Language & Dialect

As mentioned earlier, Bengali is the national and official language of Bangladesh. It is said that Bengali is the seventh most used native languages in the world. This is an ancient language as it belongs to the Indo-Aryan family. Its vocabulary is greatly influenced by the Austroasiatic languages, Tibeto-Burman language, and Dravidian language families.

Bengali is the only binding language that joins the two communities living in India and Bangladesh. Both the nations’ national anthem is written in Bengali. The folk heritage and Bengali literature are popular throughout the world because of the rich culture. 98% of people speak standard Bengali or something associated with Bengali dialects as their primary language.

Mostly Aryan languages are adapted in the lowlands. The language spoken here are also Aryan language along with widely spoken language in the country. There are various Eastern Indic languages adopted by the people here which are treated as Bengali dialects or separate languages. These are:

Chakma:
This is spoken by the Diangnet and Chakma people. Almost 310,000 Bangladeshi who are living along the Chittagong City which is southeastern Bangladesh and almost 300,000 people who are residing along northeastern India generally speak in this language.

Bishnupriya:
This is also an Aryan language that is adopted by the people living in northeastern Bangladesh. This means generally the people living towards the Sylhet area speak this language. The alphabets are written in Bengali.

Chittagonian:
This language is widely towards the southeastern part of Bangladesh mostly in the Chittagong. This language has been adopted by more than 13 million Bangladeshis.

Rohingya:
This is a language which is mostly spoken along the Arakan State. But this is also adopted by the refugees who came from Burma in Bangladesh. This is the reason why it is considered as one of the prime languages of the immigrants of Bangladesh.

Hajong:
This is the prime language towards the Mymensingh district. This language is generally written in Assamese and Latin script.

Sylheti:
This is mainly spoken by Sylheti people who are the inhabitants of Sylhet division. This is a common language of northeastern India. Some people feel that it has the Bengali whereas the other people take this as a different language. Most of the Sylhet people speak Bengali.

Rangpuri:
This language is generally spoken by more than 10 million people from Rajbongshi. Some of the people from here are bilingual as they speak either Assamese or Bengali.

Tangchangya:
This sounds almost like Bengali and mostly spoken by the Tangchangya people.

Others:
Other than these, Oraon Sadri, Bihari, and Assamese are some of the various other languages spoken in Bangladesh. Most of the Muslim refugees in Bangladesh coming from the Bihar region of India speak Bihari.

Koda:
Koda is the endangered language which is mostly spoken by only some people. It is rare in some areas of India and Bangladesh. In the year 2005, it was recorded that there were only 1,300 speakers in Bangladesh that too in the Rajshahi Division.

Khasi:
This is the prime language spoken in the Meghalaya state of India along with the Khasi people inheriting here. It is also adopted by a good number of people living in Bangladesh. Especially people living along the border areas of India and Bangladesh speak this language.

Mundari:
Munda language is spoken along various parts of Bangladesh. This is the most common language of the Munda tribals.

Santali:
This language is used by almost 6.2 million people in Bangladesh.

Pnar:
This is another Austro-Asiatic language spoken in various parts of Bangladesh.

War-Jaintia:
This is again a rare language in Bangladesh. This has been observed that only 16,000 people in Bangladesh speak this language.

With the primary language and official language Bangla, most of people will be welcoming with this language. Since Bangladesh has now become a popular tourist place, different languages are being adopted by the people.