Bangladeshi Culture & Language

Bangladeshi Culture
Bangladeshi women habitually wear Saris. Jamdani was once world famous for it's most artistic and expensive ornamental fabric. Mostly, a fine and artistic type of cloth was well-known worldwide. Naksi Kantha, embroidered quilted patchwork cloth produced by the village women, is still familiar in villages and towns simultaneously. A common hairstyle is Beni (twisted bun) that Bengali women are fond of. Traditionally males wear Panjabis, Fatuas and Pajamas. Hindus wear Dhoti for religious purposes.

Languages in Bangladesh
The official language is Bangla, also known as Bengali. It is the first language of more than 98 percent of the population. It is written in its own script, derived from that of Sanskrit. Many people in Bangladesh also speak English and Urdu.

Bangla vocabulary shows many influences. These include a strong Islamic influence seen in the greetings of "Assala-mulaikum" (Peace be unto you) and "Khoda hafez" (God Bless you) and nouns from the Arab world such as "dokan" (shop), "tarikh"(date), and "bonduk" (gun).

English has also had an influence on Bangla. During the days of the Raj many words of English origin such as "tebil" (table), "tiffin" entered Bangla. In more recent time the ever rising global nature of English has lead to words such as "television", "telephone", "video" and "radio" being adopted by Bangla. However, unlike India, there has never been the need for English as a lingua franca and thus Bangla is the state language of Bangladesh.