Bengali: Language Handbook

Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1966. — xii, 137 pages. — (Language Handbook Series).<div class="bb-sep"></div>This volume of the language handbook series is intended to serve as an outline of the salient features of the Bengali language spoken by over 80 million peofle in East Pakistan and India.<div class="bb-sep"></div>It was written with several readers in mind:<div class="bb-sep"></div>A linguist interested in Bengali but not himself a specialist in-the language;<br/>An intermediate or advanced student who wants a concise general picture of the language and its setting;<br/>An area specialist who needs basic linguistic or sociolinguistic facts about.<div class="bb-sep"></div>Chapters on the language situation, phonology, and orthography precede the linguistic analysis of morphology and syntax. Although the linguistic description is not intended to be definitive it uses technical terminology and assumes the reader has previous knowledge of linguistics. Structural differences between Bengali and American English are discussed as are the differences between Sadhu standard and Chalit standard Bengali. The Dacca dialect and the Chittagong dialect are briefly treated and their geographical distribution is shown on a map of Bengali dialects. Final chapters survey the history of Bengali literature, science, and literary criticism.