The article is well written, referenced and stable. The remaining issues should be easily fixable in response to community input. Thanks.--
ppm07:38, 18 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Comment. After a quick look it seems that everything required is present, but a copyedit may still be required. I have done a sample copyedit in the lead section, especially with respect to
dash usage. Also, there are a few completely unreferenced sections. I believe the information is present in one of the general references, but needs inline addition. —
Ambuj Saxena (
talk)
08:51, 18 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Strong SupportComment - Try to address to the reference needed tags added by me. The lenght of the article is quite long try to make it short. Regional Variation can be incorpoarted into the dialect part. Some more reference is needed.
Amartyabag06:06, 19 November 2006 (UTC)reply
seeing the importance of the topic, i think that the length can be considered. With some good references, and changes I place a Strong Support for this artcle.
Amartyabag06:11, 20 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Comment. The map would be more accurate if the places where Bengali speakers are concentrated in diaspora countries are marked, like the French language
map. The current map gives the impression that Bengali is spoken all over US, Canada and Australia.
CG14:54, 19 November 2006 (UTC)reply
"In particular, the eastern region language known as
Abahatta (with considerable overlap with Purvi and
Magadhi Apabhrangsha), began to emerge by the seventh century CE." I don't understand what the "In particular" is doing here. I don't know what is overlapping with what.
"Chinese traveler
Hiuen Tsang noted that the same language was spoken in most of Eastern India." Which language?
"Bengali as a separate linguistic identity may have emerged around 1000 CE," What is "a separate linguistic identity"?
"three (sometimes four)" Only three periods are listed; if it is sometimes four I am curious what the fourth is.
The list of periods uses too many colons.
"Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a British grammarian, was the first to write a Bengali grammar using Bengali texts and script for illustration: A Grammar of the Bengal Language (1778)." Was this the first Bengali grammar, period, or the first to use Bengali texts and script for illustration? Also the colon would be better as a comma.
This article is already better than the average featured article, but I think you (and the rest of Wikipedia) can do better. --
Ideogram15:39, 19 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Support - The section on Chaltibasa and Sadhubasa needs some work, I didnt really feel the flow. I'll find the problem sentences, and try to work those out. Otherwise its well-referenced and interesting.BakamanBakatalk21:55, 19 November 2006 (UTC)reply
It's extremely dense. The IPA in combination with the Bengali script and the very technical prose makes it quite incomprehensible to anyone who isn't really into phonetics. To put it bluntly, it's a really potent eye-glazer to the vast majority of our readers.
I question the need to use Bengali script to such an extent, since the only ones who are able to read it should have little or no problem understanding the romanization.
The native terms for things like native vocabulary or borrowings from Sanskrit doesn't seem all that relevant to a phonology section.
"Romanization" belongs under "Writing system", not in the phonology section.
"Regional phonological variations", which is a somewhat complicated way of saying "dialectal differences" should be moved to the dialect section. A very brief summary about some of the really major variations is relevant, but not in too much detail. And how on earth is the average reader supposed to understand terms like "debuccalization"? Be wary of jargon.
And whatever happened to the spoken sample of that poem that was recorded by ppm? It would be an excellent addition and a wonderful illustration of spoken Bengali.
Object Comprehensive, but extensive citation problems.
I'm pretty sure (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that you're generally advised not to cite other Wikipedia articles as sources (as you do with the second citation).
Wikilink first instance of: proto-pronouns, verb inflections, elision, Pali
In a separate event, in May, 1961, 11 people were killed in police firing in Silchar in southern Assam protesting legislation making the use of Assamese language compulsory in the state. Awkward sentence. Try: "In a separate event in May 1961, police in Silchar, India killed eleven people who were protesting legislation that mandated the use of the Assamese language."
Bengali is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. This sentence is probably important enough to merit its placement in the lead.
Dialectical differences in Bengali manifest themselves in three forms: standardized dialect vs. regional dialect, literary language vs. colloquial language and lexical (vocabulary) variations. This seems like a topic sentence of this section, but I see no discussion of literary vs. colloquial and lexical variations.
SupportComment There is an issue where Bangla is second or third in India. I've quoted some sources, both papers and official websites in India in the talk page that suggest Telugu is 2nd.
Idleguy08:54, 21 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Reply: Since we have contradicting references, I think best is to stick to census data. Since 2001 census data is not available yet, we should use 1991 data. And we can mention it in this way,"...according to 1991 census of India, Bengali is the second most widely spoken language in the country...". Please comment. Regards.--
Dwaipayan (
talk)
09:37, 21 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Since the census is produced by Indian government and
this is from the official news outlet of Indian govt. and is a recent writeup, shouldn't that be taken as the latest one on this?
Idleguy16:20, 21 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Don't know the details of this, but it is always better to depend on actual numbers than a website. The websites can sometimes be misleading (
here is an example). I think it will be the best to dig up 2001 census data if possible. As for the rank, how about rephrasing it as "ranked between 2nd and 3rd" or "variously ranked 2nd (ref) or 3rd (ref)"? --
Ragib20:49, 21 November 2006 (UTC)reply
Just checked the Census of India site and even they have not updated the 2001 figures and only quote the 1991 census for the language demographics which still puts Bengali at #2. I think it's best to follow what Ragib has suggested, because the more i try to get data, the more conflicting it is.
Idleguy05:39, 22 November 2006 (UTC)reply
I can't seem to hit the site that Idleguy has provided. Census figure are official so we should poject it as a primary figure, but also at the same time cite the latest official publications too.
=Nichalp«Talk»=14:56, 22 November 2006 (UTC)reply