Bengali, also known as Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly in the Indian state of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh. It is the official language of Bangladesh and one of the 22 scheduled languages of India.

The Bengali language evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. It has a rich literary tradition dating back to the 9th century. The first written records in Bengali date back to the 11th century.

Bengali is written in the Bengali script, which is an abugida, a writing system where consonant-vowel sequences are written as a unit. The script has a total of 50 letters, including 11 vowels and 39 consonants.

Bengali grammar is characterized by its use of postpositions rather than prepositions, and the language follows a subject-object-verb word order. It also has honorifics to show respect when addressing others.

Bengali is not only a language of communication but also a symbol of cultural identity for the people of West Bengal and Bangladesh. It has a rich literary heritage, with works by famous poets and writers like Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam.