Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)

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Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)

Sameer ud Dowla Khan

Journal of the International Phonetic Association / Volume 40 / Issue 02 / August 2010, pp 221 - 225

DOI: 10.1017/S0025100310000071, Published online: 08 July 2010

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0025100310000071

How to cite this article:

Sameer ud Dowla Khan (2010). Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard). Journal of the International

Phonetic Association, 40, pp 221-225 doi:10.1017/S0025100310000071

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I LLUSTRATI ONS O F THE I PA

Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)

Sameer ud Dowla Khan

Department of Linguistics, UCLA

[email protected]

Bengali ( /baNla/) is an Indo-European language (Indic branch) spoken by over 175

million people in Bangladesh and eastern India (Dasgupta 2003: 352; Lewis 2009). The

speech illustrated below is representative of the standard variety widely spoken in Dhaka and

other urban areas of Bangladesh.

Consonants

Plosives and affricates contrast in voicing and aspiration. Although displayed in one column,

the articulation of the postalveolars varies by consonant type (see ‘Conventions’ below).

Barring rare exceptions, /d

h/ do not occur word-ﬁnally and /N/ does not occur word-initially

(Dasgupta 2003: 358–359).

Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2010) 40/2



International Phonetic Association

doi:10.1017/S0025100310000071

222 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA

Vowels

Vowels are plotted below based on F1 and F2 frequencies averaged across six speakers. Vowel

length is not contrastive, except across morpheme boundaries. The contrast between oral and

nasal vowels observed in Kolkata Standard Bengali (Masica 1991: 118) is not characteristic

of Bangladeshi Standard, presumably due to Eastern dialect inﬂuence (Majumdar 1997: 108).

Diphthongs

Diphthongs contrast with heterosyllabic vowel sequences (Islam 2000: 95; Dasgupta 2003:

356–357), as in /aj/

‘I sing’ vs. /ai/ ‘body (emphatic)’ and /ʃoe8/ ‘lies down’

vs. /ʃoe/

‘having tolerated’. There is no high-mid vs. low-mid distinction in off-glides, so

diphthongs such as /ao8/ may vary between [ao8]and[aɔ8]. Off-glides are produced with a higher

tongue position than corresponding nuclear vowels; compare /ʃo/

‘show’ vs. /ʃoo8/ ‘you

lie down’ (cf. /ʃɔ/

‘tolerate!’, /ʃɔo8/ ‘you tolerate’). Some speakers monophthongize

/εe8/to[ε]; compare the two recordings of /nεe8/

‘justice’. Vowel sequences not included

below can only occur across syllable boundaries, e.g. /bie/

‘wedding’, /kua/ ‘well’.

Stress

Stress is not marked in broad transcription as it is consistently word-initial. While stress

is neither contrastive nor phonetically salient (Chatterji 1921, Goswami 1944, Ferguson &

Chowdhury 1960, Anderson 1962, Bykova 1981, Kawasaki & Shattuck-Hufnagel 1988, Hayes

& Lahiri 1991, Lahiri & Fitzpatrick-Cole 1999, Michaels & Nelson 2004, Selkirk 2006), it

is associated with phonological alternations and plays an important role in the intonational

system, as it is associated with the postlexical pitch accent (Khan 2008: chapter 2).

Sameer ud Dowla Khan: Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard) 223

Geminates

Excluding /d  Nfsh®/, all consonants can occur geminated within morphemes,

and are transcribed with the length diacritic /…/. Singleton /dd

/ do not occur after

tautomorphemic vowels except in ideophones and loanwords, e.g. /®od/

‘road’.

Conventions

Postalveolars

The postalveolar region includes three distinct tongue conﬁgurations: apical for plosives and

/®/, laminal for the affricates, and domed for /ʃ/. The plosives /tt

dd/ are variously described

as ‘cacuminal’ (Islam 2000: 90), ‘cerebral’ (Majumdar 1997: 166), ‘retroﬂex’ (Ramaswami

1999), ‘retroﬂex alveolar’ (Ray, Hai & Ray 1966: 6), ‘not true retroﬂex’ (Haldar 1986:

22), ‘alveolo-retroﬂex’ (Hai 1960), ‘approaching the alveolar region’ (Chatterji 1970: xxxiii),

‘more apico-alveolar . . . than the true apico-palatals of sister languages to the west’ (Dasgupta

2003: 359), and ‘simply alveolar’ (Tunga 1995: 139). The affricates /t2

t2 d2 d2 / are variously

characterized as ‘palatal affricates’ (Ramaswami 1999, Islam 2000: 91), ‘apico-dental hissing

sibilants . . . [or] affricated plosives’ (Ray et al. 1966: 81), ‘palatal . . . made with the front

of the tongue’ (Chatterji 1970: xxxii), ‘dental affricates’ (Haldar 1986: 26), ‘alveolo-palatal

affricates’ (Dasgupta 2003: 359), and ‘dental-palatal plosives’ or ‘dorso-alveolar’ affricates

(Tunga 1995: 131). Palatographic evidence indicates dorso-alveolar affrication (Hai 1960).

