The Bengali alphabet is believed to have been almost fully developed by the 12th century CE, although it continued to evolve up until the 16th century. Some of the earliest examples of the written Bengali language are the Charyapadas, a series of Buddhist mystic songs. The written form of the Bengali language is derived from the ancient Indian Brahmi script, specifically from the eastern version of the Brahmi script. From this proto-language, Oriya is believed to have been the first of the three to develop and break away as a distinct language, followed by Bengali and finally Assamese. Whatever the exact origins of Bengali, linguists generally agree that Bengali was once part of a single linguistic branch along with the Oriya and Assamese languages. Early Bengali: Relationship to Assamese and Oriya An alternate theory suggests that Bengali developed much earlier, around the 7th century CE, from the oral Gauda Prakrit language and its complementary written form, Gauda Apabhramsha. One theory suggests that Bengali developed around the 10th century CE from the spoken Magahi Prakrit language and its written complement, the Magahi Apabhramsha language. The exact origins of the Bengali languages have been debated. Still, despite this diversity of influences, linguists agree in their classification of Bengali as a member of the Indo-European language family. These linguistic families contributed to the development of both Bengali’s vocabulary and grammatical structure. The Indo-Aryan linguistic family developed in three major stages: Old Indo-Aryan or Sanskrit Middle Indo-Aryan, consisting of Prakrits and Apabhramsha stages and New Indo-Aryan, which dates from circa the 10th century CE.ĭespite its classification as an Indo-European language, Bengali also exhibits a variety of influences from other Southeast Asian language families, including the Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic. Classification of the Bengali Language The Bengali language is classified as a member of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-Iranian group of languages, part of the Indo-European language family.

Odia alphabet with bengali