89-640: Kolkata Circular Railway , also known as the Kolkata Chakra Rail ( Bengali : কলকাতা চক্র রেল ), is a 36.20 km (22.49 mi) long railway loop line operated by the Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways , encircling the city of Kolkata . The line begins and terminates at Dum Dum Junction , with a total of 19 stations spread over the route's 36.20 km (22.49 mi) length (Dumdum junction to Majerhat via Princepghat route :- 18 km (11 mi) & Majerhat to Dumdum junction via Ballygunge Junction route :- 18.2 km (11.3 mi)). Services on
178-577: A 37 km (23 mi) long line from Baruipur on the Diamond Harbour branch line to Lakshmikantapur via Jaynagar Majilpur was constructed by the Eastern Bengal Railway and became a branch line of its Southern section. In an effort to give access to remote areas and promote new growth areas, the 47 km (29 mi) long Lakshmikantapur–Namkhana line project was sanctioned in 1987-88 amongst other projects. The line
267-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
356-596: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
445-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
534-692: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
623-682: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
712-604: A need for a dedicated EMU carshed for the section led to the construction of the Sonarpur EMU carshed in 1978. This reduced the inconvenience faced by the overburdened Narkeldanga EMU car shed. As of November 2021, the Sonarpur carshed had 32 12-car EMU rakes which exclusively served the Sealdah South section. The Narkeldanga carshed had 29 9-car EMU rakes, a few of which served the Sealdah South section mostly via
801-571: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Sealdah South lines Sealdah South section consists of a set of four lines which connect Sealdah in Kolkata with its southern suburbs and with the entire South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal , India . It is a part of
890-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
979-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
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#17327867455551068-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
1157-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
1246-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
1335-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
1424-572: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
1513-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
1602-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
1691-667: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
1780-558: Is held in Sagar Island is approached through the Namkhana branch line of this section. Kakdwip and Namkhana railway stations serve as handy rail heads for travel to the 'mela'. Eastern Railway runs a lot of special trains for the 'mela' to cope with the increase in passenger traffic. There also are special trains from New Delhi to Namkhana via Lucknow Junction and Allahabad Junction during 'mela'. Interchanges with
1869-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
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#17327867455551958-597: Is mostly served by 9-car EMU rakes from the Narkeldanga EMU carshed and 12-car EMU rakes from the Sonarpur EMU carshed. The Circular Railway offers direct interchange points with the Line 1 of the Kolkata Metro at Dum Dum Junction and Tollygunge railway stations while serving a number of prominent city landmarks including Prinsep Ghat and Eden Gardens . The line acts as a major connecting link between
2047-496: Is primarily a suburban section with a total of 334 daily services and 288 Sunday services serving the four lines of the section. A majority of the services are served by 12-car EMU rakes from the Sonarpur EMU Carshed. There are many "Galloping local" services which only stop at important stations of a line. The Gangasagar mela , which attracts thousands of pilgrims during Makar Sankranti in mid-January, and
2136-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
2225-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It
2314-686: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
2403-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
2492-615: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
2581-547: The Circular line are available at stations at Park Circus , Ballygunge Junction , Lake Gardens , Tollygunge , New Alipore and Majerhat stations respectively. Tollygunge and New Garia stations also serve as major interchanges with the Line 1 of the Kolkata Metro while Sealdah and Majerhat serve as interchanges with Line 2 and Line 3 of the Kolkata Metro . A new metro line from New Garia to Baruipur has been proposed as well. This section connects to
2670-602: The Circular line , while rest served the Sealdah Main and North section . Multiple new lines and extensions on this section have been planned by the Eastern Railway ; however, most remain blocked due to land issues. Budge Budge–Pujali–Uluberia (Birshibpur) line The 11 km (6.8 mi) long Budge Budge–Pujali line was sanctioned in the railway budget on 2009-10 while a 10.25 km (6.37 mi) extension from Pujali to Birshibpur near Uluberia on
2759-474: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
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2848-513: The Cossipore Gun & Shell Factory near Chitpur on 1878. The line was extended southwards up to Kidderpore Docks and was opened to goods traffic by 1891. By 1893 the line was constructed up to Chetla . A branch line was also built in 1893 from Kidderpore Docks to Majerhat In 1936, the CPCR owned 55 locomotives and 1789 goods wagons. The last steam locomotives were retired in 1976. In
2937-645: The Eastern Bengal Railway ( reporting mark :EBR )) and the company was dissolved in March 1870. Thus the line became a part of the Southern section of the Eastern Bengal Railway . Post partition of India in 1947 and re-organisation of railway zones in 1952, the entire Southern section of Eastern Bengal Railway was amalgamated under the Sealdah division of Eastern Railway . While multiple feasibility reports and proposals, beginning from 1839, were made for
