113-568: Dhaka Third Division Football League ( Bengali : ঢাকা তৃতীয় বিভাগ ফুটবল লীগ ), officially known as Bashundhara Group Third Division (U-17) Football League due to sponsorship reasons and change of format, is the fifth-tier football league in Bangladesh , as well as the third and lowest league division in Dhaka . It was established in 1948 as the league below the Second Division while Bangladesh
226-631: A civil enclave , sharing airside facilities with INS Utkrosh of the Indian Navy . The airport has a single runway of 3,290 m (10,794 ft) in length, with the civilian terminal operated by the Airports Authority of India with air traffic operations managed by the Indian Navy. Andaman and Nicobar Command of Indian Armed Forces operates air bases of Car Nicobar AFS , INS Kohassa , INS Utkrosh and INS Baaz . There are 23 ports along
339-524: A 150 km (93 mi) wide channel . The capital and largest city of the territory, Port Blair (officially Sri Vijaya Puram), is located approximately 1,190 km (740 mi) from Chennai and 1,255 km (780 mi) from Kolkata in mainland India . The islands are situated between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. The northernmost point is 901 km (560 mi) from
452-492: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
565-749: A ceremony performed at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair on 7 October 1945. During the Partition of India , the British announced their intention to retain possession of the islands and use them to resettle Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese on these islands. The islands were claimed by the Indian National Congress for India and the Muslim League for Pakistan during the partition negotiations. After
678-482: A deputy commissioner. The Calcutta High Court has jurisdiction over the islands with a permanent seat at Port Blair. The indigenous communities have their own system of administration. There are long term settlements known as baraij and short-term settlements known as chang . The coast-dwellers ( aryoto ) have semi-permanent settlements and the interior groups ( eremtaga ) dwell on temporary settlements, which enable them to migrate during dry seasons. As of 2022 ,
791-590: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
904-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
1017-672: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
1130-492: A major trade route connecting India to the South East Asia and had much contact with the outside world for centuries. But there are very few accounts of information as there was no written language with the indigenous people to document their history. The islands have been mentioned in the accounts of travellers like Faxian in the 6th century CE and I-T'sing in 7th century CE. In the 11th century CE, Rajendra Chola I of
1243-660: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
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#17328917472661356-575: A new 15 MW diesel power plant was established in South Andaman with Japanese assistance. Commissioned in June 2020, a 10 MW photovoltaic power station is operated by NLC India in Port Blair. In 2022, the government proposed additional power plants and infrastructure to be developed in Great Nicobar. 4G mobile service is provided by various telecom operators in the islands. Till 2020, Internet
1469-543: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 836 islands, of which only 31 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands , separated by
1582-562: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
1695-636: A separate union territory administered by the Government of India , following the re-organization in 1956. The islands have been developed into a key defence establishment since the 1980 due to its strategic location in the Bay of Bengal across the Strait of Malacca . On 26 December 2004, the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar islands experienced 10 m (33 ft) high tsunami waves following an undersea earthquake in
1808-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
1921-575: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
2034-442: A total land area of approximately 8,249 km (3,185 sq mi) with a population of 380,581 as per the 2011 census . The territory is divided into three districts: Nicobar , South Andaman , and North and Middle Andaman with the capitals at Car Nicobar , Port Blair and Mayabunder respectively. Genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated from other populations during
2147-516: A translation of Nakkavar with the same meaning. Genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic era, which ended 30,000 years ago. Archeological evidence obtained from middens have been dated the earliest civilisations back to 200-300 BCE. The islands have been mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE. The Nicobar islands existed on
2260-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
2373-494: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
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#17328917472662486-536: Is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali
2599-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
2712-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
2825-668: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
2938-649: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
3051-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
3164-477: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
3277-545: Is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It
3390-455: Is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America,
3503-460: Is the official language of the region, while English is declared an additional official language for communication purposes. The islands form a part of the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and is administered by a Lieutenant Governor on behalf of the Government of India. The union territory was established in 1956 with a chief commissioner as the head of the administration. In 1982,
