The official name of the country is the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The country is multinational, but the main population is Bengalis who preach Islam. The language in Bangladesh is extremely difficult for Europeans to understand, as it belongs to the branch of the Indo-European language family. He is in 6th place in terms of the number of speakers in the world.
Which language is Bangladesh official
Although a large number of nationalities live in Bangladesh, the majority of the population, as already mentioned, are Bengalis. If we talk about which language dominates in Bangladesh, then we can safely say Bengali. It is divided into a huge number of dialects, which usually hinders the understanding of people even within the country.
Bangladesh is spoken throughout the world. The largest spread of Bengali is in South Asia. Bengali is also recognized as official in 23 states of India and is extremely popular in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy, France, and Great Britain. The people of Bangladesh have been constantly immigrating throughout history. This factor ensured the enormous popularity of the Bengali language, bringing the number of speakers to 250 million people.
Bengali dialects
A population speaking this language cannot always understand each other. The language of Bangladesh is divided into several dozen dialects. All of them are divided into western and eastern, as well as the dialect of the city of Chittagon. Such diversity in writing and speech is directly related to the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947.
At one time, authorities tried to standardize the language, but differences still remain. Bengali norms in India and Bangladesh can vary greatly.
Muslim Bengalis speak eastern dialects called nadia. A distinctive feature in them is the use of words of Persian and Arabic origin. Bengali-speaking Indians are Hindus. They speak Western dialects, and also use words from Sanskrit and Pali.
Language history
The Bengali language appeared not so long ago, approximately in the 10th century. ad. He came to his present state at the beginning of the 19th century. It was the division between India and Pakistan that caused the division into western and eastern dialects.
Bangladesh does not belong to the ancient or oldest. His story is divided into three periods.
- Old Bengal X-XIV century. The period when the language was just beginning to develop. Individual peoples living in southern India lived too far from their developed neighbors. This contributed to the development of their own language, based on the existing one. Bengali in its original form resembled a Sanskrit dialect.
- Central Bengal XV-XVIII century. The language of Bangladesh is already well established. Works of literature and art that use this dialect begin to appear. We can say that it was during this period that the language settled down. Even then, the number of speakers increased to 30 million. The division into dialects begins.
- New Bengal XIX century. - our days. The number of borrowed words from Eastern languages is increasing.