Consonant clusters in Bengali are very common word-initially and elsewhere due to a long history of borrowing from Sanskrit , a language with a large cluster inventory. A substantial number of non-initial clusters have also been borrowed from Persian . Some words borrowed from European languages also have the same features as those from the former two. A handful of words from non-standard dialects of Bengali include native clusters.

Syllable-initial clusters [ edit ]

Native Bengali (????? todbhobo ) words do not contain initial consonant clusters ; ^[1] the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e. one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as ????? geram (CV.CVC) for ????? gram (CCVC) "village" or ?????? iskul (VC.CVC) for ????? skul (CCVC) "school".

Sanskrit (???? totshomo ) words borrowed into Bengali, however, possess a wide range of clusters, expanding the maximum syllable structure to CCCVC. Some of these clusters, such as the mr in ?????? mrittu "death" or the sp in ?????? sposh?o "clear", have become extremely common, and can be considered legal consonant clusters in Bengali.

English and other foreign (?????? bideshi ) borrowings add even more cluster types into the Bengali inventory, further increasing the syllable capacity to CCCVCCCC, ^{[ citation needed ]} as commonly used loanwords such as ????? ?ren "train" and ????? glash "glass" are now even included in leading Bengali dictionaries.

Syllable-final clusters [ edit ]

Final consonant clusters are rare in Bengali. ^[2] Most final consonant clusters were borrowed into Bengali from English, as in ?????? lif? "lift, elevator" and ?????? bengk "bank". However, final clusters do exist in some native Bengali words, although rarely in standard pronunciation. One example of a final cluster in a standard Bengali word would be ???? gonj , which is found in names of hundreds of cities and towns across Bengal, including ???????? Nobabgonj and ????????? Manikgonj . Some nonstandard varieties of Bengali make use of final clusters quite often. For example, in some Purbo (eastern) dialects, final consonant clusters consisting of a nasal and its corresponding oral stop are common, as in ????? chand "moon". The Standard Bengali equivalent of chand would be ???? chad , with a nasalized vowel instead of the final cluster.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

• Masica, C (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages , Cambridge Univ. Press