Language code: bn

Technical information about ISO 639 language code bn

The table below provides technical details for the Bengali language, designated by the bn code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

bn

Name

Official

Bengali

Native

বাংলা

Family
Indo-Aryan
Scripts
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Rarhi (Central/Standard)VarendriBangaKamarupaChittagonianRangpuri
Related languages
AssameseOdiaMaithiliHindiSylheti
Key facts
Written with the Bengali–Assamese script, an abugida derived from BrahmiEarliest known texts are the 10th-century Buddhist Charyapada songsRabindranath Tagore received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for works primarily in BengaliThe language features breathy-voiced consonants and phonemic nasalized vowelsThe 1952 Language Movement in Dhaka led UNESCO to establish 21 February as International Mother Language Day
Sample phrase

হ্যালো, কেমন আছো?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Bengali belongs to the Indo-European language family, more specifically to the Indo-Aryan subgroup. It is an official language in Bangladesh and in parts of India, including West Bengal and Tripura, and is also used regionally in areas of Assam and Jharkhand. It is written using the Bengali script. It is estimated that there are more than 230 million speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Bengali speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

Related locale codes

bn-BD Bengali (Bangladesh)

bn-IN Bengali (India)

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