Noakhali language

{{Short description|Bengali-Assamese language}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Noakhali

| nativename = Noakhailla

| altname = নোয়াখাইল্লা

| image = File:Noakhailla language.png

| state = Bangladesh & India

| region = Greater Noakhali, southern Tripura

| ethnicity = Bengali{{Cite book |last=Masica |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Masica |year=1991 |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |place= Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=25}}

| date = 2011

| ref =

| familycolor = Indo-European

| fam2 = Indo-Iranian

| fam3 = Indo-Aryan

| fam4 = Eastern

| fam5 = Bengali–Assamese

| dialects = Chatkhili{{cite journal |last=Rashel |first=Md. Mostafa |title=Phonological Analysis of Chatkhil Dialect in Noakhali District, Bangladesh |journal=Theory and Practice in Language Studies |volume=1 |issue=9 |date=September 2011 |pages=1051–1061 |doi=10.4304/tpls.1.9.1051-1061 |url=http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol01/09/09.html/}}

| script = Bengali script

| glotto = noak1234

| glottorefname = Noakhali

| map = Noakhailla bibhag Chai.png

| mapcaption = Map of where Noakhali is spoken{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

| iso3 = oak

}}

{{Contains special characters|Indic}}

Noakhali{{cite web|url=https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2021/vol7issue3/PartG/7-3-118-701.pdf|title= Metrical Pattern of Noakhali Bangla}}{{cite web|url=https://www.worldwidejournals.com/indian-journal-of-applied-research-(IJAR)/article/the-emergence-of-unmarked-syllables-in-noakhali-bangla/MTQ5Mg==/?is=1&b1=409&k=103|title=The emergence of unmarked syllables in noakhali bangla}} or Noakhalian, endonym Noakhailla ({{lang|bn|নোয়াখাইল্লা}}), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by an estimated 7 million people, primarily in the Greater Noakhali region of Bangladesh, as well as in southern parts of Tripura in India. Outside of these regions, there are substantial numbers of Noakhali speakers in other parts of Bangladesh and a diaspora population in the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Noakhali has no presence in formal settings, neither in Bangladesh nor India, though its standardisation has been proposed.{{citation|author=Sarwar, Fatina|title=Noakhali Dialect: Its Prospect of Standardization}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bd24live.com/bangla/272703/|language=bn|script-title=bn:কুমিল্লা নয়, নোয়াখালী বিভাগ চাই|date=1 March 2020|trans-title=Not Comilla, we want Noakhali Division|website=BD24Live.com}}{{cite news |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/arcprint/details/89728/Noakhali-Bibhag-Bastobaon-Committee-on-Monday-holds-a-rally/2015-11-10|title=Noakhali Bibhag Bastobaon Committee on Monday holds a rally|date=10 November 2015|work=Daily Sun}}

Etymology

Noakhailla is eponymously named after the district of Noakhali. It is in the transformed Vangiya form of the archaic Noakhaliya ({{lang|bn|নোয়াখালীয়া}}), where "-iya" is a suffix, commonly used in Bengali as a demonym, having gone through a linguistic process called Apinihiti ({{lang|bn|অপিনিহিতি}}), a form of epenthesis, to become Noakhailla ({{lang|bn|নোয়াখাইল্লা}}). It may also be known in English as Noakhalian, a relatively recent term which has gained prominence as a locative demonym since at the least the Pakistan period.{{cite book|title=Fifteen Governors I Served with: Untold Story of East Pakistan|author=Jilani, Shahzada Ghulam|year=1979|publisher=Bookmark|page=31|oclc=10119272}} "-an" is a suffix, commonly used in English to denote an action or an adjective that suggests pertaining to, thereby forming an agent noun.{{cite journal |last=Connors |first=Kathleen |title=Studies in feminine agentives in selected European languages |journal=Romance Philology |volume=24 |issue=4 |date=May 1971 |pages=573–598 |jstor=44941289}}

