Standard colloquial Bengali, which is at present al literary language as well, has been dealt with in this book to acquaint a learner with the language as it stands. Chaste Bengali or Sadhu-bhasa and the conjunct consonants, except the easily recognizable few, have been left out for the second book to avoid complications at the primary stage of learning Bengali. It is hoped that this approach will facilitate learning the basic structure of the language with ease and pleasure. Special attention has been given to the process of determining the correct pronunciation of a word and its is hoped that a non-Bengali learner will be able to benefit from the book itself without having to depend on a teacher.
I am sincerely grateful to Professor Naresh Chandra Jana of the Department of Bengali and to Professor Subhadra Kumar Sen of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Calcutta for the encouragement and suggestions they gave me. I am indebted to Mr. Sumanta Sen, former Resident Editor, the Times of India (Patna), who kindly agreed to go through the draft and to Mr. Haraprasad Mukhopadhyay (retired IAS) for the interest he took in he book. They helped me to make improvements through their valuable comments. Much enthusiasm was shown by the publishers, especially by Mrs. Chandana Datta and Mr. Debajyoti Datta, by way of their consent to publish the book. Thanks are also due to Mr. Arunesh Pal and others who helped this publication see the light of day.
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