Chittagonian language

Chittagonian (Chittagonian: চাটগাঁইয়া, চিটাইঙ্গা) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Chittagong Division in Bangladesh. It is generally considered to be a nonstandard dialect of Bengali because its speakers identify with Bengali culture and Standard Bengali as literary language,[3] but the two are not mutually intelligible.[4][5] It is estimated (2009) that Chittagonian has 13–16 million speakers, principally in Bangladesh.[6]

This article is about the language of Chittagong. For the city, see Chittagong.

Chittagonian
চাটগাঁইয়া
চিটাইঙ্গা
Pronunciation[saŋʈgaiyaŋ]
[siʈaiŋga]
Native toBangladesh
RegionChittagong region
EthnicityBengali
Native speakers
13 million (2006)[1]
to 16 million (2007)[2]
N/A
Language codes
ISO 639-3ctg
ctg
Glottologchit1275
Linguasphere73-DEE-aa
  Chittagonian Language speaking area

Classification

Chittagonian is a member of the Bengali-Assamese sub-branch of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages, a branch of the wider Indo-European language family. Its sister languages include Sylheti, Rohingya, Chakma, Assamese, and Bengali. It is derived through an Eastern Middle Indo-Aryan from Old Indo-Aryan, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t̪ ʈ k
aspirated pʰ t̪ʰ ʈʰ kʰ
voiced b d̪ ɖ ɡ
breathy bʱ d̪ʱ ɖʱ ɡʱ
Affricate voiceless ts tɕ
aspirated tɕʰ
voiced dʑ
breathy dʑʱ
Fricative voiceless f~ɸ s ʃ x h
voiced z ɣ
Nasal m n ŋ
Trill/Tap ɾ~r ɽ
Approximant lateral l
central (w) (j)
  • Approximants [w j] are only heard as allophones of vowels /i u/.
  • /ts/ can have a post-alveolar allophone of [tʃ].
  • /ʃ/ can have an allophone of [ç].
  • /f/ can have a bilabial allophone of [ɸ] .[7]

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
High-mid e o
Low-mid (ɛ) ɔ
Low æ a
  • Nasalization occurs for seven vowels /ĩ ẽ æ̃ ã ɔ̃ õ ũ/.
  • [ɛ] is heard as an allophone of /æ/.[8]

Writing system

Historically Arabic script was used for writing system. The Bengali script is the most common script used nowadays.

See also

References
  1. Chittagonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
  3. Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 25.
  4. "Chittagonian A language of Bangladesh". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  5. Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 16. "The dialect of Chittagong, in southeast Bangladesh, is different enough to be considered a separate language."
  6. "Summary by language size". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  7. Hai, Muhammad A. (1965). A study of Chittagong dialect. In Anwar S. Dil (ed.), Studies in Pakistani Linguistics. pp. 17–38.
  8. Moniruzzaman, M. (2007). Dialect of Chittagong. In Morshed, A. K. M.; Language and Literature: Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

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