Bengali vocabulary

Bengali (বাংলা Bangla) is one of the Magadhan languages, evolved from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali languages. The core of Bengali vocabulary is thus etymologically of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali languages. However, centuries of major borrowing and reborrowing from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sanskrit, Austroasiatic languagess and other languages has led to the adoption of a wide range of words with foreign origins. Thus making the origins of borrowed and reborrowed words in the Bengali vocabulary numerous and diverse, due to centuries of contact with various languages.

Classifications of origin types

Sources of modern literary Bengali words

  তদ্ভব Tôdbhôbô (native)

  তৎসম Tôtsômô (Sanskrit reborrowings)

  দেশী Deshi (indigenous loans) and বিদেশী Bideshi (foreign loans)

The typical Bengali dictionary lists 75,000 separate words, of which 50,000 (67%) are considered তৎসম tôtsômô (words directly reborrowed from Sanskrit), 21,100 (28%) are তদ্ভব tôdbhôbô (native Bengali vocabulary with Sanskrit cognates), and the rest being borrowings from দেশী deshi "indigenous (Austroasiatic)" and বিদেশী bideshi "foreign" sources.

However, these figures do not take into account the fact that a huge chunk of these words are archaic or highly technical, minimizing their actual usage. The productive vocabulary used in modern literary works, in fact, is made up mostly 67% of native tôdbhôbô words, while tôtsômô reborrowings only make up 25% of the total. Deshi and bideshi borrowings together make up the remaining 8% of the vocabulary used in modern Bengali literature.

Differences in Vocabulary

This table below compares the differences of spoken and used vocabularies in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

Examples of borrowed words

Due to centuries of contact with Europeans, Mughals, Arabs, Persians, and East Asians, The Bengali language has absorbed countless words from foreign languages, often totally integrating these borrowings into the core vocabulary. The most common borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. After centuries of contact from Persia and the Middle East, followed by the invasions of the Mughal Empire, numerous Turkish, Arabic, and Persian words were absorbed and fully integrated into the lexicon. Later, East Asian travelers and European colonialism brought words from Portuguese, French, Dutch, and most significantly English. Some very common borrowings are shown below.

Arabic (আরবি Aarbi)

Persian (ফার্সি Farsi)

Turkish (তুর্কি Turki)

Austroasiatic languages (দেশী Deshi)

Sanskrit (সংস্কৃত Sôngskritô)

Japanese (জাপানি / নিহোঙ্গো Japani / Nihonggo )

Dutch (ওলন্দাজ Olôndaj)

Portuguese (পর্তুগিজ Pôrtugij)

French (ফরাসি Fôrasi)

English (ইংরেজি Ingreji)

Word	Original form
অফিস ofish	office
জেল jel	jail
ডাক্তার ḍaktar	doctor
পুলিশ pulish	police
ব্যাংক bank	bank
ভোট bhoṭ	vote
ইস্কুল iskul স্কুল skul	school
হাস্পাতাল haspatal	hospital
কাপ kap	cup
গ্লাস glas	glass
চেয়ার cheyar	chair
টেবিল ṭebil	table
বাক্স baksô	box
লণ্ঠন lônṭhôn	lantern
পায়জামা pāẏajāmā	pajamas
প্লাস্টিক plāsṭika	plastic
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