Dear Colleagues,

I received the following from Shamsuddin Ahmed. Please contact him
directly if you'd be willing to help.

Thanks.

Luanne

At 08:37 AM 4/18/2006, you wrote:

> >Dear DARE authority,
> >I am working on a self initiated project on compiling a dictionary of
> >regional Bengali language. Whom can I ask for collaboration?
> >Best regards
> >Shams
> >
> >
>
>
> Luanne
> von Schneidemesser
> <Lvonschn@... To Shamsuddin
> Ahmed
> <shaahmed@...>
>
> Subject Re: DARE Newsletter
>
>
>
>What did you have in mind? I can pass the message on to the DSNA list, but
>we would want more specifics as to what you are looking for. Thanks.
>
>LvS

>Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:20:34 +0600
>From: Shamsuddin Ahmed <shaahmed@...>
>Subject: Re: DARE Newsletter
>To: Luanne von Schneidemesser <Lvonschn@...>
>
>Dear Luanne,
>
>Thank you for your mail.
>
>The formal Bengali that we write is a relatively new language. Languages
>change over time. This is true in the case of all languages. Like
>biological entities languages are born, they grow, reign, and die. Today's
>standard Bengali language grew up in Calcutta in the early 19th century
>thanks to the Christian missionaries.
>
>Calcutta was a new township created in the midst of nowhere in late 18th
>century by another European, Job Charnok. The sweet colloquial language of
>nearby Shantipur of Nadia district became the standard spoken language of
>the city.
>
>The modern written Bengali language was created by the Hindu Pundits
>(unfortunately all of them were Sanskrit educated high-brow Brahmins of
>western Bengal) who, like their predecessors who had created the standard
>Sanskrit language two millennia ago, had a general dislike for everything
>that the common people did, including the latter's language. Accordingly,
>modern Bengali language was created as a daughter of Sanskrit. Although
>there is a lot of similarity between Sanskrit and Bengali like it is in
>Indo-Iranian language groups, Sanskrit and Bengali are two completely
>different languages separated by two distinct grammars, vocabularies,
>syntaxes and pronunciations. One may draw the analogy of German and English
>as an example of difference between these Sanskrit and Bengali.
>
>The Brahmin pundits excluded two most important demographic and geographic
>factors while giving shape to the new language. One, the language
>(vocabulary and expression) of the Muslims of Bengal, who formed the
>majority of the population and, second the rich colloquial language of East
>Bengal where more than 60 per cent of the population of Bengal live. Thus
>the modern Bengali that the Sanskrit pundits manufactured and prescribed
>did not reflect the linguistic character of the larger portion of the
>population and the bigger part of the country.
>
>The Calcutta based Sanskritized Bengali using the accent of Shantipur i.e.,
>the so called sophisticated Bengali (although a little corrupted in last
>few decades, especially since 1950, when millions of Bangladeshi Hindus
>migrated to West Bengal and took residence mainly in Calcutta and didn't
>care much to follow the Calcatian Bengali) is still broadly used in West
>Bengal and Bangladesh. But signs of change are appearing in the horizon.
>
>Ever since Bangladesh became independent in 1971 the centre of Bengali
>language has shifted from Calcutta to Dhaka. Calcutta is more a Hindi
>speaking city than Bengali. Its domination of the language has loosened so
>much so that it no longer sets trend in the language.
>
>The case of Bangladesh is different though. The language is vibrant here.
>There is no second language. The official language is Bengali. There is no
>Shantipur or Nadia around Dhaka to influence its accent.. There is an
>influx of people coming from all parts of the country. From one million in
>1970, the population of Dhaka has multiplied to >12 million in 2006, and
>the expansion continues. In 2020 the population of Dhaka will exceed 20
>million.
>
>Dhaka, and for that matter Bangladesh, await a standard Bengali in both of
>its spoken and written departments. More than 80 per cent of the population
>of Dhaka city is first generation urban settlers who still maintain very
>strong link with their ancestral homes. This becomes evident on Eid
>vacations when the city suddenly becomes deserted as people leave for rural
>homes to observe the festivals.
>
>Residents of Dhaka come from all 68 districts of the country. All speak
>their own colloquials. Some of the colloquials are so different from each
>other that in extreme cases one would require interpreters to make one
>dialect intelligible to speakers of another dialect. If three colloquial
>speakers from Chittagong, Sylhet and Rangpur come together they will
>require a fourth person to interpret one's language to the other.
>
>However, the language spoken in public places like schools, offices,
>markets and journeys is different. People speak a language that picks words
>from the standard Bengali dictionary (again heavily dominated by words of
>Sanskrit origin), but are punctuated by their own regional dialects and
>vocabulary, and heavily accented by their own colloquials. This is the
>language of future Bangladesh. A language that has not taken shape yet but
>will in next half century. Dhaka city is developing a standard accent of
>its own. A new vocabulary is also building up drawing words from standard
>Bengali dictionary and thousands of indigenous words.
>
>My project is to gather regional words and first, to compile them into a
>dictionary of indigenous Bengali words and finally, to incorporate them
>into a standard Bengali dictionary. Once that is done the word stock of
>Bengali will increase by at least three times and will represent the real
>language of the people. It does not matter whether we want it or not, this
>is the destiny of Bengali language. It has to be the language of the people
>who speak it. My purpose is to facilitate the process.
>
>Could I explain my intention? Please excuse the oversights as I am writing
>this while in office and heavily engaged in preparing my work plan for the
>year which has no place for language at all.
>
>Thanks and regards
>
>Shams
>
>
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