Chittagonian language

Chittagonian
চাটগাঁইয়া বুলি Chaţgãia Buli
Native to	Bangladesh, India, Burma
Native speakers	16 million  (2007)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Aryan Indo-Aryan Eastern Bengali–Assamese Chittagonian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ctg

Chittagonian (চাটগাঁইয়া বুলি Chaţgãia Buli) also Chatgaya, Chittagonian Bengali, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the people of Chittagong in Bangladesh and in much of the southeast of the country. It is closely related to Bengali and is considered to be a non-standard Bengali dialect although it is not inherently intelligible with Bengali. It is estimated (2009) that Chittagonian has 13 million speakers, principally in Bangladesh and the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Classification

Chittagonian is a member of the Bengali-Assamese sub-branch of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages, a branch of the wider and more vast Indo-European language family. Its sister languages include Sylheti (Cilôţi), Rohingya (spoken in the original inhabitants of the Arakan state of Burma), Bengali, Assamese (Ôxômiya), Oriya, the Bihari languages, and also less directly all other Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi. Like other Bengali-Assamese languages, it is derived from Pali, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.

Geographical distribution

Chittagonian is spoken in southeastern Bangladesh throughout Chittagong Division but mainly in Chittagong District and Cox's Bazar District. It has (2009) an estimated 13 million speakers in Bangladesh and also in countries where many Chittagonians have migrated. It has no official status and is not taught at any level in schools. It is mistakenly regarded by many Bangladeshis, including most Chittagonians, to be a crude form of Bengali as all educated Chittagonians are schooled in Bengali.

Essentially, Chittagonian has no standard form and is rather a continuum of different dialects, varying with location from north to south and also by religion between Muslims (professed by most Chittagonians) and Hindus. Variation in use between Muslims and Hindus is strictly in terms of vocabulary, whereas by location, grammar is slightly varied as well as vocabulary.

Fricatives

Chittagonian is distinguished from Bengali by its large inventory of fricatives, which often correspond to plosives in Bengali. For example, the Chittagonian voiceless velar fricative [x] (like the Arabic "kh" or German "ch") in [xabar] corresponds to the Bengali voiceless aspirated velar plosive [kʰ], and the Chittagonian voiceless labiodental fricative [f] corresponds to the Bengali voiceless aspirated bilabial plosive [pʰ]. Some of these pronunciations are used in eastern dialects of Bengali as well.

Nasal vowels

Nasalization of vowels is contrastive in Chittagonian, as with other Eastern Indic languages. A word can change its meaning solely by changing an oral vowel into a nasal vowel, as in আর ar "and" vs. আঁর ãr "my". Below are examples of Chittagonian phrases that include nasal vowels.

How are you? (Standard Bengali: তুমি কেমন আছ?): -তুঁই কেন আছ? Tũi ken achho? / অনে কেন আছন ? Őney ken achhõn?

I am fine. (Standard Bengali: আমি ভাল আছি।): -আঁই গঁম আছি। Ãi gawm achhi.

I am not fine. (Standard Bengali: আমি ভাল নেই।।): -আঁই ভালা নাই । Ãi bhala nai.

I am not feeling well. (Standard Bengali: আমার ভাল লাগছে না।): -আত্তে গম ন লাগের/লা'র। Ãtte gom naw lager.

I will play Cricket. (Standard Bengali:আমি ক্রিকেট খেলব।): -আঁই ক্রিকেট খেইল্যুঊম । Ãi kirket kheillum ।

I don't want to eat anymore, i am full. (Standard Bengali:আর খেতে ইচ্ছে করছে না, পেট ভরা।):-আত্তে আর হাইতু মনত ন হর, ফেট ভরি গেয়্যী। । Ãtte ar haito monot no hor, fet bori geyyi.

Where are you? (Standard Bengali: তুমি কোথায়?): -তুঁই কন্ডে? Tũi konde?

What's your name? (Standard Bengali: তোমার নাম কী?): -তোঁয়ার নাম কী?/তোঁয়ান্নাম কী? Tõar nam ki?/ Tõannam ki?

My name is Nayan. (Standard Bengali: আমার নাম নয়ন।): -আঁর নাম নয়ন।/আন্নাম নয়ন। Ãr nam / Ãnnam Nayan).

I miss you. (Standard Bengali: তোমার অভাব অনুভব করছি): -তোঁয়ার লাই আঁর ফেড ফুরের। Tõar lai ãr fed furer.

I miss you too.(Standard Bengali: আমিও তোমার অভাব বোধ করছি): -তোঁয়ার লাই ও আঁর ফেড ফুরের।/তোঁয়াল্লাই ও আঁর ফেড ফুরের। Tõar lai O ãr fed furer./Tõallai O ãr fed furer.

I love you. (Standard Bengali: আমি তোমাকে ভালবাসি): - তুয়ারে আঁত্তে গম লাগে। Tuãre Ãatte gawm lage.

Where are you going? (Standard Bengali: তুমি কোথায় যাচ্ছ?): -- উঁবা তুঁই হন্ডে/হঁডে যঁর? Uba Tũi honde/hode jor?