History

{{Main|History of Noakhali}}

Noakhali, the area which it is named after, emerged in the 13th century as a center of regional territorialism by the name of Bhulua. The kings of Bhulua patronised the Sanskrit language. The arrival of Muslims in Bhulua affected the local language to such a level that several Hindu rulers of Bhulua even took the Turkic title of Khan.{{cite book|last1= Webster|first1=John Edward|title=Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers: Noakhali|year=1911|publisher=The Pioneer Press|location=Allahabad|url=https://archive.org/details/noakhali00webs}} Muslim migration was extended following the Mughal conquest of Bhulua in which the local language became influenced by Arabic and Persian. The great lexical influence of Arabic among the Muslim people can still be found in Noakhali today.{{cite Banglapedia|article=Arabic|author=Muslehuddin, ATM}}

Its strong folk tradition dates back several centuries. During colonial rule, Irish linguist George Abraham Grierson collected two Noakhali folk poems; one from the island of Hatia, which is off the coast of the Noakhali mainland, and another from Ramganj, presently in Lakshmipur District.{{harvp|Grierson|1903}} The Portuguese merchants and Roman Catholic missionaries who settled in Noakhali adopted the local language as late as the 1920s.{{cite book|language=bn|author=Bose, Buddhadeva|script-title=bn:আমার ছেলেবেলা|trans-title=My childhood}}

In December 2019, a mass demonstration was organised by some Noakhali's activists in Maijdee in response to a private television channel airing the Noakhali Bibhag Chai (We Want Noakhali Division) comical drama. They considered the drama to be an insult to the regional language, history and tradition of Noakhali district.{{cite news|url=https://www.jugantor.com/national/261938/%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8B%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%96%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%80-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%97-%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%87-%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AD-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%A8|work=Jugantor|language=bn|date=1 January 2020|script-title=bn:'নোয়াখালী বিভাগ চাই' নাটকের পরিচালকের বিরুদ্ধে মামলা, বিক্ষোভ প্রদর্শন|trans-title=Lawsuits and demonstration against the film director of "Noakhali Division Chai" drama}}

Status and usage

Noakhali has no formal recognition or use in courts or in the legislature like the existent standard Bangla. The educated, elite, political and influential groups of Bangladesh bearing Noakhali homogeneity, usually prefer Bengali for their wider communication. They generally use Noakhali only for communication with other Noakhali-speakers.

The usage of Noakhali is now in decline as more and more families of Noakhali are opting to raise their children to speak in Standard Bengali due to it being the official medium in the country and the negative stereotypes relating to Noakhali district held by other parts of Bengal.{{cite news|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/humour/the-truth-about-noakhaillas-1468549|title=The truth about Noakhaillas|author=Rezwana, Zarin|date=28 September 2017|work=The Daily Star}} It is often becoming the case that Generation Z urban Noakhali-speakers cannot speak in Noakhali though it is commonly spoken by their grandparents in their homes.{{cite news|work=The Daily Star|author=Khan, Sameer ud Dowla|date=21 February 2021|title=The diverse and continuing evolution of Bangla: Bangla's future}} In contrast to speakers of Chittagonian and Sylheti, it is reported that some speakers of Noakhali feel a linguistic inferiority complex.{{cite news|title=Who is a Bangladeshi?|author=Ahmed, Fakhruddin|date=21 March 2014|website=The Daily Star}} Sultana, Dovchin and Pennycook have also highlighted the stigmatisation of Noakhali-speakers within Bangladeshi society.{{cite book|title=Popular Culture, Voice and Linguistic Diversity: Young Adults On- and Offline|author1=Dovchin, Sender|author-link1=Sender Dovchin|author2=Pennycook, Alastair|author2-link=Alastair Pennycook|author3=Sultana, Shaila|year=2017|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=182|isbn=978-3-319-61954-5}}

