Why Are English And Bengali Language So Similar?

Have you ever thought about why the English word "Mother" and the Bengali word "মা" start with an 'M' sound and have the same meaning? This is not the only example, there are many like - "No" and "না", both start with the "N" sound, "Murder" and "মৃত" both start with the "M" sound and so on. Even Bengali has similarities between many other European languages-for comparison, the word "Sun" in Bengali is "সূর্য" and in French, we call it "Soleil" and in Latin, we call it "Solis", all words start with a "S" sound. Moreover, We say "Father" in English, which is called "Pita" or "পিতা" in Sanskrit and Bengali, is similar with "Pater" in Greek and Latin. Maybe you can say "Father" and "Pita" is not that much similar, but to address relatives from our father's side, we say "Paternal relatives", which is very similar with "Pita" or "পিতা" in Sanskrit and Bengali, because both starts with the "P" sound.

A British judge, William Jones, a bright fellow with classical training in Greek and Latin, was stationed in India in 1780 and first noticed that Indian languages have many similarities with European languages in 1786. He continued his research on this and suggested the possibility of Indo-European civilization, which opened a new door to the past and sparked the modern science of historical linguistics.

If we deepen down more, we will find similarities even between the ancient Vedic Hindu Gods and Goddesses and the ancient Greek or Roman and even Norse Gods and Goddesses. The Hindu god Indra and the Greek god Zeus are both gods of thunder, rain, and fertility. They are also both considered the kings of the gods, and they wield thunder as their weapon. Moreover, Indra lives on Mount Meru, on the other hand, Zeus lives on Mount Olympus. Additionally, Hades and Yamaraj are both the gods of the underworld, Narada and Hermes both are messenger, Eros and Kamadeva are both gods of love and desire, even a fun fact, Eros and Kamadeva- both have a bow and an arrow, and if they shot an arrow to someone, the person would fall in love and the list goes on. Even these similarities go beyond this, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism named "Ahura Mazda" is also mentioned in Rigveda 2/1/6.  If we count numbers in Persian, it will be-"Yek", "Do", "Seh", "Chaahar", "Panj", "Shesh", "Haft", "Hasht", "Noh"- which is very similar to Bengali, Sanskrit and even, English numerals.

 

 

Indra And Zeus

The reason for these similarities is Indo-European civilization and the Aryan migration to India and Europe. Aryans are an ancient race originating from Central Asia speaking a Proto-Indo-European language. Aryans migrated from Central Asia to India, Iran and Europe. Their language, called Proto-Indo-European language, gave birth to Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Latin, French, Greek, Spanish, Persian, English and many more. This is why Bengali word "মাতা", Sanskrit word "Matr", Persian word "Matar", Greek word "Meter, Latin word "Mater", all have the same meaning- Mother. Aryans actually brought horses into India. Before that, India had no horses. The Vedas is the oldest literature written by the Aryans.

 

 Indo-European Language Tree

India's First and one of the oldest civilizations of the world, famously known as "Indus Valley Civilization" was built by the Dravidian, the oldest native of people of India. But over the time, the Indus Valley Civilization was declining, so, the Dravidian were started to migrate to the south. At this time, Aryans entered India and the culture and languages of Dravidian and Aryans were started to mix and a new civilization was born, named "The Vedic Civilization". Sanskrit was the formal language of Indian Aryans, but common people usually communicate in Prakrit, which was a mixture of Sanskrit and Dravidian languages and Bengali was born from Magadhi Prakrit. Assamese, Odia and Bhojpuri languages were also born from Magadhi Prakrit, that's why these languages are very similar to each other.

 

Aryans

There is a debate on whether India is the origin place for Aryans or not. Recent research has proved that India is not the origin place of the Aryans. The paper titled ‘The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia’ demonstrates the research on genetic data from 523 ancient people spanning 8,000 years across Central and South Asia right up to the European Steppe – the largest study of ancient human DNA. The paper showed there is no trace of Aryan DNA in 4500 years old skeletons like 14411 found in Rakhigarhi, an archaeological site of Indus Valley Civilization, which proves Aryans didn't arrived here before 1500BC. In the genetic data of an average Indian, 52% of it's come from Dravidian, which we call ASI (Ancestral South Indians) DNA and 12% of it's come from Aryans, which we call ANI (Ancestral North Indians) DNA. The most interesting point is Bengali language actually carries the proves of it, Bengali alphabets 'ৎ', 'ং', 'ঃ', 'ঁ' could not be found in European languages, these alphabets are unique to Bengali, which shows the influence of Dravidian languages on Bengali. 

 

Skeleton 14411

Although Aryans originated from Central Asia, many countries claimed themselves as the origin place of Aryans. Hitler claimed Germans are pure Aryans and Aryans originated from Germany and also used the symbol of Aryans called the "swastika" as the symbol for the Nazi Party. Furthermore, Iran also claims themselves as the origin place of Aryans and the word "Iran" also means the origin place of Aryans.

 

 

Swastika

In conclusion, languages are now being used as weapons to divide people, but they can also serve as tools to unite and foster friendship among individuals and nations. After a deep analysis of European, Indian, and Iranian languages, we can discern that we all share a common ancestor. Language can lead us on a profound journey to discover our past, celebrate our culture and traditions, and spread love in this often cruel world. Now, I hope we all understand why "ভ্রাতা" or "ভাই" in Bengali and "Bhratar" in Sanskrit are similar to the word "brother" in English.

References:

1. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fm.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzODsuoCsjpI&psig=AOvVaw0Nyz18Qrk9f_-WmgI8k-gM&ust=1700761916450000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjhxqFwoTCPDnmPSm2IIDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAH
2. https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol  
3. https://ddmishra.medium.com/unknown-facts-and-myths-about-aryan-civilization-eabacaeaf7fb
   
4. https://indianfreethinkers.quora.com/Is-the-aryan-invasion-migration-theory-correct
5. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/swastika-mountain-oregon-indigenous-name-1.6561941

Written By,

Name -Sanjid Ahmed

ID-23321008