Why is Bangla so famous?

Primarily native to West Bengal in India, Bangladesh, and some parts of Tripura and Assam, the Bangla language, like all other Indian languages, forms a part of the Indo Aryan language family. 

Bangla rose to become the 6th most spoken language in the world and the 2nd most spoken language of the Indian subcontinent from being an unambiguous language spoken in an unknown part of the world. Nearly 200 million people speak Bengali today. Bangla speakers can also be found in Bengali-speaking communities of the USA, Saudi Arabia, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, Australia and Canada.

Bangla created ripples that were felt in its immediate geographical region and around the world. It has an immense cultural effect and a rich history that dates back to the 12th century BCE and is very extensive.

1. Bengali shares connections to Sanskrit as a distinct language. It is currently the most common language in Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken in India, with the highest levels of speakers in West Bengal.
2. Over a period of centuries the Bangla language has been through a number of changes which can be broadly classified into three major periods: 
   • The Old Bengali emerged from the Sanskrit language that had started disappearing in 1000 AD, and thus was primarily used for religious writings and devotional songs. 
   • The Middle Bengali period spanned from around 1400 AD to about 1800 AD. This era is blessed to have an association with the most significant literary works known as the Shreekrishna Kirtana; a poetic drama that entailed multiple folklore stories in about 417 verses & 133 Sanskrit shlokas. 
   • The new or the modern Bengali as we refer today is distinguished from all other Bangla literary works and eras due to the shortening of pronouns and verbs.
3. While the codification and standardization of the Bangla language started in the 18th century, the 19 century saw an upsurge of appreciating and preserving the Bengali culture combined with the useful influences from the westernised culture. The period saw a wave of Bangla works including a common dictionary, a standardized way of speaking and writing Bangla and a movement to acknowledge the Bangla language. And thus began a period called Bengali Renaissance which lasted from the late 19th century to the 20th century. This movement paved the way to establish the literary and cultural, bonafide content of the Bangla language such as poetry, music, and literature which is still influential and heartwarming to read today.
4. Bangla language was significant, and a matter of pride for Bengali people, so much so, that many died to win Bengali an official status in the land it was spoken. This shows the remarkable passion Bengali people had for Bangla. Today, Language Movement Day is celebrated each year for the protests in 1952 that sought to establish Bengali as an official language. As a result the Bengali that we know today came into being without being, with an aim to peacefully and smartly keep the best of the cultures to progress ahead without being pushed around to accept the undue westernised culture. 
5. We can thus find multiple grammatical similarities between Bangla and the English language. Let’s take the example of pronouns; which are basically duplicates, in terms of first, second and third person. There is a, however, a minuscule difference that gender-specific pronouns are not used and the fact that the third person pronouns also describe the proximity of the subject. To take the matter further, there exist three pronouns that describe the proximity in the following manner: someone nearby, someone close, and someone who is far(not present).
6. Bangla language is an Inflected language with verbs being highly inflected. Depending on who is speaking and the kind of tense being used the Bangla verbs change their word endings. Alternatively, changes in a sentence can also erupt from the stem vowel of the word. This is called vowel harmony. 
7. Interestingly, none of the 6 forms of verbs used in the Bangla language clearly specify whether what is being spoken about, is related to the past, present or future, despite the use of a number of inflections to signify and denote the multiple different respect levels characteristic to the language.
8. Bangla is written in its characteristic Bangla script which uses modifiers, called the postpositions, after the object and not before the object, unlike the English language. These are made by inflecting nouns for the locative case formed by transferring these ‘nouns of place’. Today Bangla language is spoken in 4 major dialects that have significant differences such as in tones, besides being almost mutually unintelligible, namely Banga, Varendra, Rarh and Kamarupa. 

Today Bangla language is spoken in 4 major dialects that have significant differences such as in tones, besides being almost mutually unintelligible, namely Banga, Varendra, Rarh and Kamarupa. 

Bangla language has a large number of speakers in India and around the world that is specifically due to the number of Bengali immigrants. That makes Bengali for a truly global language. Apart from this a Bangla language learner can definitely have his plate full with some great known poetry of the world, the intriguing, interesting folktales and some world-class literature to read!