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3616-539: Is trying to protect the remnant population by providing access to healthcare facilities, communication and social engagement. The Andamanese people speak about a dozen endangered Andamanese languages, which belong to two families, Great Andamanese and Ongan that are unrelated to each other or to any other language group. There are two unattested languages: Sentinelese , spoken by Sentinelese people, who refuse contact with outsiders, which might be related to Ongan as per Anvita Abbi and Jangil , which became extinct in
3729-500: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
3842-660: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
3955-1295: The Bangladesh Football Federation decided to shut down the Dhaka Third Division League from the 2021–2022 season. The decision received much scrutiny from clubs participating in the Dhaka Football League. On 3 January 2023, BFF announced that the 2021–2022 league season would finally begin from 7 January 2023, and participating clubs will only be allowed to field U17 players. Level League / Division 1 Bangladesh Premier League 11 clubs - 2 relegation 2 Bangladesh Championship League 11 clubs - 2 promotion, 2 relegation 3 Dhaka Senior Division Football League 14 clubs – 2 promotion, 3 relegation 4 Dhaka Second Division Football League 18 clubs, split into 2 groups – 3 promotion, 2 relegation 5 Dhaka Third Division Football League 18 clubs, split into 2 groups – 5 promotion, 2 relegation 6 Bangladesh Pioneer Football League unlimited number of clubs - 4 promotion Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ),
4068-567: The British colonised the Andaman islands to set up a naval base and establish a penal colony . In 1794, a first batch of 100 prisoners were sent to the island but the settlement was abandoned in 1796. In 1858, the British established a colony near Port Blair . Between 1864 and 1868, Italy tried to buy the island from the Danish. On 16 October 1868, the Danish sold the rights to the Nicobar islands to
4181-890: The Cellular Jail , Chatham Saw Mill, Forest Museum, Samudrika Naval Marine Museum, Anthropological Museum, Fisheries Aquarium, Science Center and Carbyn's cove in Port Blair; Bharatpur, Lakshmanpur and Sitapur beaches in Shaheed Dweep ; Elephant and Radhanagar beaches in Swaraj Dweep ; Hudi tikri, Red, Bird and Bat islands, Amkunj beach near Rangat; Dhaninallah mangroves and Karmatang beach near Mayabunder; limestone caves and mud volcanoes near Diglipur; Craggy island and Ross & Smith islands and various national parks and protected sanctuaries. The islands are served by Veer Savarkar International Airport near Port Blair which has regular flights to major cities in India. The airport operates as
4294-656: The Chola dynasty of Tamilakam invaded parts of South East Asia using the Nicobar islands as an intermediate naval base. It was part of an established Chola trade route connecting India and South East Asia, with the practice continuing in the subsequent years during the reigns of Rajendra II and Kulothunga I . Chola inscriptions from Thanjavur , dated to 1050 CE, describe the islands as Ma-Nakkavaram meaning "great open/naked land" in Tamil. The islands are later mentioned by Marco Polo in
4407-468: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
4520-480: The GSDP was ₹ 103 billion (US$ 1.2 billion). Agriculture is a major occupation with nearly 50% of the population engaged in the sector. Only about 48,675 hectares (120,280 acres) of land, which is about 6% of the total land area, can be used for agriculture. Rice is the main food crop, grown in about 20% of the arable land. Most of the food for consumption is imported from mainland India. Coconut and arecanut are
4633-618: The Indian Independence in 1947, the islands became part of the Dominion of India . As per the Constitution of India , the Islands were designated as the only part D territory in 1950, to be administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the Government of India . The islands were later used to resettle people displaced during the partition with a substantial number of displaced immigrants establishing agricultural colonies. The islands became
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4746-564: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
4859-669: The Lieutenant Governor replaced the Chief Commissioner as the head of administration. In 1981, a "Pradesh council" with councillors as representatives of the people was constituted to advise the Lieutenant Governor. The territory sends one representative to Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament from its Andaman and Nicobar Islands Lok Sabha constituency . The territory is divided into three districts, each headed by
4972-524: The Middle Paleolithic era, more than 30,000 years ago. Archeological evidence of civilisation has been dated back to 2,200 years. In the 11th century CE, Cholas , one of the three Tamil kingdoms , used the islands as a naval base to launch expeditions in South East Asia. The Danish were the first Europeans to arrive on the islands in 1755. The islands became part of the British Raj in 1868. During
5085-520: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
5198-704: The Navy . While Hindi and English are the official languages, the major spoken languages include Bengali , Tamil and Telugu . Indigenous people speak any of the Andamanese or Nicobarese family of languages. Hinduism is the majority religion in the union territory, with a significant Christian minority. The islands include the North Sentinel Island , home to the Sentinelese people , an uncontacted tribe . The name Andaman might have been derived from Handuman , after