Classification

{{harvp|Grierson|1903}} grouped the language of Noakhali under Southeastern Bengali dialects, alongside the languages of Chittagong and Rohingya. {{harvp|Chatterji|1926}} places Noakhali in the eastern Vanga group of dialects and notes that all Bengali languages were independent of each other and did not emanate from the historical literary register of Bengali called "sadhu bhasha"."Dialects are independent of literary speech: as such East Bengali dialects, North Bengali dialects and West Bengali dialects are not only independent of one another, but also they are not, as it is popularly believed in Bengal, derived from literary Bengali, the "sadhu-bhasha", which is a composite speech on an early West Bengali basis."{{harvcol|Chatterji|1926|p=108}} Along with other Eastern Bengali languages, Noakhali has developed phonetic and morphological characteristics that are not present in western dialects of Bengali.{{sfn|Chatterji|1926|p=138}} Linguist Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah placed Noakhali under the Prachya branch as opposed to the Pashchatya branch of Bengali. By referring to this classification, linguist Paresh Chandra Majumder (1992) placed Noakhali under the "Purbadeshi" division of the Prachya (Vangiya) branch, the other branch being Pashchatya(Gourhi).{{cite news |url=https://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views-reviews/thoansh-a-book-on-noakhailla-dialect-1648736769|title= Thoansh: A book on Noakhailla dialect|work=The Financial Express (Bangladesh)}} According to Dr.Muhammad Shahidullah, the Noakhali language is a result of the fusion of other Bengali languages of that region.{{cite book|title=Shahidullah (1979) Bengali language movement, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh}}

Geographical distribution

Noakhali is the primary language of Greater Noakhali which today comprises the Bangladeshi districts of Noakhali, Feni and Lakshmipur, and some parts of the sub-district of Hajiganj. It is also spoken by the Noakhaillas in the southern part of India's Tripura state, specifically in some parts of the South Tripura district. In this district, along with Standard Bengali, it serves as a lingua franca among some indigenous communities such as the Tripuri/Reang, the Chakma and the Mog/Marma in addition to the Noakhali. Mainland Noakhali is mutually intelligible with neighbouring Sandwipi dialect, which is spoken in Sandwip, an island in the Bay of Bengal. Some have stated that it is also mutually unintelligible with the Dinajpur dialect.

Before and after the Partition of India, Noakhali-speaking Bengali Hindus from Greater Noakhali migrated to West Bengal, Assam and Tripura also.{{cite news|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/news/search-new-home-1749529|date=27 May 2019|title=In search of a new 'home'|website=The Daily Star}}{{citation|url=https://exhibits.stanford.edu/1947-partition/catalog?f%5Bplace_created_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Kolkata+%28India%29&range%5Bpub_year_tisim%5D%5Bbegin%5D=2014&range%5Bpub_year_tisim%5D%5Bend%5D=2014|title=Oral history with Anshu Sur|date=6 December 2014|author1=Roy, Raikamal|author2=Korwar, Sucheta}} Outside of the subcontinent, the largest diaspora population from Noakhali reside in Europe (most notably Italy) and North America. Significant Noakhali-speaking Bengali diaspora population reside in the Middle East of which most are migrant workers, and in many other countries throughout the world.{{cite journal |last1=Knights |first1=Melanie |date=1996 |title=Bangladeshi Immigrants in Italy: From Geopolitics to Micropolitics |journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=105–123 |doi=10.2307/622928 |jstor=622928|pmid=12157827 |bibcode=1996TrIBG..21..105K |s2cid=46326438 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/12/02/3-bangladeshis-electrocuted-in-oman|title=3 Bangladeshis electrocuted in Oman|author=Kuri, Ranajit|location=Noakhali|website=Dhaka Tribune|date=2 December 2020}}

Writing system

In the past Noakhailla was written with the Arabic script. Nowadays Latin and Bengali alphabets are used.Omniglot

In Bangladesh, regional languages are not used for official purposes. With Standard Bengali written in the Bengali script as the medium of instruction in Bangladesh,{{cite book |last1=Hamid |first1=M. Obaidul |last2=Erling |first2=Elizabeth J. |editor-last1=Kirkpatrick |editor-first1=Robert |chapter=English-in-Education Policy and Planning in Bangladesh: A Critical Examination |title=English Language Education Policy in Asia |year=2015 |publisher=Springer |page=30 |isbn=978-3-319-22463-3 |quote=The dominant stream ... follows the national curriculum in which Bangla is the language of instruction. The second one is madrasa education ... Bangla is the medium of instruction in this stream ... The third is English-medium education}} some may therefore write in Noakhali using the Bengali script, however it is viewed as more formal to write in standard Bengali.

