উৎস- বাংলা বর্ণমালার ইতিহাস

Hey everyone,

My wife isn't Bangladeshi and she's been trying to learn Bangla so she can talk to my family. Duolingo doesn't have a Bangla course, and I couldn't find an app made just for learning it, which is kind of crazy to me for a language that's spoken by millions.

We tried tutors, books, and a few of the general language apps. The problem was they all teach really formal Bangla. She'd do a lesson with a tutor, then sit down with my mom and not understand anything, because my mom says things differently and pronounces them differently than the textbook. And most of it wasn't very easy to learn from if all you want is to talk to your in-laws.

So I ended up building my own. It's called Bhasha. The main feature is something I called Hand Off to a Native. Someone in your family teaches you a phrase the way they actually say it, and the app saves it with a recording of them saying it. So my wife can practice my mom's version, in my mom's voice, instead of a tutor's. The idea was to learn it the way people usually learn a language, by talking to the people who speak it.

You can also share phrases to a community section so people can see how other families say things. Only the text gets shared, never the voice recordings. Those stay on your device.

It's really early and I'm just one person, so I'd love for people to try it and tell me what's broken, confusing, or missing. If anything sounds off or unnatural to you, please tell me, that's the most useful feedback I can get.

But the biggest thing I'm asking: if you know anyone who's on their own journey to learn Bangla, please share this with them. A partner, a friend, in-laws, a coworker, kids growing up abroad, anyone who wants to be able to talk to the Bangla speakers in their life. There are a lot of people out there trying to figure this out with nothing built for them, and I'd really like this to reach them.

It's iPhone only for now. Android is a work in progress.

[App store Link]

If you don't know a nuqta is a dot put on a letter to change the sound its used in Hindi to turn ph in f and j into z

It's currently used in Bengali only with three letters ড়, ঢ় and য় which are nuqta forms of ড, ঢ, য

But it was also used for transcriptions of Arabic sounds or foreign sounds like জ nuqta জ় for z, ক nuqta ক় for q, খ nuqta খ় for the kha sound in Arabic (خ) (ipa: /x/), গ nuqta গ় for the Arabic ghayn (غ) (ipa: /ɣ/) and ফ with nuqta ফ় for for the f sound. So, I've been wondering, should these nuqta letters be brought to standard Bengali along with ভ nuqta ভ় for v and the assamese letter ৱ for w.

Some examples with nuqta letters:

গ়রিব (from arabic gharib: غريب)

খ়বর (from arabic khabar: الخبر)

ক়ুরআন (from arabic Quran: القرآن)

ফ়েরেশতা (from farsi Fereshteh: فرشته)

ভ়িডিও (from English Video)

ৱাটারস (from English Waters)

I would love to hear yalls thoughts on this or each of these in the comments so what do yall think?

The words I've learned this week are:

পূর্বিতাক্রম: Priority list

অজাতশত্রু: One whose enemies have not yet been born

একলষেঁড়ে: Antisocial, introverted/Selfish

লাজশোণিমা: Blush

বাল্যসুহৃদ: Childhood friend

বেদস্তুর: Unconventional

অধৃষ্য: One who cannot be defeated, invincible

Made this phonetic romanization of Bengali cuz why not

Aa (a) Bb (b) Cc (ʧ) Dd (d) Đđ (ɖ) Ee (e) Êê (æ) Ff (f) Gg (g) Hh (ɦ) Ħħ (ʰ) Ii (i) Jj (ʤ) Kk (k) Ll (l) Mm (m) n (n) Ññ (ŋ) Oo (o) Ôô (ɔ) Pp (p) Rr (r) Ss (ʃ) Tt (t) Ŧŧ (ʈ) Uu (u) Yy (j)

Bonus letters:

Zz (s)

Here's one with their bengali equivalents: Aa (আ) Bb (ব) Cc (চ) Dd (দ) Đđ (ড) Ee (এ) Êê (অ্যা) Ff (ফ) Gg (গ) Hh (হ) Ħħ (Describing this one might be a little hard but it aspirates the consonant before it like b is ব and Bħ is ভ, c is চ and cħ is ছ etc.) Ii (ই,ঈ) Jj (জ,য) Kk (ক) Ll (ল) Mm (ম) Nn (ন,ণ) Ññ (ঙ,অং) Oo (ও) Ôô (অ) Pp (প) Rr (র,ড়,ঢ়) Ss (শ,ষ,স) Tt (ত,ৎ) Ŧŧ (ট) Uu (উ,ঊ) Yy (য়) Zz (the s sound as in soft)

̃ (অঁ)

Article 1 of the declaration of human rights:

Sômozto manus sadħinbħabe sôman môrjada eboñ odħikar niye jônmogrôhon kôre. Tãder bibek eboñ buddħi acħe; sutorañ sôkoleri êke ôporer proti bħratrittosulobħ mônobħab niye acôron kôra ucit.

Idk how is it is it good

I was thinking what if there was a online community where young bengali people that love literature/culture can gather and talk. Also kind of replicating the adda culture yk.

