Author: Edward Dimock
Somdev Bhattacharji/Suhas Chatterjee
Publisher: Manohar
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 383
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8173041903
Description
The book seeks to present a basic course in spoken Bengali. The emphasis in the book is upon speaking and understanding the language without neglecting its structure. In fact the approach is a compromise between purely structural and purely cultural orientation. The course in divided into seventeen lessons.
The Bengali language is spoken by upwards of seventy millions of people in the eastern part of the Indian sub-continent; it is a recognized language in both the Republic of India and the Republic of Pakistan.
The immediate origins of the Bengali language are somewhat obscure. The chances are that it derives directly from an Eastern variety of an Indic languages closely related to Sanskrit, perhaps a dialectical variety of that language. In any case, in the stages of Indic language development known as Prakrit and Apabhramsa, it seems clear that in the eastern areas of the Indian sub-continent-those areas now occupied by the states of Bengal, Assam, Orissa, the eastern parts of Bihar, and the Pakistani province of East Bengal-divergent forms of language were developing.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Part I: Phonology
Lesson I to Lesson XXII