3026-710: The Howrah–Kharagpur line was sanctioned in 2011-12. Once completed this will connect the South Eastern Railway network under Kharagpur division directly with the Majerhat station in the Sealdah South section of the Eastern Railway via a bridge over the Hooghly river . As of 2021, work could not be started on this extension due to non-availability of land and as such the project had been kept under abeyance. Kalikapur–Ghatakpukur–Minakhan line In
3115-579: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
3204-668: The Kolkata Port , via the KDS Railway , from where major freight commodities like containers, coal and fertilizers are loaded and transferred throughout the Indian Railways network. The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway ( reporting mark :CSER ) was formed in 1859 to connect Calcutta with Port Canning on the Matla River . It constructed and completed the 45 km (28 mi) long line on 15 May 1863. It
3293-803: The Kolkata Suburban Railway and is under the jurisdiction of the Sealdah railway division of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways . It is linked to the Sealdah Main and North section via the Kankurgachi Chord line at Park Circus and via the Kolkata Circular Railway at Majerhat Junction . It also connects to the Kolkata Dock System Railway (KDS Railway) at Majerhat and Brace Bridge respectively. The Sealdah South section consists of four lines: The section
3382-516: The Line 4 of the Kolkata Metro . Names in bold indicate that the station is a major stop or an important interchange/terminal station. Two new stations were planned in the Kankurgachi Chord line section of the line between Park Circus and Sir Gurudas Banerjee Halt stations, namely Kamardanga Halt (serving Tangra ) and Beliaghata Main Road but the plan was ultimately cancelled. Although
3471-723: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
3560-524: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
3649-638: The Sealdah South and the Sealdah North sections of the Kolkata Suburban Railway . Kolkata railway station , one of the major railway stations of Kolkata , lies on this line and acts as a major terminus for many national and international long-distance trains like the Akal Takht Express , Hazarduari Express , Maitree Express and Bandhan Express to name a few. The Calcutta Port Commissioners' Railway ( reporting mark :CPCR )
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3738-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
3827-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
3916-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
4005-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
4094-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
4183-468: The 2011-12 railway budget, a 38 km (24 mi) long line from Kalikapur on the Canning branch line to Minakhan via Ghatakpukur was sanctioned. However, work could not be started on this extension due to non-availability of land and as such the project had been kept under abeyance as of 2021. Canning–Jharkhali extension A 4.84 km (3.01 mi) extension from Canning to Bhangankhali
4272-593: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
4361-456: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
4450-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
4539-540: The CPCR lines at Majerhat and Brace Bridge junctions. In 1907 the Kankurgachi Chord line was built bypassing Sealdah and linking the northern and southern sections of the Eastern Bengal Railway. With the silting of Hooghly river and inaccessibility of bigger ships most of the CPCR lines fell into disuse while the growing population and traffic problems of Kolkata made planners to think of new commuting solutions. The Ginwala Committee of 1947 and
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#17327867455554628-533: The Eastern Bengal Railway. A small 0.81 km (0.50 mi) branch line was constructed in 1883, from Diamond Harbour to Hara Fort near the Hooghly River to transport goods and military supplies as well. The Budge Budge branch line was initially sanctioned in 1886 as a line to connect Ballygunge with the Kidderpore Docks. Sanction to an extension to Budge Budge was given in 1888 and
4717-625: The Garbutt Report of 1966 recommended forming a Circular railway with elevated tracks for lower expenses and easier construction for a north–south corridor. A high level Metropolitan Transport Team set up by the Planning Commission in 1965 to study the metropolitan transport requirements of Bombay , Calcutta , Delhi and Madras recommended in case of Calcutta, the construction of a part of circular railway known as suburban Dispersal Line (Dum-Dum to Princep Ghat) to facilitate
4806-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
4895-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
4984-468: The construction of a railway line between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour , no action were taken on these. Finally in 1883, a 44 km (27 mi) branch line to Diamond Harbour via Baruipur and Magrahat was constructed from Sonarpur on the Sealdah–Canning line of the Eastern Bengal Railway . This line, from Sealdah to Diamond Harbour, then became the main line of the Southern section of
5073-682: The construction of the Kamardanga Halt station was started on 27 February 2011, it was not completed and currently lies abandoned. Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali
5162-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
5251-430: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
5340-458: The dispersal of the commuters arriving at the railway terminus at Sealdah and Howrah and a provision of Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) for catering to the intra-city traffic . As a result, the Baghbazar - Prinsep Ghat line was rehabilitated and commissioned for passenger traffic on 15 August 1984. Services were subsequently extended northwards towards Tala and finally to Dum Dum by 17 June 1990. The Prinsep Ghat - Majerhat elevated section
5429-410: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
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#17327867455555518-443: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
