Similarities Between Bengali and Urdu

Bengali (Bangla) and Urdu are both Indo-Aryan languages that share a large number of words, in addition to the many loanwords that are used in both languages. This language challenge will be between Ayesha, an Urdu speaker from Lahore, Pakistan, and Akash, a Bengali (Bangla) speaker from Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, and is located less than a 100 kilometres west of the border with Bangladesh. Bengali is the official state language and is the dominant language in Kolkata. It should be noted that the proper, native name for the language is "Bangla", while "Bengali" is the anglicised exonym which has become synonymous with "Bangla".

Modern Standard Urdu is a Persianized and standardised register language of the Hindustani language. It is the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. In India, it is one of the official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, having official status in the five states of Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand, as well as the national capital territory of Delhi. For centuries prior to the British colonization, Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent and has had a huge impact on the languages of the region.

Bengali (Bangla) is an Indo-Aryan language and the official and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and second most widely spoken of the 22 scheduled languages of India, behind Hindi. Within India, Bengali is the official language of the states of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak Valley in the state of Assam. It is also spoken in different parts of the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. It is also the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and is spoken by significant minorities in other states including Jharkhand, Bihar, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Odisha.

Urdu and Bengali use a large number of Persian words, which we could have easily used for this video. However, we decided to include mainly words which are derived from Sanskrit, in addition to a few words which entered the languages through Persian.

[BahadorAlast]

Aside from being educational, we hope that this week’s episode, in a similar fashion as several of our previous videos, can have a positive unifying impact in a world fractured by politics. Please reach us on Instagram with your inquiries:

[mahfuzahmed]

It was very easy FOR ME to understand every urdu word!!!BTW anyone from bangladesh???

[samiulfislam]

I am a Bengali and my Pakistani colleagues get shocked when I speak Urdu/Hindi.

[indimates]

Im from Uttarakhand India..
I understand Bengali 50℅
Love West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh.

[alisheriff]

Most Pakistanis and Iranians don’t realize just how close their national languages of Urdu and Farsi really are.

[armstrong]

Bengali is still very close to Sanskrit. Much more than modern Hindi. Hindi is slowly becoming Urdu. A Hindi speaker will have no problem communicating with an Urdu speaker. A Bengali can't with eirher

[adilshah]

Bahador means brave in Bengali :). You are very brave to attempt to bring peace among different people.

[rohanmudvari]

As a Nepali, I could easily understand Hindi, Urdu, Bengali. Nepali has more Sanskrit words which makes me easier to understand Bengali.

[RaptorMaitre]

Ayesha is very intelligent in figuring out. I mean Indian Bengalis would find hindi/urdu much easier to understand. But for people who speak hindi/urdu, bengali could be really difficult to understand. +1 for Ayesha here. :) Love from India.

Btw: Plums are called AlooBokhrara in India, quite literally, Plum from Bukhara. Potatoes got introduced to India through western traders and in many coastal states you will find potatoes being called batata, vatata, etc, an indianization of potata, πατάτες.

[mobeen]

Most common word between urdu and begali is "Biryani" you should have included this word too!

[taqqiraja]

Ayesha, Akash and Bahador, the world needs more people like you...enjoyed every second of the video...thumbs up!

[abhishekbiswas]

Urdu and bengali both are derived from indo-aryan language, just the difference is that bengali has its own script but urdu follows the persian script.

[shineemusesspdemergency]

I am an Urdu speaker and I found the Bengali language so nice to hear. I don't know whether it's the speaker who makes it sound so nice, or the language itself is nice but I could just hear the language all day. 😂😂

[zakiuddinnuman]

I am from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳. I am also Bangali. I love this video. Very nice & helpful video.

[tkb]

Akash seems like the kindof guy you’d listen to in a crisis lol. His demeanour is very calm, soothing yet assertive

[yawarsyed]

It was easier for the Bengali guy cuz most of bengalis know urdu/hindi

[ivoyulolavrador]

Akash's, Ayesha's, and Bahador's voices and accents are so soothing and peaceful to the ears. 😌 Gonna come back to this video for that calming vibes for sure (I also low-key want to adjust the camera to the right lol)

[aamnainstagram]

That Bengali guy is so charismatic mashallah

[maheraxo]

His accent is kind of different from a Bangladeshi Bengali. Anyone else from from Bangladesh!❤🇧🇩

[zh]

In Urdu Aloo bukhara آلو بخارہ is called Plum. As this fruit was introduced in Subcontinent region from Samarqand, Bukhara and Persian background 🙂