The fricative /ʃ/ is described as ‘mediopalatal’ (Alam 2000: 43; Islam 2000: 91) and ‘palato-

alveolar’ (Dasgupta 2003: 360).

224 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA

Rhotic

Bangladeshi Standard Bengali has only one rhotic /®/, as is the case in most Eastern dialects

(Dasgupta 2003: 359; Masica 1991: 97); however, some speakers may maintain a marginal

/®/ vs. // distinction in formal registers due to inﬂuence from Kolkata Standard. The rhotic

/®/ can be realized as a tap [ɾ], especially following dentals (Dasgupta 2003: 359), and both

realizations can be devoiced [®9 ɾ9] in codas. Consonants are often lengthened following /®/.

Fricatives

Unlike Kolkata Standard, Bangladeshi Standard contrasts /ʃ/ and /s/ word-initially, e.g. /si®ka/

‘vinegar’ vs. /ʃi®a/ ‘syrup’, in medial clusters, e.g. /ast 1e/ ‘softly’ vs. /aʃt1e/

‘to come’, and word-ﬁnally, e.g. /bas/ ‘enough’ vs. /baʃ/ ‘bamboo’ (Masica 1991: 98;

Islam 2000: 91; Dasgupta 2003: 360). In word-initial and word-ﬁnal clusters, /s/ is common

and /ʃ/ is rare, e.g. /s®ot 1a/

‘listener’, /desk/ ‘desk’. As intervocalic singletons and

geminates, /ʃ/ is common and /s/ is rare, e.g. /d1oʃi/

‘guilty’, /d1oʃ…i/ ‘rogue’. The

fricative /f/ is variously realized [f φ p

] (Dasgupta 2003: 360).

Clusters

Although uncommon in native words, clusters are found in initial, medial, and ﬁnal position,

e.g. /st1®i/

‘wife’, /ʃɔNsk®it1i/ ‘culture’, /ɔnd2 / ‘marketplace’.

Transcription of recorded passage

εkd1in ut1…o® hao8a eboN ʃu®d2

ot1ɔ®ko ko®t2 ilo t1ad1e® mod1…ekebeʃi ʃokt1iman.

ʃej muhu®t1eba®i t2

ad1o® pɔ®a εkd2 on pot1ik t1ad1e® d1ike hete aʃe. hao8aa®

ʃu®d2

o®ad2 ihɔe8 t1ad1e® mod1…ed2 e ʃej pot1ike® ae® t2 ad1o® kolat1e pa®e, t1akej

beʃi ʃokt1iman d1a®d2

okɔ®a hɔbe. e® pɔ®ut1…o® hao8at1a® ʃɔb ʃokt1id1ie bojt1e

ʃu®u kɔ®e, kint1u ʃed2

ɔt1oj d2 o®e bɔe8 t1ɔt1oj pot1ik t1a® t2 ad1o® t2 epe d1o®e ®ak e.

bε®t1o hoe hao8at1a® t2

eʃta bɔnd1okɔ®e. e® pɔ® ʃu®d2 e® pala. ʃu®d2 ot1a® ɔ®om

t1ap t2

ɔ®ae8. pot1ikti ʃɔNe ʃɔNet1a® ae® ʃalti kule fεle. ɔboʃeʃeut1…o® hao8a

mene nit1e bad1…o holo d2

et1ad1e® d1ud2 one® mod1…e ʃu®d2 oj beʃi ʃokt1iman.

Orthographic version

English translation

One day the North Wind and the Sun were disputing who was stronger between them. At that

very moment, a traveler wearing a heavy shawl came walking towards them. The Wind and

the Sun agreed that the one who could take the shawl off from the traveler’s body would be

considered the stronger. After this, the North Wind started to blow with all his strength, but

the more forcefully he blew, the more the traveler kept his shawl held tightly around him.

Defeated, the Wind ended his effort. After this, it was the Sun’s turn. The Sun scattered his

warmth. The traveler immediately took off the shawl from his body. In the end, the North

Wind was obliged to acknowledge that of the two of them, it was the Sun who was stronger.

Sameer ud Dowla Khan: Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard) 225

Acknowledgements

I would like to sincerely thank my primary consultants, Farida Amin Khan and Shaﬁq ud Dowla Khan,

and all my speakers for their time and patience. I would also like to express my gratitude to John

Esling, Bruce Hayes, Ewa Jaworska, Sun-Ah Jun, Aditi Lahiri, Aaron J. Lee, and one anonymous

reviewer for their valuable comments and insight.

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