Intermediate Bangla

Intermediate Bengali is aimed at English-speaking students of the Bengali language who have completed An Introduction to Bengali: Part I, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., Somdev Bhattacharji, and Suhas Chatterjee (2nd printing; New Delhi: Manohar, 1976) and An Introduction to Bengali: Part II, by Somdev Bhattacharji (reprinted; Chicago: Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, U. of Chicago, 1988). The present work takes for granted that the material presented in those two books has been learned already.

Intermediate Bengali could be use profitably during the second year of language study in conjunction with A Bengali Prose Reader (for Second-Year Students), by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Somdev Bhattacharji (reprinted; Chicago: Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, U. of Chicago, 1988). In the third year, most students would do well to read diverse selections of Bengali writing such as those presented in parts two and three of An Advanced Course in Bengali, by Ernest Bender and Theodore Riccardi, Jr. (Philadelphia: South Asia Regional Studies; University of Pennsylvania, 1978); knowledge of the grammar covered in Intermediate Bengali will enhance the student's comprehension of those readings and should increase his/her reading speed. The present work draws heavily upon material in An Advanced Course in Bengali for examples of grammatical points.

Each of the twenty lessons in Intermediate Bengali is divided into four sections: (1) a short selection of Bengali; (2-3) two grammar sections; and (4) useful information in or about the language. Lesson 1 is an exception to that pattern; it has been designed primarily as a review of features of pronunciation of what can be called standard modern Bengali and of the mid-nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century form of written Bengali, known as sadhu bhasa (the perfected or pristine language).