#rarhi

There are many different Bengali dialects and Bengalis from different regions have their own way of pronouncing the Standard dialect (much like the different English accents). Here's how to distinguish the Medinipur accent:

If the person pronounces শ ষ স as sô sô sô. আমার তোমার উপর বিশ্বাস শেষ হয়ে গেছে (Āmār tomār upor biśśās śeṣ ho'e gæche) becomes আমার তোমার উপর বিস্সাস সেস হয়ে গেছে (Āmār tomār upor bissās ses ho'e gæche).

The intonation is different from the more well known Kolkata, Dhakaiya and Sylheti accents.

If the person uses a lot of double consonants and ignores the 'reph' or rô. তাকে দেখা করতে দাও (tāke dækhā korte dāo) becomes তাকে দেখা কত্তে দাও (tāke dækhā kotte dāo). This is actually typical of most Bengali speakers from the Rarh region (Western Bengal and parts of Jharkhand, Paschim and Purba Medinipur falls under it).

They might end up pronouncing n as l. So নিয়ে যায় (niye zhāy) becomes লিয়ে যায় (liye zhāy).

English: cover, sheath, packaging

সে খাপটা ছিড়ে বইগুলো বের করলো।

se khāpṭā chiṛe boigulo ber korlo.

He tore the pakaging and took out the books.

-গুলো, -গুলি, -গুলা, it all works.

গুলি is the proper Standard Bangla prefix for denoting plurals and has its roots in Sādhu Bhāshā. But sounds too fancy to me haha...

গুলো is what I normally use while speaking at home or with friends. And I guess most West Bengalis do the same, at least while speaking the standard dialect.

গুলা is more of a dialectal form. My family hails from Medinipur and I've heard my Dad use it a lot (Mom is more of a 'purist' pffft) while speaking to people from his hometown. It is what you might use while speaking Medinipuri Rarhi and I believe it's used in some other dialects too.

I might lose a lot of readers as a result of writing this post... might even get hate mails (lol), hopefully not. But I think this is a topic that I had to bring up on this blog. So... here we go...

I’ve been seeing a lotta controversy online (including on Tumblr), about whether or not Sylheti and Chittagonian are individual languages. Now, it’s alright if the people themselves don’t want to be called Bengali but there are some points that need to be addressed. I’m not a linguist and these are just the conclusions I have come to after reading some books and doing research online .

A language is a dialect too. It’s just a more widely known, standard, or maybe ‘official’ dialect. The Standard Bengali language is thus a dialect too. But it would be wrong to say that every Bengali speaks in this standard form. Thus those who don’t and yet claim to be Bengali and speak dialects ‘similar’ to the standard dialect can be said to be Bengali. No opposition with that I hope. 

Now the question is, do speakers of these dialects consider themselves Bengali? I’d say part yes, part no. I’ve come across people who argue that Sylhetis are in no way Bengali and then I’ve come across Sylhetis who seem more Bengali than I do. They speak better Bangla than me!

Let me tell the non-northeast Bengalis (since most people are surprisingly ignorant abt it), the people of Sylhet region in post Independence India gave their blood to be Bengali (google the horrific Bongal Kheda movement and the brave Bengali language movement in Assam, India). That’s how fiercely Bengali they are. I don’t know about the Sylhetis of Bangladesh, but the Sylhetis of India do consider themselves Bengali and will hate you if you call them non-Bengali. No kidding!

Also, I’ve noticed that the majority of people who assert that their language is independent and distinct from Bengali are desis living outside of South Asia. Most of them have feeble or no connection with their homeland and never had the chance of learning standard Bengali. I’m saying ‘most’. As such I don’t know how authentic their point of view should be considered. How can you claim your dialect is different when you’re not aware of how different the other dialects are? Again, I repeat, ‘most’ not all.

Then there are people who’ll claim they’re not Bengali because they’re supposedly from a different ethnic group. But Bengali is not merely an ethnic tag. It’s also a socio-political and lingual identity. So it’s fine if your dialect or, ‘language’ if you prefer that, is not Standard Bengali. Or if you look different from a ‘typical Bengali’. As long as you’re from the region and claim to be Bengali, I don’t see any reason why you can’t be a Bengali. 

And just to make it clear, Kolkata and Dhaka Bangla are NOT truly Standard Bangla. Most of us have some regional traits in our speech. We have a ‘Standard’ language so that people from various regions of Bengal (Sylhet and Chittagong fall under this geopolitical entity too) can communicate with each other. Bengali is like an umbrella term, and will lose it’s meaning if everyone assert their regional culture to be distinct and separate.

Ami ki kotha koiDhi bujhoDho to? (Medinipuri country dialect)

Medinipuri Rarhi= Ami ki koitichhi bujhte pattichhen to?

Shadhu (hope I’m correct)= Ami jaha koitechhi apni bujhite paritechhen to?

(Ami ki bolchhi bujhte parchhen to? Are you able to understand what I’m trying to say?) These are just the varieties spoken in West Medinipur! Sylhet and Chittagong are located quite far from Central Bengal (Standard Bangla is supposed to be developed from the Nadia dialect), it’s only fair that their speech will have some variations!!

There are a bunch of people who say that these dialects are ‘corrupt’ Bangla, that’s not true either! They evolved on their own, parallel to Standard Bangla. 

So should the dialects/languages be considered independent languages? I think it should be left to the individual speaker to decide. I or anyone else for that matter have no right in telling people whether or not they speak Bengali or are Bengali. All I want to say is that there’re more kinds of Bengalis than what the media (both South Asian and Western) portray and that all forms of Bangla and Bangali are valid. 

Nomoskar (Nomoshkar is not really the right way to pronounce it, like a majority of Bengalis do. Nope. It’s a dontto so not a talobbo sho. See? I told ya, don’t go by Kolkata or Dhaka standards :) )