Melodious Bangla: Why Does Bengali Sound the Sweetest?

“আমারো পরানো যাহা চায়

তুমি তাই, তুমি তাই গো

আমারো পরানো যাহা চায়”

“প্রেমে পড়া বারণ

কারণে অকারণ

আঙুলে আঙুল রাখলেও হাত ধরা বারণ”

Have you ever thought while listening to these songs or any Bengali song how calm and melodious it sounds! It feels like it is melting through our ear like butter, like the words have no sharp edges! Well it’s the magic of the sweetest sounding language Bengali, a language without any sharp edges. 

So, If you ever google about the sweetest language in the world you would see tons of articles stating Bengali as the sweetest sounding language. You may even see some articles stating ‘UNESCO’ declaring Bengali the sweetest language in the world but in reality there was no such official statement by the organization. According to the rumors on social media, In 2010 “UNESCO” had carried out a vote in order to decide which  language was to be considered the sweetest. Allegedly, Bengali took the prize, followed by Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest languages. So, the claim is completely wrong then? No, not exactly. Let’s find out.

Bengali is quite a young language having its origin in the 10th century CE, deriving from Magadhi Prakrit. Bengali is the 7th most spoken language in the world.
It’s the official language of Bangladesh and the people of West Bengal in India also speak Bengali. Bengali is also the 2nd Language of Sierra Leone. Bengali is the only language for which people have shed blood just to speak in the language. Though the language sounds different from place to place like the “Chittagongian Bangla” is different from the “Sylheti Bangla”, “Kolkata Bangla” is slightly different from the “Bangladeshi Bangla” but here we will neglect the Bengali dialects and focus on the main Bangla which is also known as the “Shuddho Bangla.”

 

First we need to know about a term called Retroflex Consonant. Retroflex consonants are a type of consonant sound produced by curling the tongue so that its underside touches or approaches the roof of the mouth, creating a groove or pocket in the mouth cavity. This causes the air to be pushed out with more force and creates a distinctive sound. Mainly these retroflex sounds are considered harsh and tough which add crispness to the sound. In Bengali we also have retroflex consonants such as ‘ড’, ‘ঢ’, ‘ণ’ etc. Let’s take the first line of the second song I mentioned at the beginning “প্রেমে পড়া বাড়ণ”. Focus on the pronunciation. See, Bengali never uses the original ‘ড়’ and ‘ণ’ sound while pronouncing. It uses the softer sounds like ‘র’ and ‘ন’ sound instead. The language always tries to simplify its complex or sharp sounds. Another example is the three ‘sh’ sound. Bengali has three different letters ‘শ’, ‘স’, ‘ষ’ to identify the complexity but when it comes to pronunciation it always uses the ‘শ’ sound. Like the word “Shanatan” in Hindi pronounced “Shonaton” in Bengali. Its simplification goes on like this. Another example can be the use of ‘ই’ and ‘ঈ’. When we write “দীন” (religion) we use ‘ঈ’ and when we write ‘দিন’ (Day) we use ‘ই’. These two words have completely different meanings but in terms of pronunciation they are the same. Both the words pronounce the shorter ‘e’ sound. These simplification techniques have made the language easy to speak as well as soft sounding.

Bangla has another amazing characteristic where it always tries to simplify its consonant clusters. It never pronounces the clustered letters rather it pronounces a simplified version of that. For example, look at the word “Lakshmi” in hindi. In Hindi it pronounces both the words in the cluster but in Bengali the word is pronounced “Lokkhi”. See how Bengali simplified its consonant clusters and pronounced the same letter twice. There is a famous actor in Bollywood named “Akshay Kumar”. In Bangla it is pronounced “Akkhoy”.

This happens because Bangla does not like to pronounce the consonant+consonant form; rather it tries to simplify into consonant+vowel form. Using vowel sound has a plus point. The words sound softer. This is another big reason why Bengali sounds so simple and sweet to our ears. It never chooses the complex path while pronouncing, it always chooses the straight and easy one.

Now an interesting fact, I don’t know if you ever noticed there are too many ‘o’ sounds in Bengali. There is a sound called schwa(Ə). Many languages have this sound. Sanskrit has it too. As Bengali is a modified version of the Sanskrit script, Bengali also has that sound. But surprisingly Bengali never uses the exact schwa(Ə) sound instead it uses the ‘o’ sound when it finds any schwa(Ə). Therefore, there is so much ‘o’ sound in Bengali and it’s the good part. Look at this famous example. See the image for 5 seconds and decide which one is Kiki and which one is Bouba.

What did you choose? I am 100% sure everyone will choose the first one as Kiki and the second one as Bouba. Linguistics has found that our mind always denotes the ‘o’ sound as soft and rounded and the ‘e’ sound as harsh and spiked. Therefore replacing schwa(Ə) sound into ‘o’ sound, the words sound more soft and ear pleasing. Let’s take the first song as a rough example :

“Amaro Porano Jaha Chay

Tumi Tai Tumi Tai Go

Amaro Porano Jaha Chay

Toma Chara Ar E Jogote

Mor Keho Nai Kichu Nai Go

Amaro Porano Jaha Chay

Tumi Tai Tumi Tai Go

Amaro Porano Jaha Chay

Tumi Sukho Jodi Nahi Pao

Jao Sukhero Sondhane Jao

Ami Tomare Peyechi

Hridoyo Majhe

Ar Kichu Nahi Chai Go

Amaro Porano Jaha Chay

Tumi Tai Tumi Tai Go

Amaro Porano Jaha Chay”

See, these ‘o’ sounds are adding that extra softness to the whole song. 

So this is it. I think for these reasons Bengali sounds so sweet. The title may be a rumor but Bengali is a well deserving one indeed.