Where are you from? (Standard Bengali: তুমি কোত্থেকে এসেছো?): -- তুঁই হত্তুন আইসস্যূ? Tũi kothtun aishsho?

Where do you live? (Standard Bengali: তুমি কোথায় থাক?): -- উঁবা তুঁই হন্ডে/হঁডে থাহ? Uba Tũi konde thako?

I live in Sultan Master Bari, Bengura, Boalkhali. (Standard Bengali:আমি সুলতান মাস্টার বাড়ী, বেঙ্গুরা, বোয়ালখালিতে থাকি।): --আঁই সুলতান মাস্টার বাড়ী, বেঙ্গুরা, বোয়ালখালিত্ থাহি Ãai Sultan Master Bari, Bengura, Boalkhali ith thaki.

I'm sad. (Standard Bengali: আমার মন ভালো নেই।): আঁর মনত শান্তি নাই। Ãar monot shanti nai.

Bangladesh is in my heart. (Standard Bengali: হৃদয়ে বাংলাদেশ ।):বাংলাদেশ আঁর হইলজার টুঁ'রা Bangladesh Ãar hoìlzar Ťoura./ বাংলাদেশ আঁর হইলজার বঁডু Bangladesh Ãar Khoìlĵar bodu.

Iftekhar how long have you been living in New York? (Standard Bengali: ইফতেখার তুমি কত দিন ধরে নিউ ইয়রকে আছ?): -- ইফতেখার নিউ ইয়রকথ কথ দিন ধরী তাহ? Iftekhar New Yorkoth kotho din doriy thaho?

Grammar

Chittagonian grammar is similar to that of Bengali, with significant variations in inflectional morphology (prefixes, suffixes, particles, etc.), and some variation in word order.

Like related languages of the eastern subcontinent, Chittagonian is a head-final language, with a subject–object–verb basic word order. Like Assamese (Ôxômiya) but unlike Bengali, Chittagonian has preverbal negation. This means that the negative particle will precede the verb in Chittagonian, where the corresponding Bengali version would have a negative particle following the verb. Thank You = Tuarey Doinnobaad.(তুঁয়ারে ডঁইণ্ণোবাদ্ )/Onorey Doinnobaad (অনরে ডঁইণ্ণোবাদ্ ) I like you very much=Ai tuarey kub poccondha gori.

Vocabulary (lexis)

Like Bengali, most of the vocabulary of Chittagonian is derived from Pali. It also, like Bengali, includes a significant number of imported words from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, as well as, to a lesser extent, Portuguese. In addition, English words are widely used in spoken Chittagonian, just as it is in almost all other Indian languages, as a result of the legacy of the British Empire. Although much of the vocabulary of Chittagonian Bengali is the same as standard Bengali, there are several distinguishing features. The contribution of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish words to Chittagonian Bengali is far greater than that to standard. This is because Chittagong was a port city that was open to traders from Arabia, Persia and Turkey since ancient times, naturally absorbing their words. This is also meant that Chittagonians were amongst the first to convert to Islam and consequently, as Muslims, they were further influenced by Arabic, Persian, and Turkish vocabulary, as these were the languages spoken by the Muslims of the time, especially the traders. Among Europeans, the Portuguese colonists were amongst the first to reach Bengal, and Chittagong as a port city, was for a time under the administration of the Portuguese. This has meant that there is a larger proportion of Portuguese loanwords in the usage of Chittagonian speakers than that of standard Bengali speakers.

Few Chittagonian words and meanings

          ( singular )                        ( plural )
Kéti  án     (the farm)          Kéti  Ğín     (the farms)
Fothú án     (the picture)       Fothú Ğín     (the pictures)
Fata  wá     (the leaf)         Fata  Ğín     (the leaves)

Tar   gán    (the wire)          Tar   Ğin   (the wires)
Duar  gán    (the door)          Duar  gin   (the doors)
Faár  gwá    (the mountain)      Faár  gún   (the mountains)

Debal  lán   (the wall)          Debal  lún   (the walls)
Kitap  pwá   (the book)          Kitap  pún   (the books)
Manúish cwá   (the man)          Manúish shún   (the men)

Uggwá fata    (a leaf)           Hodún fata    (some leaves)
Ekkán fothú   (a picture)        Hodigin Fothú   (some pictures)
    -or-                               -or-
Fata  uggwá   (a leaf)           Fata  hodún   (some leaves)
Fothú ekkán   (a picture)        Fothú hodien   (some pictures)

Tar   gán    (the wire)          Tar   Ğin   (the wires)
Duar  gán    (the door)          Duar  gin   (the doors)
Faár  gwá    (the mountain)      Faár  gún   (the mountains)

Word order

Chittagonian word order is subject–object–verb.

( ইঁতারা হাঁমত যার গুঁই ।) Ítara(They) hamót(to work) źar ģui(go).

Subject	Object	Verb
Aááí(I)	bát(rice)	haí(eat).
Ití(She)	TV(TV)	saí(watches).
Ité(He)	sairkélot(bicycle)	sorér(is riding ).

See also

• Chittagong
• Rohingya language
• Chittagong Division
• Chittagong Hill Tracts