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BENGALI

Bengali, also known as Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language that is native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is spoken in Bangladesh and in parts of India, particularly in the state of West Bengal. With over 250 million speakers, Bengali is one of the world's top 10 languages.

Bengali has evolved from Middle Indo-Aryan dialects like Pali and Magadhi Prakit. It has two literary styles:

Sadhubhasa: The traditional, formal, written language

Chaltibhasa: The vernacular, spoken language based on the speech of educated people in Calcutta

Educated Bengalis use a standard colloquial language called pramita, which means "standard" Bangla.

Some resources for learning Bengali include:

Virtual Bangladesh: Bengali Primer: Online grammar modules

Memrise: Basic Bengali vocabulary

MyLanguages: Bengali vocabulary lists with sound

Quizlet: Bengali vocabulary lists

Omniglot: Bengali alphabet and pronunciation

UKIndia: Learn to Read Bengali

Bengali Alphabet Instruction: YouTube video to learn the Bengali alphabet

RASELraju Institute: Video series on Bengali language