5311-720: The Second World War , the islands were invaded by the Japanese as a part of their attack on the allies in 1942. Port Blair was captured by the Japanese on 23 March 1942 and established control over the island. The provisional control was passed on to the Azad Hind of Subhash Chandra Bose on 29 December 1943, based on the understanding with the Japanese with the islands renamed as Shaheed-Dweep (Martyr Island) and Swaraj-dweep (Self-rule Island). Bose appointed General A. D. Loganathan as
5424-630: The Second World War , the islands were invaded by the Japanese Empire . After Indian Independence in 1947, the region became a province and later a union territory after the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950. The islands host the Andaman and Nicobar Command , the only geographical command operated jointly by the three major wings of the Indian Armed Forces : the Army , the Air Force and
5537-590: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
5650-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; 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 গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
5763-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
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#17328917472665876-413: The 13th century CE and Friar Oderic in early 14th century CE. The European colonisation on the islands began when settlers from the Danish East India Company arrived on the Nicobar Islands on 12 December 1755. On 1 January 1756, the Nicobar Islands were made into a Danish colony, first named Nye Danmark (New Denmark) and later Frederiksøerne (Frederick's Islands). The islands were managed from
5989-457: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
6102-485: The 1920s. Indigenous to the Nicobar Islands are the Shompen language , spoken by Shompen people and the five Nicobarese languages , which form part of the Austroasiatic language family and are spoken by about 29,000 people or 7.6% of the population. The majority of the population, however, are speakers of immigrant languages which include Bengali (28.5%), Tamil (15.2%), Telugu (13.2%), Hindi (12.9%), Malayalam (7.2%). Sadri (5.5%), and Kurukh (4%). Hindi
6215-487: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
6328-421: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
6441-401: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
6554-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
6667-410: The British, which was made part of the British India in 1869. In 1872, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were united under a single command and administered by a chief commissioner based out of Port Blair. The construction of the Cellular Jail started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The jail was used to house political prisoners and independence activists away from the Indian mainland. During
6780-433: The Danish colony of Tranquebar in the Indian mainland. However, various attempts to settle on the islands were unsuccessful due to repeated outbreaks of malaria , which led to the death of the colonists. Between 1778 and 1783, William Bolts tried to establish an Austrian colony on the Nicobar islands, mistakenly assuming that the Danish had abandoned the claims to the islands, renaming them Theresa Islands . In 1789,
6893-418: The Indian God Hanuman from the Hindu epic Ramayana . The place was called with a similar name by the Malay , who used to be involved in slave trade in the region. The place was also referred by various names such as Angademan by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE and Angamanian by Marco Polo in 13th century CE. Nicobar, which was located in the sea route connecting South India to South East Asia ,
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#17328917472667006-675: The Indian Ocean which resulted in more than 2,000 casualties, 46,000 injuries and rendering at least 40,000 homeless. The locals and tourists on the islands suffered the greatest casualties while the indigenous people largely survived unscathed due to movement to high grounds following the oral traditions passed down over generations that warned them to evacuate following earthquakes. The territory consists of 836 islands and islets occupying an area of 8,249 km (3,185 sq mi), of which only 31 are permanently inhabited. The islands extend from 6° to 14° North latitudes and from 92° to 94° East longitudes . The islands are grouped into
7119-449: The Japanese on suspicion of spying. Japanese Vice Admiral Teizo Hara and Major-General Tamenori Sato surrendered to Lieutenant Colonel Nathu Singh , the commanding officer of the Rajput Regiment on 15 August 1945, on board the Royal Navy warship HMS Sandbar and the territory was officially handed back over to the British to Brigadier J. A. Salomons, commander of 116th Indian Infantry Brigade , and Chief Administrator Noel Patterson, in
7232-520: The Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in the third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history,
7345-609: The National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog was initiated by Government of India, with the aim of increasing tourist inflows. Foreign tourists are issued Restricted Area Permits (RAP) which gives access to specific areas with conditions. While domestic tourists do not require a permit to visit the accessible parts of the islands, the tribal reserves are forbidden and requires special permission for access. The islands have many beaches due to its long coastline and various water sports are practised including kayaking , scuba diving and parasailing . Major attractions include
7458-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
7571-424: The cash crops grown in the Nicobar islands. Other crops include pulses , oilseeds , vegetables like okra , brinjal , cucurbit and radish ; spices and fruits such as mango , sapota , orange, banana, guava and pineapple . Rubber, red oil , palm and cashew are grown on a limited scale in plantations. The territory has an exclusive economic zone of more than 0.6 million sq. km, which contributes to
