The Sweetest Language

Every nook and corner of the then 'Indian subcontinent' was overflowing with cultural heritage and history that it truly proved, "Incredible India!" Our language "Bangla" is also belongs to the family of that five thousand years of old civilization. If the Bengalis have the power to invent such a sweet creation known as the "Rosogulla", imagine the sweetness their language may possess. Even the way the Bongs say I love you is so poetic- ‘Ami tomake bhalobashi’, like a sweet poem.

According to a UNESCO survey, Bengali has been voted the sweetest language in the world; positioning Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest tongues. Bengali is spoken all over India including West Bengal, Assam, Bangladesh and Andaman, and Nicobar Islands. With approximately 228 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers, Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world. "Bangla" is a young language which is evolved from the "Maghdi prakit" in 10th century. It is an interesting fact that there are not one but many bengali dialects. Precisely mentioning the "Bangla dialect", "Chittagonian dialect", "Sylheti dialect", "Rangpuri dialect", "Sundarbani dialect", Rarhi dialect" etc.

Even there are many significant Bengali-speaking communities in the United States, Canada, the Middle East and the United Kingdom as well. Bengali’s or the Bongs have a revered fondness for language and literature, and identify a language as an element of identity and uniqueness.

The Bongs have a rich history, traditions and culture in their language which have cast a long shadow of influence on the way they enunciate and express themselves. One of the reasons why Bengali is one of the loveliest languages to speak is because it is very simple to speak; there is no roughness or harshness to the words and the language has simplified vowel and consonant sounds. The language is magnificently laden with the richness of expressions and emotions making it one of the most poetic languages on earth. Bengali language is such that it melts right away in the ear as soon as we hear it. Truly speaking the foreigners will also agree with me.

Bangla vastly simplifies it's sounds. It has an interesting property where it simplifies it's consonant clusters. A consonant which is attached with the word "ma" for example is pronounced as the letter itself. Like we can say the word "Lakshmi" in Hindi is pronounced as "Lokkhi" in Bengali. Bengali language also has the "Schwa" sound in it but interestingly it is not "a'" rather it is "o". Therefore the word "Vasant" in Hindi and "Vasanta" in Sanskrit becomes "Boshonto" in Bengali which means the Spring season.

There is no comparison of Bangla with other language in case of sweetness. The word "Ma"(mother) really mesmerizes me. How sweet it is! How wonderful it is for the mother who gets to hear it!

We are the only nation in the world who have fought for their language. We have achieved our mother tongue through bloodshed. This legacy runs through our veins. But in recent days we notice that our sweet language isn't getting enough respect. Each year we celebrate International Mother Language Day on 21st February. We have to keep the value of the language martyrs. Each and every person has to come forward to respect and uplift our Bengali language and culture in all the places. Our national spirit is also maintained with this.

Each one of us feels that their mother tongue is the sweetest and we are not wrong in believing so. Language is the gratification to the ears of an artistic soul and one will never tire of learning a new language. This immense reverence for a language is beautifully summed up in a Bengali saying- "Ekṭi bhasha jotheshṭo noy" which means “One language is never enough”. it may take us years to learn a language but it only takes a minute for it to become a part of us. I love my language.