I was obsessed with Chinese culture and history for a very long time, mostly because I was primarily consuming Chinese media, and I was even thinking of going a far as learning a bit of Mandarin to interpret some historical poems by Li Qingzhao, a Song Dynasty poet. Anyways I came to the very late realisation that my very limited knowledge of BanglaâMy mother tongue would be better utilised if I want to read beautiful, meaningful poems given our rich culture and tons of poems. Also I'm a fanfic writer so Iike to incorporate some stuff I learn, into my works.
So I want to ask for suggestions for any poems to read?
For context, my bangla linguistic background is:
-Probably studied those Amar bangla boi books up until 6th grade?
-An A in O level Bangla (which is probably 7th grade stuff if you show our curriculum to a Bangla Medium student, but we didn't have stuff to memorise.)
I was raised outside of Southern Asia, so I find it harder to read and understand words compared to people my age, and I haven't touched a bangla book ever since I was done with O levels, so my reading skills are a little in the ditch, but I can definitely polish it over time.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âĸ No registration required âĸ HD streaming
The purpose of this article is solely for the purpose of etymology, not geography so descriptions about the mountains themselves will not be given. The list of names of mountains was obtained from this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountains_of_Bangladesh
Immediately when looking at these names, we can notice certain words repeating often, such as: Haphong, Dong, Tlang
Repeating Titles
Haphong
Saka Haphong is spelt in Burmese in the Wikipedia page as ááá¸áĄááąáŦááē. The Burmese Wikipedia names it as áááēááááŊááˇáē (transliteration: hcakkhahaphwan).
Hapong/ Haping means âmountain/ hillâ in Kokborok. If we look at https://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-cgi/rootcanal.pl/gnis?lexicon.lgiÄ1122 then we find ha-poÅ listed under Kokborok, with the citation:
Tripuri, Prashanta and Jurafsky, Dan. 1988. Kokborok dictionary. (unpublished ms. contributed to STEDT). Accessed via STEDT database <http://stedt.berkeley.edu/search/> on 2025-03-10.
Tlang
According to the Bawm dictionary app, tlang means âlumpâ. Kennet VanBik's book about Proto-Kuki-Chin directly gives us the term for mountain in the ancestor of Bawm with cognates in other Kuki-Chin languages: "[1263] HILL2 / MOUNTAIN PKC *klaaÅ; Mara tlà âa mountain, a hillâ; H. Lai tlÃĸaÅ âhill, mountainâ; F. Lai tlĮaÅ âhill, mountainâ; Mizo tlÃĄang âa mountain, a hillâ; Thado Kuki hlÃĄaÅ âmountain, mountain rangeâ; Paite taang âhillâ; Asho kyan âa mountain, hillâ. (2009, p.294)"
Dong/Taung
Mountain in Rakhine. In Burmese script it is ááąáŦááē.
After this, we will look at:
Individual Mountain Names
Zow Tlang
We can find the meaning of this term from the Wikipedia page about Zow Tlang
" In the Bawm language, "Zow" means Mizo, a term derived from Mizoram, India. This is probably due to the fact that Bangladesh was a part of greater India before 1947. "Tlang" means mountain." The reference given states the same thing:
"More about Zow Tlang". Retrieved 2024-12-22. httpsË//bd.top10place.com/zow-tlang-1824170910.html
"The two other major dialects are Riang (or Reang) and Noatia. Smaller dialects are Jamatia, Koloi and Rupini." (dialects, Wikipedia, Kokborok, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokborok, resource:Â Bradley, David (2002). "The subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman". In Beckwith, Christopher I. (ed.). Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. Brill. p. 83
So Reang Haphong is Reang (ethnic group) + mountain
Keokradong
In Bangla script: āĻā§āĻāĻā§āĻ°āĻžāĻĄāĻ keokraÉÉÅ, āĻā§āĻāĻāĻžāĻĄāĻŧāĻžāĻĄāĻ keokaÉŊaÉÉÅ
From Bangla Wikipedia, the etymology is stated as from Marma (Rakhine), where keo = stone, k(a)ra = mountain, and dong = summit.
Stone is "ááģáąáŦááē" in Burmese, which is kyauk in transliteration and /ʧaĘĘ/ in pronunciation. If Marma does not palatalise ky- to /tÉ/, then the first component matches. And according to the STEDT database, searching "stone" yields /kyÉĘ/ for Marma. Second syllable? Unsure. kraĘâmeans "fowl/ chicken" in Marma, though does this name really mean "stone chicken summit"?