7684-490: The coast. There are twelve types of forests that occur in the islands including evergreen , deciduous , mangrove, littoral , bamboo , sub-montane and brackish water forests. North Andaman is characterised by wet evergreen forests with climbing plants , Middle Andaman has moist deciduous forests and South Andaman islands have epiphytic vegetation, mostly ferns and orchids . The North Nicobar islands are mostly barren with grasslands while evergreen forests form
7797-425: The commercial exploitation of which began in the early 20th century. There are about nine national parks , 96 wildlife sanctuaries and one biosphere reserve in the islands. As per the 2011 census , the population was 380,581, of which 202,871 (53.3%) were males and 177,710 (46.7%) were females. The sex ratio was 878 females per 1,000 males. There were a total of 94,551 households and about 143,488 (37.7%) of
7910-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
8023-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
8136-587: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
8249-469: The dominant vegetation in the central and southern islands of the Nicobar group. The forest coverage is estimated to be 86.2% of the total land area with about 2,200 varieties of plants of which 200 are endemic and 1,300 do not occur in mainland India. There are more than 200 species used for timber. There are more than 8300 species of fauna of which 1117 are endemic to the islands. There are about 64 species of reptiles of which half of them are endemic to
8362-621: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
8475-549: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
8588-484: The extinct Dodo . The territory is home for about 896 species of winged insects including 225 butterflies species. There are more than 1350 species of echinoderms and molluscs and 200 species of corals in the seas surrounding the islands. Larger marine species include salt water crocodiles , dugongs , turtles, dolphins and whales. There are more than 1350 species of fishes including 13 fresh water species. The islands are well known for prized shellfish ,
8701-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
8814-426: The fishing industry. As of 2017 , the region produced 27,526 tonnes of fish, mostly from marine sector with minor contribution from inland fisheries. As of 2008 , there were 1,833 registered small-scale industries with majority being involved in engineering, woodworking and textiles apart from 21 factories. District Industries Centre (DIC) is the body responsible for the development of small and medium industries in
8927-714: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
9040-464: The governor of the islands, who had limited power while the real control of the islands remained with the Japanese. In the years under Japanese occupation, there have been reports of widespread looting , arson, rape and extra judicial killings . Local people were often killed on trivial matters with the largest being the Homfreyganj massacre on 30 January 1944, where 44 local civilians were shot by
9153-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
9266-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
9379-404: The islands including one high school. As of 2023 , there are 428 schools functioning in the islands with a total enrolment of 86,081 students. Jawaharlal Nehru Rajkeeya Mahavidyalaya was the first institute of higher education, established in 1967. Mahatma Gandhi Government College was established in 1990 and is affiliated to Pondicherry University . Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Government Polytechnic
9492-493: The islands is 901 km (560 mi) away from the mouth of the Hooghly River in the Indian mainland. The territory shares maritime borders with Indonesia located about 165 km (103 mi) to the south, Myanmar located 280 km (170 mi) to the north-east and Thailand located 650 km (400 mi) to the south-east. Indira Point, the southernmost point of India, is located at 6°45'10″N and 93°49'36″E at
9605-465: The islands of which 90 are endemic. The islands' caves are nesting grounds for the Edible-nest swiftlet , whose nests are prized for bird's nest soup . The islands serve as an intermediate resting site for birds such as Horsfield's bronze cuckoo , Zappey's flycatcher and Javan pond heron during long distance migrations . The Nicobar pigeon found in the islands is the closest living relative to
9718-447: The islands with a major port at Port Blair and eight other significant ports including Diglipur , Mayabunder , Rangat , Hut Bay , Car Nicobar , Katchal and Campbell Bay . In 2022, the Government of India proposed the development of a new container ship terminal and an airport at Great Nicobar. There are 39 light houses situated across the islands. As of 2018 , there are 422 km (262 mi) long national highways in
9831-424: The islands. Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited (ANIIDCO), established in 1988, is responsible for the development and economic growth of the islands. Tourism is one of the major contributors to the economy of the islands. The islands had more than 400,000 visitors in 2016 with a 94% contribution from domestic tourists. In 2018, plans to develop facilities in various islands under
9944-421: The islands. Most of the larger species were introduced by colonists and travellers, some of which became endemic due to their prolonged isolation. There are about 55 mammal species of which 32 are endemic with 26 species of rats and 14 species of bats, the most among the mammals. The endangered Indian elephant can be found in forested or mountainous areas of the islands, which were originally introduced from
10057-483: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
10170-510: The language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as the Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal
10283-535: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
10396-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
