Beginner's Bengali (Bangla) with Audio CD [With 2 CDs]

Bengali/Bangla is the language of Bangladesh and of the Indian states of Poschim Bongo (formerly West Bengal), Tripura and South Assam. With a total of almost 200 million speakers, it is the seventh most widely-spoken language in the world. The language has a long history with a rich literature of a thousand years and is a direct descendant of Sanskrit, a sister language to Hindi, Urdu and several other Indian languages. Bengali/Bangla has its own script, distinct from Devanagari which is used for Sanskrit, Hindi and Nepali. Beginners Bengali takes you, step by step, through the main areas and processes of the Bangla language in a graded and systematic way. Unit 1 comprehensively and clearly outlines basics of Bengali/Bangla sounds and script and serves as a key building block for subsequent chapters. The guide has 14 carefully-paced units, including practical grammar lessons, exercises and vocabulary. Also included are an answer key and helpful appendices including verb charts, numbers and kinship terms; a Bengali/English- English/Bengali glossary; and 2 companion CDs with dialogues spoken by native Bengali speakers.