published
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it's been a few days since i skeeted this
i'm sick of not understanding the posters in my neighborhood so i'm trying to learn bengali
— a 40-year old man (@swizzard.pizza) March 7, 2025 at 9:50 AM
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i'm making my way through that book and having Thoughts which i'll try to keep here
i made a flashcards app
it was not that hard
although it does seem like there is some underspecificity in the bangla digitalization space
e.g. william radice, ios, chrome (chromium? i'm on linux), and neovim/gnome all seem to disagree about whether certain ligatures are automatic, optional, or invalid/impossible
while occasionally unsettling, this has overall been a positive thing as i am forced to Not Worry About It
there seems to be some organization to the gnome keyboard but it seems only incidentally related to the latin
characters, e.g. m
is ম, but shift-m
is শ
i'm glad i did it both per se and because as a Person Who Types it's important to me to work on typing bengali
i'm glad it seems like the script isn't a problem for computers, i was really worried about having to slap a lot of escaped nonsense in here
otoh there are so many characters and they're all very small and hard to read in my default ide font
shout-outs to gedit and Show keyboard layout
this book is organized into Sections, the first of which is Very Introductory in a way i find unsettling
we are outside the ivory tower and my poor fragile body is exposed to the buffettings of Phrases and Vocabulary
lacking the comfort of certainty, i am forced to clothe myself in supposition and inference
there is something called the "inherent vowel"
actually bengali uses an
abugida
and not an alphabet stricto sensu and thus every consonant is
followed by an implicit /ɔ/
unless there is a different vowel sign attached:
বis pronounced /bɔ/
বাis pronounced /ba/
, because া
is /a/
due to what i can only suspect to be the vicissitudes of diachrony, this neat algorithm is troubled by edge cases
particularly vexatious to me as of are
/kʰa.bɔ/
) but not at the end of খুব
(/kʰyb/
); it's pronounced at the end of বস (/bɔ.lɔ
) but not at the end of দস
(/dɔʃ/
)/maŋ.ʃɔ/
and not /ma.ŋɔʃ/
, গরম is
pronounced
/gɔ.rɔm/
and not /grɔm/
or /gɔrm
i suspect at least a partial explanation lies in Bengali phonotactics and which kinds of syllables are licit and which aren't
Good Mr Rice deigns not trouble our little brains with such matters, of course, writing
Again, when to pronounce the inherent vowel and when to drop it is something that one can learn only
with practice.
p. 8
🙎
there are so many 3rd-person pronouns
/o/
)/e/
)/y.ni/
)/i.ni/
)/ʃe/
)/õ/
)/ẽ/
)Our Friend once more refrains from directly commenting on similarities between the first and last pairs,
writing only The nasalized vowels are important if you want to indicate that certain pronouns are
polite. If you fail to nasalize, you may sound more 'familiar' than you intend.
p.
22 (emphasis and scare quotes his)
i am left to suspect that এর (/er/
) is somehow "more 'familiar'" than এঁর
(/ẽr/
) but the specifics remain
elusive
(relatedly, my theory is that -র is a? the? possessive marker or case ending: এ vs এর,
আমি (/a.mi/
, "i") vs আমার (/a.mar/
, "my"), উনি উমার বাবা (/y.ni y.mar
ba.ba/
"is he uma's father?"p. 6) but this is officially unconfirmed by Rice, so far)
Ol' Billy just throws these pronouns at us nudely, without nuance or overt usage guidance
is anyone else cold?
so in latin and greek (and english kinda) there is something called the sequence of tenses which is a set of rules that govern interactions among verb tenses in indirect speech
afaict this isn't a thing in bengali and isn't actually relevant
however
Bill gives us sentences like
ও এলে খাবেে
/o e.le kʰa.be/
will he/she eat when he/she comes?
p. 16
he come?-PERF? eat-FUT?-3SG?
আমি খেয়ে এলাম
/a.mi kʰe.je e.lam/
i came after eating
p. 16
i eat-PERF? come?-PST?-1SG?
এখানে এসে বসুন
/e.kʰa.ne e.ʃe bɔ.ʃyn/
come and sit here
p. 16
here come-PERF? sit-IMP?
what are we to make of these? i have given my tentative glosses, hesitantly warmed on a flickering pile of inferences
it seems to me that in these sentences there are two verbish things, one of which determines the primary tense and the other seems participly
William gives us এনে (/e.ne/
, having brought
p. 16) and এসে
(/e.ʃe/
, having brought
p. 16)
earlier we got
আমি আনিনি
/am.i a.ni.ni/
i did not bring
p. 6
i bring-1SG?-NEG?
রবিবার আসুন
/rɔ.bi.bar a.ʃyn/
come (on) sunday
p. 11
sunday come-IMP?
from this i propose theories
এ ে
(/e_e/
) is a perfect participle marker
স
(/ʃ/
) means "come" (move proximal-ward
)
ল
(/l/
) might also mean "come"?
খ
(/kʰ/
) means "eat"
it seems likely that all/some roots are more complex than this
আমরা নিইনি
/am.ra ni.ʔi.ni/
we did not take
p. 6
we take-1SG?-NEG?
to me this suggests that আন
means "bring," while "take" is possbly just
ন
are there actually two separate "words" (howsoever defined) for "come" or could it be suppletion?
through the first 5 chapters, most of the instances of "come" with স
are non-past
come (on) sundayp. 11
shall i/we come (on) mondayp. 11
come with mep. 16
while those with ল
are past
i came after eatingp. 16
will he/she eat when he/she comes?p. 16
but also উনি আসেননি? না"hasn't he/she come? no" p. 16
hopefully Mr Rice eventually provides us some clarity
© 2025 sam raker