10509-507: The mainland to help with the timber extraction in 1883. Endangered and critically endangered species endemic to the islands include the Andaman white-toothed shrew , Andaman spiny shrew , Jenkin's shrew , Nicobar spiny shrew , Nicobar tree shrew , Miller's Nicobar rat , Palm rat , Andaman teal , Nicobar scops owl , Andaman boobook and Darwin's eastern frog . Other large fauna include Wild boar , Spotted deer , Barking deer and Sambar deer . There are about 270 species of birds in
10622-423: The mouth of the Hooghly River . Indira Point , located at 6°45'10″N and 93°49'36″E on the southern tip of Great Nicobar , is the southernmost point of India. The territory shares maritime borders with Indonesia located about 165 km (103 mi) to the south, Myanmar located 280 km (170 mi) to the north-east and Thailand located 650 km (400 mi) to the south-east. The islands occupy
10735-585: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
10848-520: The north Andaman islands and south Nicobar islands, separated by the 150 km (93 mi) wide Ten Degree Channel . The Andamans cover an area of 6,408 km (2,474 sq mi) while the Nicobar group covers an area of 1,841 km (711 sq mi). The highest point is the Saddle Peak at 737 m (2,418 ft), located in North Andaman Island. The northernmost point of
10961-514: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
11074-569: The population lived in urban areas. Hinduism (69.5%) is the major religion of people of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands followed by Christianity (21.7%) and Islam (8.5%). The Andaman islands were populated by the indigenous people (the Great Andamanese , the Onge , the Jarawa and the Sentinelese ) who were isolated and spoke Andamanese languages for thousands of years. The Nicobar islands, which
11187-514: The population of islands temporarily increased during colonisation, the population saw a massive spike post-1960s due to the policies of the Union Government that encouraged settlers from other parts of the country. In the early 21st century, the population of indigenous people has drastically dropped and As of 2016 , it was estimated to consist of 44 Great Andamanese, 380 Jarawas, 101 Onges, 15 Sentinelese and 229 Shompens. The Government of India
11300-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
11413-465: The southern tip of Great Nicobar . The capital and largest city is Port Blair (officially Sri Vijaya Puram ), located 1,190 km (740 mi) from Chennai and 1,255 km (780 mi) from Kolkata on the Indian mainland. Barren Island , the only active volcano in India, is located in the Andaman Sea. The islands have a 1,962 km (1,219 mi) long coast-line. The topography of
11526-471: The state with the major highway being the 230.7 km (143.4 mi) long NH 4 connecting Port Blair and Diglipur. There is no single power grid connecting all the islands and independent power houses caters to the power requirements of individual islands. The islands have an installed power capacity of 68.46 MW with majority of the power generated from diesel power plants and a single hydroelectric powerplant of 5.25 MW on Kalpong river. In 2016,
11639-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
11752-416: The territory varies significantly across various islands. The islands may have sandy, rocky sandstone or marshy beaches on the coastlines and might be surrounded by shoals and coral reefs . The altitude varies significantly from completely flat islands to gradually raising topography from the coast to the interior in larger islands. The islands are generally surrounded by shallow seas of varying depths in
11865-475: The vicinity with some deep natural bays occurring along certain coasts. The islands have a moderate temperature around the year with the average ranging from 23 °C to 31 °C. The islands have a tropical climate with warm summers and not so chill winters. The rainfall is dependent on the monsoons and tropical cyclones are common in late summer. The islands have mangroves interspersed with marshes, coconut trees or dispersed bushy vegetation along
11978-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
12091-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
12204-554: Was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
12317-597: Was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of
12430-532: Was known as Nakkavaram , meaning "open/naked land" borrowed from Tamil language which later became Nicobar . In the middle ages (500-1500 AD), Nicobar was known as Lankhabatus in Arabia , probably a mis-transcription of the name Nakkavaram . An 11th-century CE work Kathasaritsagar indicates the name as Narikel Dweep . Marco Polo termed the island as Necuverann , while the islands were known as Lo-Jan Kuo in China,
12543-487: Was part of trade routes and was frequented by travellers, were populated by Shompen people before the islands were settled by Nicobarese people , who spoke Austroasiatic languages. The islands include the North Sentinel Island , home to the Sentinelese people, among the only known uncontacted tribe in India. When the islands were first colonised, the population of the natives were estimated to be around 5,000 and while
12656-452: Was provided through satellite links and access was limited. Bharat Broadband Network started work on laying fiber optic submarine cables connecting the islands with Chennai in December 2018. On 10 August 2020, the undersea optical fibre cable went live, which enabled high-speed broadband connections in the islands. The first primary school in the islands was established in 1881. During Independence, 12 schools were functioning on
12769-610: Was still under Pakistani rule. From 2022–23 season, the league is being arranged as an under-17 league. The league is the lowest division of semi-professional football in the country and the two top-finishing teams are automatically promoted to the Dhaka Second Division Football League . While the bottom two teams are relegated to the country's amateur age-level football league, the Bangladesh Pioneer Football League . On 16 September 2021,
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