Noakhali language

Noakhailla is eponymously named after the district of Noakhali. It is in the transformed Vangiya form of the archaic Noakhaliya (নোয়াখালীয়া), where "-iya" is a suffix, commonly used in Bengali as a demonym, having gone through a linguistic process called Apinihiti (অপিনিহিতি), a form of epenthesis, to become Noakhailla (নোয়াখাইল্লা). It may also be known in English as Noakhalian, a relatively recent term which has gained prominence as a locative demonym since at the least the Pakistan period.^[4] "-an" is a suffix, commonly used in English to denote an action or an adjective that suggests pertaining to, thereby forming an agent noun.^[9]

Noakhali, the area which it is named after, emerged in the 13th century as a center of regional territorialism by the name of Bhulua. The kings of Bhulua patronised the Sanskrit language. The arrival of Muslims in Bhulua affected the local language to such a level that several Hindu rulers of Bhulua even took the Turkic title of Khan.^[10] Muslim migration was extended following the Mughal conquest of Bhulua in which the local language became influenced by Arabic and Persian. The great lexical influence of Arabic among the Muslim people can still be found in Noakhali today.^[11]

Its strong folk tradition dates back several centuries. During colonial rule, Irish linguist George Abraham Grierson collected two Noakhali folk poems; one from the island of Hatia, which is off the coast of the Noakhali mainland, and another from Ramganj, presently in Lakshmipur District.^[12] The Portuguese merchants and Roman Catholic missionaries who settled in Noakhali adopted the local language as late as the 1920s.^[13]

In December 2019, a mass demonstration was organised by some Noakhali's activists in Maijdee in response to a private television channel airing the Noakhali Bibhag Chai (We Want Noakhali Division) comical drama. They considered the drama to be an insult to the regional language, history and tradition of Noakhali district.^[14]

Noakhali has no formal recognition or use in courts or in the legislature like the existent standard Bangla. The educated, elite, political and influential groups of Bangladesh bearing Noakhali homogeneity, usually prefer Bengali for their wider communication. They generally use Noakhali only for communication with other Noakhali-speakers.^[6]

The usage of Noakhali is now in decline as more and more families of Noakhali are opting to raise their children to speak in Standard Bengali due to it being the official medium in the country and the negative stereotypes relating to Noakhali district held by other parts of Bengal.^[15] It is often becoming the case that Generation Z urban Noakhali-speakers cannot speak in Noakhali though it is commonly spoken by their grandparents in their homes.^[16] In contrast to speakers of Chittagonian and Sylheti, it is reported that some speakers of Noakhali feel a linguistic inferiority complex.^[17] Sultana, Dovchin and Pennycook have also highlighted the stigmatisation of Noakhali-speakers within Bangladeshi society.^[18]

Grierson (1903) grouped the language of Noakhali under Southeastern Bengali dialects, alongside the languages of Chittagong and Rohingya. Chatterji (1926) places Noakhali in the eastern Vanga group of dialects and notes that all Bengali languages were independent of each other and did not emanate from the historical literary register of Bengali called "sadhu bhasha".^[19] Along with other Eastern Bengali languages, Noakhali has developed phonetic and morphological characteristics that are not present in western dialects of Bengali.^[20] Linguist Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah placed Noakhali under the Prachya branch as opposed to the Pashchatya branch of Bengali. By referring to this classification, linguist Paresh Chandra Majumder (1992) placed Noakhali under the "Purbadeshi" division of the Prachya (Vangiya) branch, the other branch being Pashchatya(Gourhi).^[21] According to Dr.Muhammad Shahidullah, the Noakhali language is a result of the fusion of other Bengali languages of that region.^[22]

Noakhali is the primary language of Greater Noakhali which today comprises the Bangladeshi districts of Noakhali, Feni and Lakshmipur, and some parts of the sub-district of Hajiganj. It is also spoken by the Noakhaillas in the southern part of India's Tripura state, specifically in some parts of the South Tripura district. In this district, along with Standard Bengali, it serves as a lingua franca among some indigenous communities such as the Tripuri/Reang, the Chakma and the Mog/Marma in addition to the Noakhali. Mainland Noakhali is mutually intelligible with neighbouring Sandwipi dialect, which is spoken in Sandwip, an island in the Bay of Bengal.^[6] Some have stated that it is also mutually unintelligible with the Dinajpur dialect.^[23]

Before and after the Partition of India, Noakhali-speaking Bengali Hindus from Greater Noakhali migrated to West Bengal, Assam and Tripura also.^[24][25] Outside of the subcontinent, the largest diaspora population from Noakhali reside in Europe (most notably Italy) and North America. Significant Noakhali-speaking Bengali diaspora population reside in the Middle East of which most are migrant workers, and in many other countries throughout the world.^[26][27]

In the past Noakhailla was written with the Arabic script. Nowadays Latin and Bengali alphabets are used.^{[citation needed]}

In Bangladesh, regional languages are not used for official purposes. With Standard Bengali written in the Bengali script as the medium of instruction in Bangladesh,^[28] some may therefore write in Noakhali using the Bengali script, however it is viewed as more formal to write in standard Bengali.