Features and lexical comparison

Noakhali is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language with a large amount of Persian and Hindustani vocabulary. The most notable feature differentiating it from Standard Bengali and other Indo-Aryan languages is that words using the p sound in the latter languages are pronounced as h in Noakhali. An example is the Bengali word for water (pani) which is hãni in Noakhali. Another notable characteristic is the presence of the /x/ sound (akin to خ in Arabic), which is not found in Standard Bengali.{{sfn|Chatterji|1926|p=138}}

class="wikitable"
EnglishStandard BengaliNoakhaliNotes
Boy/SonChhele (ছেলে)hola/hut (হোলা/হুত)
WaterPanī (পানি)hãni (হাঁনি)
ListenShon (শোন)~Shun (শুন)hon (হোন)~hun (হুন)
WhatKi (কী)kiya (কীয়া)
AllShôkôl (সকল), Bebak (বেবাক)beggun (বেগগুন)From bebak-gulin (বেবাক-গুলিন)
ChickenMurgi (মুরগি), kũkr̥a (কুঁকড়া)kur̥a (কুড়া)debuccalised from the earlier kũkr̥a (কুঁকড়া)
PapayaPepe (পেঁপে)hãbia (হাঁবিয়া)

|

CalcuttaKolkata (কলকাতা)koilkatta (কইলকাত্তা){{citation|title=A Brief Phonetic Sketch of the Noakhali Dialect of South Eastern Bengali|author=Haldar, Gopal|publisher=Calcutta University Press|year=1929|location=Kolkata|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.237259/page/n211/mode/2up?q=%22noakhali+dialect%22}}

|

BigBôṛo (বড়), Bôḍḍo (বড্ড)bôḍḍa (বড্ডা)
EggḌim (ডিম), bôyda (বয়দা)Bôyza (বয়জা)From {{langx|ar|بيضة|bayḍah}}
Mischiefshôytani (শয়তানী)Khônnashi (খন্নাশি){{citation|author=Russel, Muhammad H|date=7 April 2014|title=আমরা যারা নোয়াখাইল্লা|language=bn|trans-title=We who are Noakhailla}}From {{langx|ar|خناس|khannās}}
to Lie downShuye poṛa (শুয়ে পড়া)hota (হোতা)
FriendBôndhu (বন্ধু), dost(o) (দোস্ত), iyar (ইয়ার)bondu (বন্ধু), dost(o) (দোস্ত), eyar (এয়ার)
He phoned meShe amake phon kôrechilô (সে আমাকে ফোন করেছিল)hẽte ãre hon kôirchilô (হেতে আঁরে হোন কইর্ছিলো)
Shall not allow to doKôrte debô na (করতে দেব না)Kôirtam ditam nô (কইর্তাম দিতাম ন){{sfn|Chatterji|1926|p=138}}
I think it is 5 o'clockAmar mône hôy pãchṭa baje (আমার মনে হয় পাঁচটা বাজে)ãr mônôy hãsta baijje (আঁর মনয় হাঁচটা বাইজ্জে), ãtlai hãsṭaijjai (আঁতলাই হাঁচটাইজ্জাই)

Variations

There are some differences of Noakhali dialects in accent, spoken in different parts of the Greater Noakhali region. In the Linguistic Survey of India, conducted in the early 20th century, the Irish linguist George Abraham Grierson used the phrase a man had two sons to show dialectic diversity of Bengali language in Bengal region.{{cite news|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/amar-ekushey-2018/amago-bhasha-1537534|work=The Daily Star|author=Khan, Sameer ud Dowla|date=21 February 2018|title=Amago Bhasha}}

  • Bengali: ækjon manusher duţi chhele chhilo.
  • Noakhali (Grierson): ekzon mainsher duga hola asil.
  • Noakhali of Chhagalnaiya: ækzôner dui hola asil.
  • Noakhali of Feni: egga mainsher duga hut/hola asilo.
  • Noakhali Hatiya Island: ækzôn mainsher duga hola asil.
  • Noakhali of Ramganj: ekzôner dui hut asil.

