beginning Bengali

[claude setzer]

The script of Bengali is slightly similar to Devanagari, but also quite
different. I would not recommend learning anything "first" if Bengali is
what you want to know. I have a book called "teach yourself Bengali" by
D.F. hudson, published by The English Univerties Press, London. It looks
quite good for a beginner. It seems to have good pronunciation aids and
quite practical examples.

Claude Setzer, cssetzer at mum.edu

PS it was many years ago when I studied this, so my memory is vague, but
the book is before me now and I remember it being good.

----------
> From: David R. Israel <davidi at mail.wizard.net>
> To: Members of the list <indology at liverpool.ac.uk>
> Subject: beginning Bengali
> Date: Sunday, August 03, 1997 4:59 PM
> 
> Esteemed scholars --
> 
> might anyone kindly recommend self-study programs in beginning 
> Bengali? -- preferably acomputer-based CD tutorial, or, 
> alternatively, a textbook-plus-cassette package, or something.
> 
> Also (or alternatively), does there exist any sort of accellerated
> 8-week (or whatever) course in the Bengali language, either at a
> university or some private instituteion (prob. preferably in the
> eastern United States)?
> 
> Also, simple question: is the Bengali script altogether different than
> the devanagari script used in Hindi? . . . -- relatedly: is it
> especially recommended that one have some background in Hindi before
> approaching Bengali?, or does a fresh dive into Bengali w/o any prior
> indic-language study seem a plausible endeavor? (at least with the
> goal of arriving at dictionary-aided reading ability) . . .
> 
> advance thanks for attention to this (pre)-abecedarian query,
> d.i.
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