Linguistic Survey Of India Vol V Part I Indo Aryan Family Eastern Group

204 BENGALI.
*dildn; dese> in. a country, ddshe ; gela> he went gdlo;pet^ a belly, pdt. In the Bengali
character these are all written, dydo> diVan> dydse, etc. In future, I shall represent
the sound by a, it being understood that this usually represents a Bengali *d.
The letter ch is pronounced ts. Thus chaliyd, having gone, is pronounced tsoild;
and bctchcha, a young one, batstsd.
The letter chh is pronounced like a hard s. Thus dchhila is pronounced dsild
chhdoydl) a child, sdwdl.
The letter r is pronounced r. Thus bara, pronounced boro, for ba?a, great.
Soft aspirate consonants are disaspirated. Thus bMge, in a share, is pronounced
bdge; bharaner, of filling, boroner; bh&btta, he thought, bdiblo ; dhariyd> having seized,
doird; bhdla, good, bald; drambha, beginning, arombo; bandlm-bdndhab, friends and
relations, bondu-bdndob. This elision of an ft, I shall represent in phonetic transcription
by an apostrophe. Thus Vdroner, b'aiblo, d'oird, etc.
Similarly the letter ft is* elided- Thus kahila,, he said, becomes Mild; haila, he
became, 'oilo; hdoner, of being, 'ooner; chdh'ila, he wished, chd'ilo.
The letter y, and y when it would be pronounced j in standard Bengali, are pro-
nounced^. Thus janma, birth, is pronounced zonm; y&ik, let him go, zdik; ye, who,
ze; yakhan> when, zokhon. I sliall substitute z for j henceforth iri dealing with this
specimen.
The sibilants £ sh and s, are all pronounced as sh.
IL-NOUNS.
The usual pleonastic sufl&x is di or $, thus dwi-dl,, two; chh(s)ota-di> the younger.
Sometimes td is used, as in dk4d, a, one.
The Nominative Singular often ends in e> as in bape, the father,
The termination of the Accusative-Dative is ere. Thus bdp*ere, to the father;
chdlcar*ere> the servant (ace.).
The termination of the Instrumental-Locative is e> or after a vowel te; also,
after long 5, y* Thus V&g^ in a share; dd$-e> in a country; mdth-e in the field;
bdri~te> in the house; sdikkh9d-te9 in the presence of; khidd-y, by hunger,
The termination of the Genitive is the same as in standard Bengali. Thus zaner,
of a man; ddfer, of a country; bdrir, of the house.
Examples of the Plural are faorerd> swine; chdftarerd, servants; chdkar-go> servants
(ace* plur.).
HI.—PEONOUN8.
First Person,~a^ I; ama-re, me, to me; &mar9 my.
Second Person,—tm,i> thou; tmdr, thy.
Third Person,—W, se3 he; td> that (nom. and ace.); td-re, him, to him; tar, his;
t&~te3 thereon; td~go, their ; tdrd> they; tawt to them. To him,
5ya~re> his, oydr. Of this, iydr.
Adjeetivef Pronouns are, ei, this; ai, sei, that.
Other Pronouns are, $e9 who, what; qa-JcicJifi^u, whatever ; ?£, what (thing);
t*, some, any; keu^ anyone; kono, any; ki, what ?