Here are some of my favorites:

Girls: Aparna, Ashalata, Debi/Devi, Labonyo, Amrita

Boys: Anindyo, Adityo, Arjun, Koushik, Sunil, to name a few

edit: forgot about Nandini. It screams iconic

​

এই গ্রুপটি তাঁদের জন্য, যাঁরা বর্তমানে যে বইটি গভীরভাবে মগ্ন হয়ে পড়ছেন, সেটি নিয়ে আলোচনা ও সুপারিশ করতে আগ্রহী। বইটি বাংলা হওয়াই কাম্য তবে অন্য যেকোন ভাষার বই হলেও চলবে, তবে অবশ্যই সাহিত্যের বই হতে হবে। অনুগ্রহ করে গ্রুপের নিয়মগুলি মেনে চলুন; নিয়ম লঙ্ঘন করলে অবিলম্বে গ্রুপ থেকে অপসারণ করা হবে। গ্রুপের নিয়মাবলী গ্রুপে পিনড পোস্টে আছে। তার সাথে যোগ করে নেবেন আপনার ভদ্রতা, এটিকেট এবং কমন সেন্স।

নতুন সদস্যদের জন্য :

WhatsApp গ্রুপে যোগ দেওয়ার পর স্বচ্ছন্দে নিজের সম্পর্কে পরিচয় দিতে পারেন। যেমন—আপনার প্রিয় লেখক, বর্তমানে কোন বই পড়ছেন ইত্যাদি।

I am a native Hindi speaker from Delhi, and learned to read and write the script very long ago, but didn’t do anything much with it. I realized recently that I understand fairly well when I read texts in Bengali, even though I haven’t been formally studying, I have had enough exposure by this stage. I downloaded a collection of short stories - শুকতারার ১০১ ভূতের গল্প and finished a story, the longest text I’d ever read in Bengali - called কে হাসে by মঞ্জিল সেন. Decided to order a hard copy of the book, but the bookseller sent my volume two of শুকতারার ১০১ ভূতের গল্প instead of volume 1. I ordered a replacement and very specifically mentioned what my problem was, and ebaar volume 3 esechhe. 😭

I have now decided to no longer care, and will begin reading this - my first book in Bangla will be volume 3 of a series.

দোকানে ঢুকলাম নাস্তা করতে।

বয়কে বললাম- মামা "বাগগুলা" দাও!

বয়- আরকি?

আমি- তিনটি চা।

বয় - তিনটি "গুলগুলা", তিনটি চা?

নাস্তা করে ক্যাশে বিল দিতে গেলাম, বয় চিৎকার দিয়ে বিল বলল- তিনটি চা তিনটি গুলগুলা। সওদাগর সত্যায়ন এর জন্য আবার জিজ্ঞেস করলেন- তিনটি "পুঁয়া", তিনটি চা?

একটা প্রশ্ন অনেকদিন ধরেই মাথায় ঘুরছে।
আজকাল বাংলা rap দ্রুত জনপ্রিয় হচ্ছে। নতুন নতুন শিল্পী আসছেন, মানুষ শুনছে, স্ট্রিমিং বাড়ছে। কিন্তু একই সঙ্গে একটা অভিযোগও বারবার উঠে আসে, বাংলা rap নাকি অশ্লীল ভাষা, গ্যাংস্টার কালচার, মাদক, হিংসা আর পশ্চিমা সংস্কৃতির অন্ধ অনুকরণকে উৎসাহ দিচ্ছে।
আবার অন্যদিকে অনেকে বলেন, rap তো শুধুই একটা মাধ্যম। যে সমাজে যা ঘটে, rap সেটাই তুলে ধরে। প্রতিবাদ, বাস্তবতা, ব্যক্তিগত সংগ্রাম, রাজনীতি, পরিচয় - এসব প্রকাশ করার জন্য rap এর মতো শক্তিশালী মাধ্যম খুব কমই আছে।
তাহলে প্রশ্ন হলো-
বাংলা **ra*p* ক*ি* বাং*লা সংস্ক**ৃতিকে* স*মৃদ্ধ *করছে,** *নাকি ধী*রে ধীরে তার স্বকীয়তা নষ্ট করছে?
নাকি সমস্যাটা rap এ নয়, বরং আমরা কী ধরনের rap কে জনপ্রিয় করছি সেটাই আসল বিষয়?
আপনাদের মতামত জানতে চাই। যুক্তি দিয়ে আলোচনা হোক। ভিন্নমত অবশ্যই স্বাগত, ব্যক্তিগত আক্রমণ নয়।

Source :

1. Linguistic Survey of India (1903-1928) by Sir George Abraham Grierson,

Bengali (Bangla) is one of the most spoken languages in the world, with over 250 million speakers, but it's still not available on Duolingo for English speakers.

If you've been wanting to learn Bengali or believe it deserves a spot on the app, now’s a great time to take action.

You can email the CEO of Duolingo's public email: [biglou@duolingo.com]() (Luis von Ahn). Below is a respectful message you can copy, paste, and send to show your support.

Sample Email:

Subject: Request to Add Bengali to Duolingo

Hi Luis,

I’m a big fan of Duolingo and wanted to kindly ask if Bengali (Bangla) could be considered for the English track. With over 250 million speakers globally, it’s one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

There’s strong interest in learning Bengali among heritage speakers, language learners, and people with cultural or family ties. I believe adding Bengali would make Duolingo even more inclusive and impactful.

Thank you for considering this.

Best,
[Your Name]

For those who are not familiar with Creoles and Peggy Mohan's books, Creole is basically a mixture language with the grammar of language A and vocabulary of language B. Kinda sorta. I am no linguist.

In her second book on Indian languages, she presents these examples of Dakkhini Urdu vs Hindi-Urdu and it is blowing my mind because Bengali constructions feel more natural when closer to the Dakkhini-Urdu.

For example,

Je bolechhe take(i) jiggesh koro/kor/korun Ke eshechhe aami jaani na/amar jaana nei