Bangla (a.k.a. Bengali) Instructional Materials

First-year: Introduction to Bengali: Part I, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., Somdev Bhattacharji, & Suhas Chatterjee (Delhi: Manohar & Am. Inst. of Indian Studies) Can be purchased from: South Asia Books Can be viewed online at: The University of Chicago, Digital South Asia Library Accompanying audio tapes can be purchased from: The University of Chicago, Language Laboratories & Archives Introduction to Bengali: Part II, by Somdev Bhattacharji (a reader designed to accompany Part I) Can be purchased from: Department of South Asian Languages & Literatures, The University of Chicago (price: $20.00; make checks payable to "The University of Chicago" and mail to C.B. Seely, 1130 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637) Alternative first-year textbook: Bengali: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Books), by William Radice (London: Hodder & Stoughton) Can be purchased from: Amazon.com Second-year: Bengali Prose Reader for Second-Year Students, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. & Somdev Bhattacharji with Ronald Inden, Arati John, & Clinton B. Seely Can be purchased from: Department of South Asian Languages & Literatures, The University of Chicago (price: $20.00; make checks payable to "The University of Chicago" and mail to C.B. Seely, 1130 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637) Can be viewed online at: The University of Chicago, Digital South Asia Library Intermediate Bangla, by Clinton B. Seely (München: LINCOM EUROPA) Can be purchased from: LINCOM EUROPA Bengali Reference Grammar, by W.L. Smith (Stockholm: Association of Oriental Studies) Advanced levels: Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics: a reader for advanced students, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. & Roushan Jahan Dictionaries: Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary, compiled by Sailendra Biswas, revised by Subodhchandra Sengupta (Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad) Bangla Academy Bengali-English Dictionary, compiled by Latifur Rahman & Jahangir Tareque; edited by Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, & Jahangir Tareque (Dhaka: Bangla Academy) Samsad Common Words Dictionary [English-Bengali] edited by Anjali Bose (Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad) Note: The above three dictionaries are recommended for the learner of the language and for everyday use thereafter. Samsad publishes a larger English-Bengali dictionary that is not recommended for English speakers. It tends to give somewhat longer definitions in Bangla rather than concise Bangla equivalents for the English word under consideration. For the more advanced student, there are also Bangla-Bangla dictionaries as well as specialized lexicons. Bangla dictionaries will be available online at The University of Chicago, Digital South Asia Library Facts and figures pertaining to the language: www.ethnologue.com

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