Tazing Dong
[6/05/2026]
If we go to the Bangla Wikipedia page, it gives us this information:
"āĻ¸ā§āĻĨāĻžāĻ¨ā§āĻ¯āĻŧ āĻ āĻ§āĻŋāĻŦāĻžāĻ¸ā§āĻĻā§āĻ° āĻāĻžāĻˇāĻžāĻ¯āĻŧ "āĻ¤āĻžāĻāĻŋāĻ" āĻļāĻŦā§āĻĻā§āĻ° āĻ āĻ°ā§āĻĨ āĻŦāĻĄāĻŧ āĻŦāĻž āĻ¸āĻ°ā§āĻŦā§āĻā§āĻ[ā§¨ā§Ž] āĻāĻ° "āĻĄāĻ" āĻļāĻŦā§āĻĻā§āĻ° āĻ āĻ°ā§āĻĨ āĻĒāĻžāĻšāĻžāĻĄāĻŧ"; "āĻ¸ā§āĻĨāĻžāĻ¨ā§āĻ¯āĻŧ āĻ āĻ§āĻŋāĻŦāĻžāĻ¸ā§" means local people, but it never specifies a language. It states that it means "highest peak".
"āĻ¸ā§āĻĨāĻžāĻ¨ā§āĻ¯āĻŧ āĻŽāĻžāĻ°āĻŽāĻžāĻĻā§āĻ° āĻāĻžāĻˇāĻžāĻ¯āĻŧ "āĻ¤āĻžāĻāĻŋāĻ" āĻļāĻŦā§āĻĻā§āĻ° āĻ āĻ°ā§āĻĨ āĻšāĻ˛ā§ āĻāĻžāĻĸāĻŧ āĻ¸āĻŦā§āĻ āĻāĻŦāĻ "āĻĄāĻ" āĻļāĻŦā§āĻĻā§āĻ° āĻ āĻ°ā§āĻĨ āĻšāĻ˛ā§ āĻĒāĻžāĻšāĻžāĻĄāĻŧāĻā§āĻĄāĻŧāĻž āĻŦāĻž āĻĒāĻ°ā§āĻŦāĻ¤āĻļā§āĻā§āĻāĨ¤" Here it states Marma language and claims that Tazing means "deep green".
Green in Marma is áĄá áŽááēá¸ááąáŦááē asÄĢĖmraung/asÊimraung and that info was obtained from this video:
Though this does not account for the ta- in the first syllable.
Maithaijama Haphong
The Wikipedia page claims "The name "Maithai Jama Haphong" came from the Tripura language. which means, "Bad hilly place for vegetation."" But this is very weird. We know Haphong is from Kokborok/ Tripuri language but the first two words are simply Bangla for "clothes on the head".
Thingdawlte Tlang
The nearest settlement is Thingdawlte (Bawm) village, for which the peak is named. The name looks like Bawm. Itâs very hard to find any information on name etymologies in Bawm, unfortunately.
Taung Prai
Wikipedia page claims "Taung prai is a Marma word which means "Ulta pahar"(āĻāĻ˛ā§āĻāĻž āĻĒāĻžāĻšāĻžāĻĄāĻŧ)"; in Bangla āĻāĻ˛ā§āĻāĻž generally means upside-down. In Burmese, according to the STEDT database, prai means effaced, wasted.
Kreikung Taung
From the Wikipedia page we get this information:
"Alternative name: Ngaramh Tlang (āĻ¨ā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻ°āĻžā§āĻŽā§ āĻ¤ā§āĻ˛ā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻ,āĻŦāĻŽ); Kreikung Taung name originated from local Marma language.
Bengali meaning: āĻŽāĻžāĻ āĻĒāĻžāĻšāĻžāĻĄāĻŧ"
The Bawm alternative name is a bit easier to research.
Proto-Kuki-Chin *Åaa means fish, and can be traced back to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-Åja fish
Where we can find Burmese ááĢḠnga: fish
ramh? is probably from the word for forest/ land/ country: "[953] PKC *ram Mara rà âland, country, kingdomâ; H. Lai raĖm âland, country, forestâ; F. Lai raĖm âland, countryâ; Mizo rÃĄm âcountry, forest, jungle, kingdom, domain, territoryâ" (VanBik, 2009, p.238). There is another entry in Proto-Kuki-Chin which is *ram but the meaning does not seem to match; "[930] PKC *ram DESTROY / ANNIHILATE / WASTE Mizo raĖm âto destroy, to damage, to lay waste to, ravage (as pigs, children, etc. can do to a garden)â" (VanBik, 2009, p.234). Therefore Ngaramh Tlang means "fish land mountain"
As for the Marma name, according to STEDT online database, krei is "star" in Arakanese, cf. Burmese ááŧááē kray. But the second syllable is harder. In the STEDT database, kuÅ in the Burmish branch gives an entry for Proto-Lolo-Burmese, but not Burmese itself. The Burmese term in the STEDT database starts with kh- so the consonants don't match.
