Bengali

The Language Martyrs of International Mother Language Day led me to do a page on learning Bengali I didn't realize what can of worms I would be opening when I did!

I knew the Indian subcontinent had a large number of spoken languages. What I didn't realize was how many of them are quite literally spoken by tens of millions of speakers!

While researching Bengali and the relationships between it and a number of other Asian languages, I was astounded by how many languages there are, how many speakers there are of some of them and what an amazing literary tradition some of them have. With the growth and increasing importance of this part of the world,these languages will become more important to learn and study in coming years.

International Mother Language Day and the Language Martyrs

February 21st is International Mother Language Day. But in Bangladesh, it is celebrated as Language Martyrs Day.

Bangladesh was once known as East Pakistan, after Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain. When Urdu (spoken in Pakistan) was being forced onto Bangladesh as the only official language, the people protested, demanding that Bengali (also known as Bangla) be included as an official language. On February 21st 1952 police fired on protesters, killing several students. This language revolution ultimately led to the 1971 independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan.