Bengali Dialect Comparison: Past System Verbs
In the last dialect comparison post, we compared verbs in the present system. In this post, we’ll look at verbs in the past system. The two dialects we’ll focus on are the Kolkata dialect of India and the Dhaka dialect of Bangladesh. We’ll also use romanized forms for the verbs, since the Bengali alphabet does not adequately represent the sounds of Bangladeshi dialects.
The two verbs we’ll be looking at are করা kôra “to do” and গাওয়া gaoa “to sing”.
Overall, the Kolkata dialect uses the same verb conjugations as standard Bengali, while the Dhaka dialect differs more.
Past Simple
The past simple is usually translated as “I did/sang”.
The Kolkata dialect tends to use the standard forms.
- kôra: ami korlam, tui korli, tumi korle, apni korlen, she korlo
- gaoa: ami gailam, tui gaili, tumi gaile, apni gailen, she gailo
The Dhaka dialect is essentially the same, except that the tumi form often ends in -a instead of -e.
- kôra: ami korlam, tui korli, tumi korla/korle, apni korlen, she korlo
- gaoa: ami gailam, tui gaili, tumi gaila/gaile, apni gailen, she gailo
Present Continuous
The past continuous is translated as “I was doing/singing”.
In the present continuous, the Kolkata dialect tends to use the standard forms.
- kôra: ami korchilam, tui korchili, tumi korchile, apni korchila, she korchilo
- gaoa: ami gaichilam, tui gaichili, tumi gaichile, apni gaichilen, she gaichilo
The Dhaka dialect uses very different forms, substituting -tes- for the standard -ch-. Additionally, the tumi form often uses -a instead of -e, as mentioned above.
- kôra: ami kortesilam, tui kortesili, tumi kortesila/kortesile, apni kortesilen, she kortesilo
- gaoa: ami gaitesilam, tui gaitesili, tumi gaitesila/gaitesile, apni gaitesilen, she gaitesilo
Past Perfect
The past perfect is translated as “I had done/sung”.
The Kolkata dialect uses standard forms of the present perfect:
- kôra: ami korechilam, tui korechili, tumi korechile, apni korechilen, she korechilo
- gaoa: ami geyechilam, tui geyechili, tumi geyechile, apni geyechilen, she geyechilo
The Dhaka dialect substitutes -s- or -is- for standard -ech-, and it doesn’t use a modified stem for verbs like gaoa. The tumi form also often takes the form -a instead of -e.
- kôra: ami korsilam, tui korsili, tumi korsila/korsile, apni korsilen, she korsilo
- gaoa: ami gaisilam, tui gaisili, tumi gaisila/gaisile, apni gaisilen, she gaisilo
