English, Portuguese, Persian and Arabic Words Hiding in Bengali
How centuries of trade and rule left Bengali with loanwords from Persian, Arabic, Portuguese and English, with everyday examples to spot and learn.
Bengali grew from Sanskrit and Prakrit roots, but it has been enriched by every language it met. Everyday words you use without thinking often have surprising origins.
Persian and Arabic
Persian was the language of administration under the Sultanate and Mughal periods, and Arabic came with Islamic scholarship. Words from these languages are now completely at home in Bengali:
- বাজার (bazar, market) — from Persian
- দোকান (dokan, shop) — from Persian
- কাগজ (kagoj, paper) — from Arabic, via Persian
- চশমা (choshma, spectacles) — from Persian
- কলম (kolom, pen) — from Arabic, qalam
- খবর (khobor, news) — from Arabic
- দুনিয়া (duniya, world) — from Arabic
- হিসাব (hishab, account, calculation) — from Arabic
Portuguese
Portuguese traders settled in Bengal from the sixteenth century, and left several everyday words:
- বালতি (balti, bucket) — from balde
- চাবি (chabi, key) — from chave
- আলমারি (almari, cupboard) — from armário
- পেয়ারা (peyara, guava) — from pêra
- আনারস (anaras, pineapple) — from ananás
- পাউরুটি (pauruti, bread) — from pão
- জানালা (janala, window) — from janela
English
The colonial period and modern globalisation added many English words, especially in administration, education, technology and health:
- স্কুল (skul), কলেজ (kolej), অফিস (ofis)
- ডাক্তার (daktar), হাসপাতাল (haspatal)
- বাস (bas), ট্রেন (tren), টিকিট (tikit)
- মোবাইল (mobail), কম্পিউটার (kompiutar)
Many of these are so common that Bengali speakers may not think of them as foreign.
Why this matters for learners
If you already speak English, Persian, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi or Portuguese, you have a head start: familiar-looking words can be recognised in Bengali script. It also explains why Bengali sometimes has two or three words for the same thing.
Register differences
A native Bengali word from Sanskrit, a borrowed Persian word and an English word may all mean the same, but differ in tone. For example, জল (jol) and পানি (pani) both mean water, and their use often reflects community and region.
Adapting the sounds
Loanwords are adapted to Bengali pronunciation. English "school" becomes skul, "station" becomes stesion, and "hospital" becomes haspatal. Reading them in script shows the sound changes.
Practice
- Spot ten loanwords in a Bengali newspaper headline.
- Note which language each comes from.
- Learn the native alternatives.
- Look up each word to see how it's written.
Look up loanwords in Bengali script with English Bangla Dictionary →
English Bangla Dictionary
Offline English–Bangla dictionary with meanings in proper Bengali script
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