First-year:
- Bangla alphabet
- Introduction to Bengali: Part I, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., Somdev Bhattacharji, &
Suhas Chatterjee (Delhi: Manohar & Am. Inst. of Indian Studies)
download* dialogs & vocabulary in Bangla script: download
190KB
audio files (mp3 format): The University of Chicago, Digital South Asia Library & Archives
scroll and click "Introduction to Bengali, Part I" for Kolkata dialect corresponding to textbook
scroll and click "Introduction to Bengali, Part I [Dacca dialect]" for Dhaka dialect
on right-hand side above "Media Format," change 25 to 250 (i.e., number of files to list)
scroll down until yellow-highlighted "sound" files appear
click yellow-highlighted "sound" to play the mp3 files on your computer
CAVEAT: the browser Internet Explorer has had problems accessing these audio files
- Introduction to Bengali: Part II, by Somdev Bhattacharji (reader to accompany Part I)
- Alternative first-year textbook: Bengali: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Books),
by William Radice (London: Hodder & Stoughton)
- Online Bangla course from Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata:
Bangla Online
Second-year:
- Bengali Prose Reader for Second-Year Students, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. &
Somdev Bhattacharji with Ronald Inden, Arati John, & Clinton B. Seely
- Intermediate Bangla, by Clinton B. Seely
- Bengali Reference Grammar, by W.L. Smith (Stockholm: Association of Oriental Studies)
- Bengali: A Comprehensive Grammar,
by Hanne-Ruth Thompson (Routledge)
Advanced levels:
- Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics: a reader for advanced students, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. & Roushan Jahan
Dictionaries:
- Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary, compiled by Sailendra Biswas,
revised by Subodhchandra Sengupta (Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad)
- Bangla Academy Bengali-English Dictionary, compiled by Latifur Rahman &
Jahangir Tareque; edited by Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, & Jahangir Tareque (Dhaka: Bangla Academy)
- Samsad Common Words Dictionary [English-Bengali] edited by Anjali Bose (Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad)
- Samsad Bangala Abhidhan, compiled by Sailendra Biswas, revised by Shashibhushan Dasgupta
and Dineshchandra Bhattacharya (Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad)
Note: The first three dictionaries listed above are recommended for the learner of the language and for everyday use thereafter. Samsad publishes a larger English-Bengali dictionary that is not recommended for English speakers. It tends to give somewhat longer definitions in Bangla rather than concise Bangla equivalents for the English word under consideration. For the more advanced student, there is the fourth entry above. Another Bangla-Bangla dictionary as well as a dictionary specifically for indicating pronunciation will in the future become available online at The University of Chicago, Digital South Asia Library & Archives
Bangla UNICODE fonts:
Facts and figures pertaining to the language:
*The downloadable files are free. They come compressed in "zip" format to download more readily and in Adobe(Tm) Acrobat format for viewing. Stuffit(Tm) Expander, free on the web, will let you "unzip" the files. Acrobat Reader, also free on the web, will let you view the files on your computer.
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