5607-451: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
5696-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
5785-606: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
5874-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
5963-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
6052-413: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
6141-429: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
6230-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
6319-417: The line are operated as an extension of the Kolkata Suburban Railway , partially sharing tracks with the Sealdah South section . The tracks mostly run along the Hooghly river and through Kolkata's central business district, carrying around 36,000 passengers daily. There are also direct services which connect this line to the Sealdah South section skipping Sealdah via the Kankurgachi Chord line. The line
6408-605: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
6497-533: The northern half, the Chitpur Terminus extension was built in 1903 and connected with Dum Dum by the Eastern Bengal Railway ( reporting mark :EBR ). A loop line meant for goods traffic was built from Dum Dum junction to Dum Dum Cantonment via Patipukur on 1904. In the southern section the Budge Budge branch line was built from Ballygunge to Budge Budge . This line formed a connection to
6586-423: The other lines in this division with the different phases and completed up to 1966 from that time the whole division is also fully electrified. The Sealdah South section is primarily served by 12-car EMU rakes from the Sonarpur EMU Carshed. They are also served with a few 9-car EMU rakes from Narkeldanga EMU Carshed. While the section was initially served by the Narkeldanga EMU carshed which opened on 1963,
6675-517: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
6764-523: The project had been kept under abeyance as of 2021. Namkhana–Chandranagar–Bakkhali extension The Namkhana branch line was sanctioned to be extended by 14 km (8.7 mi) to Chandranagar in 2009-10 and then by 17.2 km (10.7 mi) km to Bakkhali in 2011-12. However, work could not be started on this extension due to non-availability of land and as such the project had been kept under abeyance as of 2021. Dankuni–Sagar Island rail line While there have been multiple proposals to build
6853-629: The project had been kept under abeyance as of 2021. Planned branches to Raidighi and Durgapur The 20 km (12 mi) long Jaynagar Majilpur – Raidighi line via Krishnachandrapur was sanctioned in 2009-10. In 2011-12 railway budget, a 25 km (16 mi) long new line from Sangrampur on the Sealdah–Diamond Harbour line to Krishnachandrapur was sanctioned along with a 32 km (20 mi) new line from Jaynagar Majilpur to Durgapur. However, work could not be started on this extension due to non-availability of land and as such
6942-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
7031-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
7120-654: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
7209-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
7298-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
7387-460: The whole of 21 km (13 mi) long line from Ballygunge to Budge Budge via Majerhat was opened on 1890 by the Eastern Bengal Railway. The Calcutta Port Commissioners' Railway ( reporting mark :CPCR ) built a branch line from Kidderpore Docks to Majerhat on 1893. It further constructed a branch line from the subsidiary marshaling yard at Brace Bridge to King George's Dock (renamed to Netaji Subhas Dock in 1973 ) in 1928. In 1928,
7476-497: Was a broad gauge (BG) port railway that opened in stages from 1875 onwards serving the docks area of Calcutta along the bank of the Hooghly from Chitpur in the north to Kidderpore Docks in the south. The first CPCR line opened from Baghbazar , the then terminus of the Calcutta Municipal Railway to Meerbohur Ghat (present day Meer Bahar Ghat) in 1875. The Baghbazar terminus was connected northwards to
7565-533: Was commissioned in 2005 thus completing the Circular railway line. The Dum Dum Cantonment–Biman Bandar branch line was built by the Eastern Railway zone of the Indian Railways and was inaugurated in July 2006. Due to losses and poor patronage owing to the location of the station and odd timings of the services, the services on the line were closed down in 2016. The line was further dismantled in 2020 to make way for
7654-491: Was connected to Majerhat junction on the Eastern Bengal Railway on 1920. The railway line was closed on 1955 due to ever increasing losses. The tracks were dismantled and the land was reclaimed to build a road, now called James Long Sarani, in Behala . The Sealdah South section lines are fully electrified with 25 kV AC overhead system. The electrification process was started in 1965 from Sealdah to Lakshmikantapur line and
7743-535: Was extended up to Kulpi by 1992 and was completed till Kakdwip by 2001. The Kakdwip– Namkhana section was completed by 2004. The Kalighat–Falta Railway ( reporting mark :KFR ) was a 40 km (25 mi) long narrow gauge (762 mm) railway line constructed by the Kalighat–Falta Railway Company, and operated as a part of McLeod's Light Railways , opening to traffic on 28 May 1917 from Gholeshapur (near Kalighat ) to Falta . Gholeshapur
7832-450: Was sanctioned in the 2009-10 railway budget with a railway bridge proposed over the Matla river . In 2011-12 this line was further proposed to be extended by 14.3 km (8.9 mi) to Basanti from where another extension of 23 km (14 mi) to Jharkhali was planned to be taken up. However, work could not be started on this extension due to non-availability of land and as such
7921-459: Was the first railway track on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River and ran from what was then the Beliaghata railway station (presently Sealdah South railway terminus ) to Port Canning on the Matla River via Jadavpur and Sonarpur . In 1868, CSER having suffered extensive losses due to floods and other problems, sold the line to the Indian government (management then being leased to
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