Suniti Kumar Chatterji

“ The palace of comparative grammar cannot be built without bricks, and the bricks are made up of the facts of each particular language.
For many reasons, Bengali, in itself, is specially deserving of careful study. With a literature going back for several centuries, and preserved with some care, it gives opportunities for the study of its history that are wanting in some other forms of Indian speech. It ts a typical descendant of the great language that, under the name of Māgadhī Prakrit, was the vernacular of eastern North India for many centuries. ”

“ Sir Asutosh’s services to his University and to his people and his towering personality are well known in our country, and I need not dilate upon them here. For the foreign scholar interested in Indian Philology and in the spread of modern science in India to form some idea of the work of Sir Asutosh in the University of Calcutta, I would refer to the obituary note on him from Professor Sylvain Lévi, who had occasion to know the man as well as his ideals and achievements, in the ‘Journal Asiatique’ for 1924. ”

“ Many of the views expressed may ultimately prove to be wrong, with the aecession of new facts—as, for instance, from the systematic study of the dialects of Bengali and of the cognate speeches. The work here submitted, however, is the onteome of sincere labour in a subject for which I have the greatest love, and it is here presented as an Essay towards an Historical and Comparative Grammar of Bengali, and as a contribution towards the scientific study of the Modern Aryan languages of India. ”

“ While I was in England Sir George Grierson took a persona! interest in ny work, an interest which manifested itself in many ways and which he in his kindness and his love of science still retains. This has benefited me to the greatest degree imaginable; and the fellowship of con:mon studies with this dyer of Indo-Aryan Linguistics which it has been my very great fortune to enjoy, bas been, along with my coming in similar personal touch with Professor Jules Bloch, an inspiration in my studies and my labours ”

“ The symbols occurring in the present book are given below.
[:] after a symbol denotes length of the sound indicated by it, whether a vowel or a consonant; [~] on the top of a vowel indicates nasalised pronunciation; and [ ́] before a syllable indicates stress upon it and [ ̋] indicates strong stress. The little vertical bar [|] beside a stop sound shows that it is unexploded, e.g., [p|, t|, k|] .
[a] : ‘front a,’ as in North English man, cat, beard in dialectal West Bengali pronunciation of a word like কা’ল [ka:l] yesterday, tomorrow, as opposed to কাল [kɑ:l] time. Nasalised form = [ã] . ”

“ I have to express my thanks especially to the Assistant Registrar of the University, Bābu Yogesh Chandra Chakravartti, M.A., whose unfailing courtesy and prompt action have been of great help ; to Bābu Atul Chandra Ghaṭak, M.A., Superintendent of the University Press, who took a keen interest in my book, and granted me every facility that the University Press could offer, and allowed me many special privileges : his kindness has been constant during the three years that the book took to print—the first forme was printed early in 1923, and the last ones in 1926 ”

“ « ē, ō » have invariably been used for ए, ओ, to emphasise upon their long quantity ; and the long diphthongs ऐ, औ are written as « āi, āu ». Accents in Vedic has been denoted by « ́ » on the vowel bearing it : e.g., « á, í, ŗ ́, ā́, ū́ ».
The « anusvāra » has been indicated by « ṅ » or by « ṁ » following the etymology.
ऋ = « ŗ » ; ॠ = « ṝ » (i.e., « ŗ̄ ») ; ऌ = « ļ » ; ळ = « ḷ » ; ळ्‌ह = « ḷh ».
व has been denoted by « v » as usual, but in some cases, « w » has been employed, to emphasise upon the bilabial pronunciation. ”

“ The letter « ả » represents a long অ « å » sound which seems to have resulted in OB. and MB. from an earlier group « ăă, ăẇă, ăhă » . A quiescent অ, not indicated in the Bengali spelling by ্‌ (= the « virāma » or « hasanta ») , is transcribed « a », i.e. ”

“ In a work of this kind, necessarily offering conclusions here and there on points which in the present state of our linguistic knowledge cannot be decided with absolute certainty, it is not to be expected that all scholars will agree with every statement contained in it ”

“ Atter it was approved by the University of London, Sir George Grierson, in spite of his very heavy and urgent scientific work, honoured my book, in M.S., by a careful perusal, awit his criticisms and suggestions he embodied im several pages of notes, Professor Julee Bloch also did the same thing. These notes I constantly kept beside me in re-writing my thesis. ”

“ This is found with forms in Indo-European, Indo-Iranian and other hypothetical stages of the speech, as well as in intermediate forms in Indo-Aryan.
? before a word or form indicates doubt as to the form proposed, or the form being the source of the word or conneeted with the word under discussion. ”

“ An introduction to this system is to be found in ‘The principles of the International Phonetic Association’ London, 1912, and ‘L’E ́criture phonétique international,’ London, 1921 publication of the Association. ”

“ Langue Marathe = ‘La Formation de la Langue marathe’ by Jules Bloch, Bibliothéque de l’E ́cole des Hautes E ́tudes, Paris, 1919.
LSI. = Linguistic Survey of India.
IMB. = Late Middle Bengali.
lMIA. = Late Middle Indo-Aryan.
Māg. = Māgadhī. ”

“ Ap. = Apabhraṅśa.
Arab. = Arabic.
ASB. = Astatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
B.C. = Before Christ.
B., Beng. = Bengali.
Bib. Ind. = Bibliotheca Indica Series, ASB.
Bib. Nat. = Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris. ”

“ THE BENGALI LANGUAGE
BY
SUNITI KUMAR CHATTERJI
M.A. (Calcutta) , D.Lit. (London)
Khaira Professor of Indian Linguistics and Phonetics and Lecturer in English and Comparative Philology in the University of Calcutta ”