Banglish, also known as Bangreji (portmanteau of 'Bangla' and 'Īngrejī'), Benglish or Bengalish (portmanteau of 'Bengali' and 'English') and Bonglish, is the mixed use ("code switching") of the Bengali and English languages. The first usage of the word "Benglish" was found in 1972 and "Banglish" in 1975.Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 22. DOI: 10.1075/eww.38.3.04lam
In written contexts, Benglish refers to Romanised Bengali—Bengali written in Roman script (English alphabet)—often with English lexical borrowings.
In academic circles, "Benglish verb" refers to a compound verb consisting of an English word and a Bengali verb, such as: "accident kora" (meaning "to be involved in an accident"), "in howa" (meaning "to enter"), "confuse kora" (meaning "to cause confusion"), and so on. Sishir Bhattacharya, 2010 Benglish Verbs: a Case of Code-Mixing in Bengali PACLIC 24 Proceedings Kundu, Subhash Chandra, 2012 Automatic detection of English words in Benglish text: A statistical approach 2012 4th International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction (IHCI) Hunting Elusive English in Hinglish and Benglish Text: Unfolding Challenges and Remedies, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC)
In 2012 to maintain the purity of the Bengali language, according to an order of the Bangladesh High Court, "Banglish" was banned in all media including TV and radio in Bangladesh.
The earliest instance of a long Bengali text printed in the Roman script was a collection of Aesop's Fables titled Oriental Fabulist, published in 1803 in six Indian languages. During 1930s Suniti Kumar Chatterji suggested that Bengali be written in Roman script to eliminate spelling inconsistencies and to appeal to a pan-Indian audience. In Kolkata, West Bengal, India some publishers have begun releasing classical and children's books in the Roman script (i.e., English alphabet) to cater to readers who speak Bengali but are unfamiliar with the Bengali alphabet. Remarkably, these "Benglish books" became the third highest-selling book category of a publisher's sales chart at the Kolkata Book Fair in 2018.
See also Murad Takla Bong (term) Romanization of Bengali
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