Scenario of the other speech communities in Bangladesh

Apart from the language situation as seen with regard to various regional varieties, there exists a situation of multilingualism with more than 30 speech communities in different regions in Bangladesh

Apart from the Bangla speaking main speech communities in Bangladesh, there are, more than 30 speech communities which comprise more than one per cent of the total population (approximately 150 million) with the speakers from four different language families: the Austro-Asiatic including Santal and Khashi, the Sino-Tibetan including Garo, Kokborok and Marma, the Dravidian including Kurux and Sauria Paharia, and the Indo-Aryan including Chakma, Hajong, Tanchangya and Urdu.

Apart from the language situation as seen with regard to various regional varieties, there exists a situation of multilingualism with more than 30 indigenous speech communities  in some of the regions in Bangladesh. These regions include Chittagong Hill-Tracts, some parts of Sylhet and Mymensingh bordering on India and those of Chittagong district bordering on Myanmar, where some mosaic like linguistic distribution have been created with various speech communities. There are still some interior regions including the greater districts of Rajshahi and Dinajpur with the speech communities of Santal, and the greater districts of Borguna and Potuakhali with the speech communities of Magh, where bilingual situations prevail. The following atlas shows the distribution of various speech communities in the various regions of Bangladesh. 
The distribution of various minority speech communities distributed throughout various regions of Bangladesh is as follow: 
a) The Chittagong Hill Tracts: It is a southeastern district of Bangladesh which borders on India and Myanmar. The population of it is approximately 1.5 million, approximately 50 of which are the speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages including Marma, Tripura (Kokborok), Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushei, Kyang and Khumi, and two Indic languages, Tanchungya and Chakma, which are deemed to be dialectal varieties of Bangla, and the remaining 50% (approximately) are the speakers of Bangla. In this region, a growing number of people of the indigenous speech communities have been bilingual, who have a certain degree of control in their second language, Bangla (cf. Chakma, 2000).
b) The regions of Sylhet bordering on India: There are some areas in the greater district of Sylhet bordering on India, where a multilingual situation has been existed. In the district of Sylhet, there are speech communities including Khasi, Bishnupriya, Garo, Hajong, Meithei (Manipuri), Pnar, War Jaintia and Sadri Oraon, which are concentrated mainly in three different areas of Sylhet. 
c) The regions of Mymensingh bordering on India: There are some more areas in the greater district of Mymensingh bordering on the Meghalaya state of India, where multilingual situations have been existed. In the district of Mymensingh, there are speech communities including A’tong (Bodo), Garo, Koch, Megam (Bodo), Hajong. There is also some Garos, known as plain land Garo, who live in different interior areas of Mymensingh. 
d) The regions of Chittagong bordering on Myanmar: There are some areas in the greater district of Chittagong bordering on Myanmar, where a multilingual situation exists with the speech communities including Marma, Rakhayne and Rohingya. 
e) The regions of Rajshahi and Dinajpur: In some interior areas of the greater districts of Rajshahi and Dinajpur, where the speech community of Santal and that of Kurukh ‒only language in Bangladesh belonging to the Dravidian family are settled in here. 
In the language situation of Bangladesh, people belonging to one small ethnic speech community cannot communicate with that from another in their own vernacular, for which they use Bangla as a Lingua Franca for the communication. These people, therefore, have naturally been bilingual with different degrees of control in their second language, Bangla. It is mentionable that most of them have converted to either of the Indian religions of Hinduism or Buddhism, though some of them like Khumi and Mru remained animists. Consequently, their languages came into contact with the vehicles of religions, i.e. Sanskrit and Pali for centuries and are still in regular contact with Bangla, the Lingua Franca for them. Due to these ongoing effects of contact from the Indo-Aryan languages, some of the recipient indigenous languages, e.g. Chakma and Hajong have received significant effects of contacts at all levels: phonological, morphological, morpho-syntactic, syntactic and semantic on their linguistic structures that caused the loss of affiliation to their ancestral family of language, i.e. Sino-Tibetan.

