Complex onsets in regional varieties of Bangla

Abstract

This paper intends to illustrate an analysis of the treatment of the complex onsets at the word-initial position in some regional varieties of Bangla or Bengali in the framework of Optimality Theory (McCarthy and Prince, 1993a,b; Prince and McCarthy, 1996; Prince and Smolensky, 1993). In a stratified lexicon system, borrowed words belong to SB (Sanskrit Borrowings) and OB (Other Borrowings) strata. NB (Native Bangla) does not allow any complex onset at the word-initial position. The borrowed words (SB and OB) with complex onset are retained intact in the standard colloquial Bangla (SCB). But, some non-standard regional varieties (NSCB), which are spoken in many parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh, register vowel-insertions in several SB and OB words with word-initial consonant cluster. In most likely cases, the tendency is to break the word-initial cluster by inserting a vowel in between the consonants in the cluster. An Optimality-Theoretic (OT) analysis of this phenomenon is offered in this article with the help of a stratification strategy for the Bangla lexicon.