Bengali in India

Speakers

97,237,669

Type

Location

Bengali in India

Country

Information available

1. Basics

Names

Bengali in India

Size

97,237,669

2. Status

Status

  • Official country wide language
  • Official regional language
  • Official minority language
  • Recognised community language
  • Unrecognised community language
National language
Yes
Indigenous language
Yes
Administrative units of the country
West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand, Barak Valley/Assam

3. State

Documentation: materials

Written

  • Extended corpora
  • Annotated corpora
  • Corpus/corpora
  • Materials/corpus
  • Some materials
  • No materials
Digital
Yes
Comments
Written material is available in Bengali language in the form of textbooks, novels, dramas, peotry, books related to culture and language and others as well.

https://archive.org/search?query=bengali

AMI EKJON BENGALI BOLCHI, (2023), NIRMAL MANDAL, ANUVUTI PRAKASHAN Publication, 978-81-961614-4-6.

KOBITA SANGRAHA (A Collection of Bengali Poems By Dishari Mukhopadhyay, (2023), PRACHYA PASCHATYA, 978-81-953027-3-4

Bangla Book List
https://www.banglabook.org/a-z-list/

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/handle/10603/294177
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/handle/10603/294182
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/handle/10603/294173
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/handle/10603/427728
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/simple-search?query=bengali&go=

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Video

  • Extended corpora
  • Annotated corpora
  • Corpus/corpora
  • Materials/corpus
  • Some materials
  • No materials
Digital
Yes
Comments
There are videos in the form of songs, movies, folklore, dance and others available in Bengali language.

https://archive.org/search?query=bengali&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22movies%22

https://bengali.news18.com/live-tv/

https://tv9bangla.com/live-tv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f1O74GwWJM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqJU_YpGeNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjR5bhX4Hxc

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Audio

  • Extended corpora
  • Annotated corpora
  • Corpus/corpora
  • Materials/corpus
  • Some materials
  • No materials
Digital
Yes
Comments
https://archive.org/search?query=bengali&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22movies%22&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22audio%22

https://onlineradiofm.in/west-bengal/kolkata

https://gaana.com/playlist/gaana-dj-bengali-top-50

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Documentation: descriptions

  • Elaborated dictionaries, grammars, statistical language models, etc.
  • Dictionaries and grammars
  • Dictionary and grammar
  • Glossary and descriptions
  • Few descriptions
  • No descriptions
Digital
Yes
Comments
Chatterji, Sunti Kumar. 1926. The origin and development of the Bengali language. Calcutta: Calcutta University Press. xci+1179pp. (2 vols).

Dasgupta, Probal. 1980. Questions and relative and complement clauses in a Bangla grammar. New York, NY: Ann Arbor: UMI. 450pp.

Hanne-Ruth Thompson. 2012. Bengali. (London Oriental and African Language Library.) Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. xxviii+384pp.

David, Anne Boyle. 2015. Descriptive Grammar of Bangla. Berlin: Mouton. xxiii+330pp.

Haldar, Gopal. 2002. A comparative grammar of east Bengali dialects. repr.of 1986 edn. Calcutta: Puthipatra. xii+188pp. (Bibliography: p. [187]-188).

Anderson, James Drummond. [1962]. A manual of the Bengali language. New York: Ungar. 178pp.

https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/beng1280

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/handle/10603/355505

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/handle/10603/386341

https://www.english-bangla.com/bntobn

https://www.lexilogos.com/english/bengali_dictionary.html

https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/biswas-bengali/

https://xeroxtree.com/pdf/bengali_english_dictionary.pdf

Standardization

  • Modern standard language
  • Young standard language
  • Standardised language
  • Quasi-standard language
  • Semi-standardised language
  • Un-standardised language

Graphisation & script encoding

  • Standardised writing system with full script encoding
  • Conventionalised writing system with partial script encoding
  • Consistent writing system with no script encoding
  • Unsystematic writing system(s)
  • Limited written use
  • No written use
Comments
Bengali written with Bengali script

4. Users

Geographical distribution

  • Users live and dominate in all regions of the country
  • Users live in one [state/...] of the country
  • Users live in a cross-border region [state/...] of the country
  • Users live in separated [states/...] of the country
  • Users live dispersed across one [state/...] of the country
  • Users live scattered all over the country

Settlements

  • Rural
  • Urban
Comments
https://www.langlex.com/cens/MTProfile.php?mtname=Bengali

Size / Number of users

Number of users

97237669
Source
Census of India
Year
2011

Users within total population

Users within the reference community

Age distribution of users

0

Generational use

All generations

Educational attainment

Early childhood education
Primary education
Lower secondary education
Higher secondary education
Tertiary education

Occupational qualifications

Language competence

Understand all, speak/sign fluently

Literacy of users

82
71
More than 50% of users with literacy in the language
Actual percentage
76
Source

Census of India

Year
2011

Digital use

5. Use

Socio-geographic dimension

Geographic scope
  • International
  • Supranational
  • Cross-border (states)
  • State-wide
  • Supra-regional cross-border
  • Supra-regional
  • Regional cross-border
  • Regional
  • Local

Economic dimension

Functional dimension

Functional scope
  • Public domains
  • Everyday domains
  • Private domains
Nature
complementary
Stability
Increasing
Functional scope
  • Public domains
  • Everyday domains
  • Private domains
Nature
complementary
Stability
Increasing
Functional scope
  • Public domains
  • Everyday domains
  • Private domains
Nature
complementary
Stability
Increasing

Functional use in administration

Language use in administration
  • International level
  • National level
  • Regional level
  • Local level
  • Auxiliary use
  • No use

Types of language use

  • signed / spoken use
  • written use
  • digital use

Language is used for

  • Census data
  • Census surveys
  • Election processes
  • Topographical signs
Comments
State

Ethnoculture

  • No use
  • Informal learning
  • Skills and knowledge
  • Performing arts
  • Social practices
  • Customary law
  • Traditional medicine
  • Knowledge and practices
  • Traditions and expressions

Formal Education

Early childhood education
Primary level
Lower secondary level
Higher secondary level
Tertiary level

Public healthcare

  • Language not used
  • Translations
  • Healthcare information
  • Nursing care (incl. elderly)
  • Doctor-patient communication
  • Generally used

Information, communication and cultural production

  • Information services
  • Broadcasting
  • Video, film
  • Sound/music recording
  • Publishing activities
  • Language not used
  • Information services
  • Broadcasting
  • Video, film
  • Sound/music recording
  • Publishing activities
  • Language not used
  • Information services
  • Broadcasting
  • Video, film
  • Sound/music recording
  • Publishing activities
  • Language not used
  • Information services
  • Broadcasting
  • Video, film
  • Sound/music recording
  • Publishing activities
  • Language not used
  • Information services
  • Broadcasting
  • Video, film
  • Sound/music recording
  • Publishing activities
  • Language not used

Legal system

Language use in the legal system
  • General use
  • Legal transactions
  • Court proceedings
  • Written submissions
  • Spoken/signed testimonies
  • Language not used

Areas of law the language is used

  • Criminal law
  • Civil law
  • Administrative law

Geographical scope of legal language use

  • Local
  • Regional
  • National
  • International

Completion