan requested that Bangla become one of the state languages of Pakistan . The then government denied that request insisting that Urdu be the only language of Pakistan . Against this ruling, thousands of students and people protested through a general strike, disobeying the Government declaration. On 21s

t February, 1952 the Pakistani police and military killed four student leaders. This further galvanized the Bengali nationalist movement in Bangladesh . Since that tragedy the people of Bangladesh observe the 21st February National Language Day, which is known as “Ekushay” February in Bangla.

At the request of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh , UNESCO in November 1999 declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day. In memory of the heroes of the Bangladesh language movement 188 countries around the world observe this day. In Bangladesh on this day people honor the memory of those martyrs through countrywide book fairs, dramas and other cultural celebrations of the Bangla language.

About Bangla Vowels

There are eleven vowels in Bangla with seven sounds-Long and short. Four of these vowels are specifically named as short and long. These are the short i (rosso i)and the long i (dirgho i), the short u and long u. In reading or in a speech sequence, the length or duration of a Bangla vowels seldom counts. But in the written form each has its distinctive use.

All the vowels in the initial position of a word retain their original shape; but when used with the consonants, all of them except O , the first vowel, change their shape. The new shape is a signature which in Bangla is called ‘kar’ and takes the name of the vowel it identifies. For example, ‘a’ changes into ‘a kar’, ‘I’ changes into ‘I kar’ and so on.

About Bangla Consonants

The list of consonants in Bangla includes forty characters. But the units of sound are not more than twenty-nine.

The first twenty-five consonants are divided into five distinct phonetic groups. They have a well organized pattern of sounds. They are grouped according to the speech organs which articulate them as well as according to the manner in which they as articulated. In each group the second and the fourth are aspirated. The first and the third are unaspirated.