Noakhali is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language with a large amount of Persian and Hindustani vocabulary. The most notable feature differentiating it from Standard Bengali and other Indo-Aryan languages is that words using the p sound in the latter languages are pronounced as h in Noakhali. An example is the Bengali word for water (pani) which is hãni in Noakhali. Another notable characteristic is the presence of the /x/ sound (akin to خ in Arabic), which is not found in Standard Bengali.^[20]

There are some differences of Noakhali dialects in accent, spoken in different parts of the Greater Noakhali region. In the Linguistic Survey of India, conducted in the early 20th century, the Irish linguist George Abraham Grierson used the phrase a man had two sons to show dialectic diversity of Bengali language in Bengal region.^[23]

• Bengali: ækjon manusher duţi chhele chhilo.
• Noakhali (Grierson): ekzon mainsher duga hola asil.
• Noakhali of Maijdee: oggo mainsher dugga hua/hut/hola asil.
• Noakhali of Companiganj: ogga mainshortun dugga hula asil.
• Noakhali of Begumganj: oggo mainshor duga hut asilo.
• Noakhali of Sandwip: ugga shôkser duga hola asil.
• Noakhali of Feni: ijja mainsher tun duigga hola asilo.
• Noakhali of Chhagalnaiya: ijja maincher tun duga hut/hola asil.
• Noakhali of Hatia: ugga bedar tun duga hola asil.
• Noakhali of Laxmipur: ogga mainsher tun dugga hut/hua asil.
• Noakhali of Ramganj-Chatkhil: ogga mainsher tun duga hut asil.
• Noakhali of South Tripura: igga maincher tun duga hut/hola asil.
• Noakhali of Mirsharai: egga mainshor tun duigga hut asilo.
• Noakhali of Hajiganj: igga beđar tun dua/dugga hut asilo.
• Noakhali of Chauddagram: ijjia mainchhor/bedar tun duiga hut/hola asilo.

Abul Kalam Manzur Morshed's 1972 M.A. thesis at the University of British Columbia states that the Noakhali language differs from Standard Colloquial Bengali at the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical levels. However, it notes that the overall syntactic structure remains largely similar, with the most significant differences occurring in phonology and morphology. The study adopts a generative and contrastive approach, with particular emphasis on gemination as well as vocalic and consonantal alternation.^[31]

Studies on phonetics and sound change include analyses based on the Chatkhil variety of Noakhali, which represents a variety within the broader Greater Noakhali region. Research on prosody and morphological structure is mainly drawn from studies published in 2013 and 2021. An earlier descriptive source is Gopal Haldar's 1933 work A Skeleton Grammar of the Noakhali Dialect of Bengali,^[32] which indicates that the language had already been subject to grammatical description in earlier linguistic literature.^[33]

A recurring feature is syllable simplification. One study argues that Noakhali favors simple syllable structures, especially CV, CVC, VC and occasionally V, and that more complex clusters are resolved through cluster-breaking processes. A separate prosodic study extends this account by proposing that Noakhali organizes words into left-to-right trochaic feet, avoids successive feet, and maintains a relatively constrained rhythmic pattern.^[37]

The Noakhali language has appeared in Bangladeshi television, film and music. The television serial Choita Pagol used the Noakhali dialect throughout, and the version used in the serial was simplified for general audiences to understand.^[41] Joya Ahsan learned the Noakhali language for her role in the serial.^[42]

An episode of Ityadi filmed in Maijdee included a special song in the Noakhali language, sung by Robi Chowdhury.^[43] Singer Oyshee recorded the title track of the film Mukti in the Noakhali language^[44] Md. Hashem's book Noakhalir Ancholic Gan contains hundreds of songs composed in the Noakhali language. "Ango Bari Noakhali Royal District Vai" is one of his notable songs.^[45]

Selim Al Deen's play Hat Hodai was written entirely in the Noakhali language and portrayed the lifestyle of people from remote areas of the Greater Noakhali region.^[46]

The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in Noakhali:^[47]

• Morshed, Abul Kalam Manzur (1985). A study of standard Bengali and the Noakhali dialect (Thesis). Dhaka: Bangla Academy.
• Chakraborty, Uttam (2014). Das, Shyamal (ed.). A prosodic study of the Noakhali dialect of Bangla and its implication for teaching and learning of English as a second language by the native speakers of the dialect. Shodhganga (Thesis). Tripura: Tripura University. hdl:10603/190533.