Mukhra Thuthai haphong
The Bangla name is āĻŽā§āĻāĻ°āĻž āĻĨā§āĻ¤āĻžāĻ āĻšāĻžāĻĢāĻ which is read mukhra thutai kaphong, so the issue is with the second word in English both t's are aspirated, but in Bangla only one is. Considering the name is from Tripuri/ Kokborok language, I am not sure what to trust. Regarding etymology, it's all guesswork.
I am using this as a source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381278072â¯Aâ¯Grammarâ¯ofâ¯Tripura
The word for place in Tripuri is tĘ°ai, but again this is an aspirated t which does match with the English name but not with the Bangla transliteration. Apparently there are words with the form thu: "tĘ°Ãš sleep", tĘ°u wear/slim", but I do not think they are related to the name of the mountain. The word for water is tui/ twi (Rashel, 2024, p.1). In this case the aspiration does not match, for some reason I still thought I should mention it. As for mukhra, this is the only phonological comparison I could find: [muËk.hro] /mÚkhrÃ˛/ âheadâ, [muËk.hra] /mukhra/ âmonkeyâ (Rashel, 2024, p.57, p.247).
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the names of Aiyang Tlang, Dumlong/ Msha Panji Haphong and Sippi Ar-suang are unknown to me as I cannot find etymological information about them.
Reference List
Button, C. (2009). A reconstruction of Proto Northern Chin in Old Burmese and Old Chinese perspective.
Rashel, Md. M. (2024). A Grammar of Tripura. 18608946 Bytes. https://doi.org/10.26181/22433158.V1
VanBik, K. (2009). Proto-Kuki-Chin: A reconstructed ancestor of the Kuki-Chin languages. Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project, Dept. of Linguistics research unit in Univ. of California, Berkeley.
In English the words for animals are native English while when they are cooked, they take on French names, for eg. sheep vs mutton, cow vs beef, chicken vs poultry, and I realised that this phenomenon occurs in one instance in Bangla.
Bangla āĻŽāĻāĻ môgôj from Farsi Ų ØēØ˛ maÉŖz, brain. I have only ever used it in the sense of food, not as the regular word for brain. The regular word is a Sanskrit borrowing, āĻŽāĻ¸ā§āĻ¤āĻŋāĻˇā§āĻ môstiÅĄkô.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âĸ No registration required âĸ HD streaming
a first attempt at writing and transliterating bangla
like with kannada, i decided to learn the bangla alphabet via hindi rather than english because the alphabet and grammar systems are much more similar and i think trying to learn any indic language through english would make it harder for me. i used teach yourself bengali as a reference for the alphabet and pronunciation guide while transliterating the text to devanagari alphabet. the bangla text itself is the very first few lines from this book of short stories (ÄgunbÄášir kothÄ?? i don't rly know how half letters work in bangla script yet. but i know kothÄ means story because this word is used in hindi and kannada too, as katha/kathe).
learning the alphabet by transliterating helps me learn the letters much faster than just memorizing by rote or even writing them generally, because transliterating involves making associations between the unfamiliar letter and a familiar one in different contexts, because the same letter can look different depending on where it's placed in a word. the first time i wrote any letter i would have to make each stroke slowly to check i was writing it correctly, but each consecutive time i got faster. for a few of the letters, i memorized them immediately after this exercise; some because they resembled their devanagari counterparts (āĻ ā¤, āĻ ā¤, āĻ ā¤, āĻ¨ ā¤¨, āĻĨ ā¤Ĩ, āĻ˛ ā¤˛), and some because they appeared frequently in the sample text (āĻ , āĻ, āĻ, āĻ, āĻš, āĻ¸, āĻŽ).
the main thing that i'm struggling to grasp in bangla pronunciations is the inherent vowel. the first indic language i learned was hindi which has a mid central vowel, or schwa (É) as it's inherent vowel. this is pronounced kind of like 'uh'. the hindi accent also has a tendency to flatten and sometimes shorten vowels in loanwords from other languages. many good examples can be found in farsi loanwords, if you hear the iranian pronunciation of these words, the vowels sound rounded and open, the same words in hindi tend to be pronounced more flat and with less length. these pronunciation habits have influenced how i approach vowel sounds, and i find it awkward to pronounce vowels that are more rounded because i'm not used to it. reading a word like āĻāĻĨāĻž, i instinctively pronounce it katha rather than kotha because i'm not yet used to the o inherent vowel. i have the same issue with my farsi pronunciations, where i tend to flatten the rounded a vowels, saying words like 'man' (Ų Ų) as 'mun' and 'khÅĢbam' (ØŽŲبŲ ) as 'khÅĢbum'.
for the writing of the letters itself, many of them were close enough to devanagari that i got the hang of them pretty quickly. something i didn't realize is that in bangla the top line, or shiro rekha, is written after each letter, while the way i learned to write devanagari was to write the letters minus each of their horizontal rekhas and then line the whole word at the end. it makes me wonder if that's how other people also write devanagari or if everyone writes the line differently.
these are the words i recognized without having to look them up!