Grammar

=Pronouns=

== Personal pronouns ==

Noakhali personal pronouns are somewhat similar to English pronouns, having different words for first, second, and third person, and also for singular and plural (unlike for verbs, below). Noakhali pronouns, like their English counterparts, do differentiate for gender. In addition, each of the second- and third-person pronouns have different forms for the familiar and polite forms; the second person also has a "very familiar" form (sometimes called "despective"). It may be noted that the "very familiar" form is used when addressing particularly close friends or family as well as for addressing subordinates, or in abusive language. In the following tables, the abbreviations used are as follows: VF=very familiar, F=familiar, and P=polite (honor); H=here, T=there, E=elsewhere (proximity), and I=inanimate.

The nominative case is used for pronouns that are the subject of the sentence, such as "I already did that" or "Will you please stop making that noise?"

class="wikitable"

|+ Personal pronouns (nominative case)

! Subject !! Honor !! Singular !! Plural

1

!

| আঁই (Ãi, I) || আমরা (amra, we)

rowspan="3" | 2

! VF

| তুই (tui, you) || তোরা (tura, you)

F

| তুঁই (tũi, you) || তোমরা (tomra, you)

P

| আম্নে/আন্নে (amne/anne, you) || আম্নেরা/আন্নেরা (amnera/annera, you)

rowspan="3" | 3

! F

| হেতে (hete, he), হেতি (heti, she) || হেতেরা (hetera, they m.), হেতিরা (hetira, they f.)

P

| হেতেন (heten, he), হেতিন (hetin, she) || হেতেনরা (hetenra, they m.), হেতিনরা (hetinra, they f.)

I

|হেই/হিয়েন (hei/hiyen, it)

|হিগুন/হিগিন/হিগুলি/হিগাইন (higun/higin/higuli/higain, these)

The possessive case is used to show possession, such as "Where is your coat?" or "Let's go to our house". In addition, sentences such as "I have a book" (আঁর কিতাব আছে) or "I need money" (আঁর টিয়া দরকার) also use the possessive (the literal translation of the Standard Bengali versions of these sentences would be "There is my book" and "There is my need for money" respectively).

class="wikitable"

|+ Personal pronouns (possessive case)

! Subject !! Honor !! Singular !! Plural

1

!

| আঁর (Ãr, my) || আঙ্গো (ango, our)

rowspan="3" | 2

! VF

| তোর (tor, your) || তোগো (togo, your)

F

| তোঁয়ার (tõar, your) || তোঁগো (tõgo, your)

P

| আম্নের/আন্নের (amner/anner, your) || আম্নেগো/আন্নেগো (amnego/annego, your)

rowspan="3" | 3

! F

| হেতের (heter, his), হেতির (hetir, her) || হেতেগো (hetego, their m.), হেতিগো (hetigo, their f.)

P

| হেতেনের (hetener, his), হেতিনের (hetiner, her) || হেতেনগো (hetengo, their m.), হেতিনগো (hetingo, their f.)

I

|হিয়ার/হিয়েনের (hiyar/hiyener, its)

|হিগুনের (higuner, of those)

Further reading

  • {{cite thesis|title=A study of standard Bengali and the Noakhali dialect|author=Morshed, Abul Kalam Manzur|year=1985|location=Dhaka|publisher=Bangla Academy}}
  • {{cite thesis|title=A prosodic study of the Noakhali dialect of Bangla and its implication for teaching and learning of English as a second language by the native speakers of the dialect|author=Chakraborty, Uttam|year=2014|location=Tripura|publisher=Tripura University|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/190533|editor=Das, Shyamal|website=Shodhganga|hdl=10603/190533}}

Bibliography

{{refbegin}}

  • {{cite book |last=Chatterji |first=Suniti Kumar |title=The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language |year=1926 |url=https://archive.org/details/OriginDevelopmentOfBengali/CHATTERJI_Origin-Development-of-Bengali_Vol-1 |publisher=Calcutta University Press}}
  • {{cite book |editor-last=Grierson |editor-first=G A |year=1903 |title=Linguistic Survey of India: Indo-Aryan Family Eastern Group |url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=5-1&pages=463#page/1/mode/1up |volume=V |access-date=27 June 2020 }}

{{refend}}

References