Chittagonian

Chittagonian ( saṭgãia or siṭaiṅga) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Chittagong Division in Bangladesh. Its speakers identify with Bengali culture and the Bengali language. Chittagonian and Standard Bengali are not inherently mutually intelligible, although it is considered as a nonstandard Bengali dialect. Chittagonian is considered to be a separate language by some linguists. It is mutually intelligible with Rohingya and to a lesser extent with Noakhailla. It is estimated (2009) that Chittagonian has 13 million speakers, principally in Bangladesh. Classification Chittagonian is a member of the Bengali-Assamese sub-branch of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages, a branch of the wider Indo-European language family. It is derived through an Eastern Middle Indo-Aryan from Old Indo-Aryan, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European. grouped the dialects of Chittagong under Southeastern Bengali, alongside the dialects of Noakhali and Akyab. places Chittagonian in the eastern Vangiya group of Magadhi Prakrit and notes that all Bengali dialects were independent of each other and did not emanate from the literary Bengali called "sadhu bhasha". Among the different dialect groups of these eastern dialects, Chittagonian has phonetic and morphological properties that are not present in standard Bengali and other western dialects of Bengali. Phonology Consonants