The writer is Professor Institute of Modern Languages, University of Dhaka

Scenario of the other speech communities in Bangladesh

Apart from the language situation as seen with regard to various regional varieties, there exists a situation of multilingualism with more than 30 speech communities in different regions in Bangladesh

Apart from the Bangla speaking main speech communities in Bangladesh, there are, more than 30 speech communities which comprise more than one per cent of the total population (approximately 150 million) with the speakers from four different language families: the Austro-Asiatic including Santal and Khashi, the Sino-Tibetan including Garo, Kokborok and Marma, the Dravidian including Kurux and Sauria Paharia, and the Indo-Aryan including Chakma, Hajong, Tanchangya and Urdu. Apart from the language situation as seen with regard to various regional varieties, there exists a situation of multilingualism with more than 30 indigenous speech communities in some of the regions in Bangladesh. These regions include Chittagong Hill-Tracts, some parts of Sylhet and Mymensingh bordering on India and those of Chittagong district bordering on Myanmar, where some mosaic like linguistic distribution have been created with various speech communities. There are still some interior regions including the greater districts of Rajshahi and Dinajpur with the speech communities of Santal, and the greater districts of Borguna and Potuakhali with the speech communities of Magh, where bilingual situations prevail. The following atlas shows the distribution of various speech communities in the various regions of Bangladesh. The distribution of various minority speech communities distributed throughout various regions of Bangladesh is as follow: a) The Chittagong Hill Tracts: It is a southeastern district of Bangladesh which borders on India and Myanmar. The population of it is approximately 1.5 million, approximately 50 of which are the speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages including Marma, Tripura (Kokborok), Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushei, Kyang and Khumi, and two Indic languages, Tanchungya and Chakma, which are deemed to be dialectal varieties of Bangla, and the remaining 50% (approximately) are the speakers of Bangla. In this region, a growing number of people of the indigenous speech communities have been bilingual, who have a certain degree of control in their second language, Bangla (cf. Chakma, 2000). b) The regions of Sylhet bordering on India: There are some areas in the greater district of Sylhet bordering on India, where a multilingual situation has been existed. In the district of Sylhet, there are speech communities including Khasi, Bishnupriya, Garo, Hajong, Meithei (Manipuri), Pnar, War Jaintia and Sadri Oraon, which are concentrated mainly in three different areas of Sylhet. c) The regions of Mymensingh bordering on India: There are some more areas in the greater district of Mymensingh bordering on the Meghalaya state of India, where multilingual situations have been existed. In the district of Mymensingh, there are speech communities including Atong (Bodo), Garo, Koch, Megam (Bodo), Hajong. There is also some Garos, known as plain land Garo, who live in different interior areas of Mymensingh. d) The regions of Chittagong bordering on Myanmar: There are some areas in the greater district of Chittagong bordering on Myanmar, where a multilingual situation exists with the speech communities including Marma, Rakhayne and Rohingya. e) The regions of Rajshahi and Dinajpur: In some interior areas of the greater districts of Rajshahi and Dinajpur, where the speech community of Santal and that of Kurukh ‒only language in Bangladesh belonging to the Dravidian family are settled in here. In the language situation of Bangladesh, people belonging to one small ethnic speech community cannot communicate with that from another in their own vernacular, for which they use Bangla as a Lingua Franca for the communication. These people, therefore, have naturally been bilingual with different degrees of control in their second language, Bangla. It is mentionable that most of them have converted to either of the Indian religions of Hinduism or Buddhism, though some of them like Khumi and Mru remained animists. Consequently, their languages came into contact with the vehicles of religions, i.e. Sanskrit and Pali for centuries and are still in regular contact with Bangla, the Lingua Franca for them. Due to these ongoing effects of contact from the Indo-Aryan languages, some of the recipient indigenous languages, e.g. Chakma and Hajong have received significant effects of contacts at all levels: phonological, morphological, morpho-syntactic, syntactic and semantic on their linguistic structures that caused the loss of affiliation to their ancestral family of language, i.e. Sino-Tibetan. The writer is Professor Institute of Modern Languages, University of Dhaka