Overview:

New Bengali has five major dialects spoken in different regions of Bengal. These are:
Dialects
------------------------
1.Raahrdi(Central West Bengali) Locations
------------------------------------------------------
a. East Central: Kolkata,North 24 Parganas,Howrah
b. West Central:East Burdwan,East Birbhum,Hooghly,Bankura
c. North Central: Murshidabad,Nadia,South Maldaha
d. South Central : North-East Medinipur, South 24 Parganas (Diamond Harbor)
2.Barendri(North Bengali) West Dinajpur, Pabna,Rajsahi,Part of Maldaha
3.Jhaarkhandi(South-West Bengali) Manbhum, Singbhum,Part of Medinipur, South-West Bankura and Purulia
4.Bangaali(Eastern and South Eastern Bengali) West Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur,Barishal, Khulna, Jessore, South-East Noakhali, Chattagram
5.Kaamrupi(North-East Bengali) Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar,North Dinajpur, Rangpur, Goalpara, Cachhar,Shrihatta,Tripura

Major Phonological Features:
A. Raahrdi:
1. ‘a’ becomes ‘o’ (a>o) [immediately before a consonantal formation “with ‘i’/‘u’/‘ya’”]
Example: ati>oti
madhu>modhu
Exceptions:
man>mon
ban>bon

2.Effects of Vowel Harmony [Closely Located Different vowels>Intended one/Same Vowel]
Example: deshi>dishi[(d+e+sh+i)>(d+i+sh+i)]

3.Use of Umlauts (abhishruti): A transmitted form of Epenthesis .
Example: baliYA>bailyA (epenthetic)>bale (umlaut)

4.End of Nasalized consonant and transformation of immediate short vowel ‘a’ to long vowel ‘aa’.
Example: bandh>baandh, chandra>chaand

5.Somewhere pronunciation of ‘l’ has been transformed as ‘n’ due to same categorical behavior.
Example: luchi>nuchi

B. Barendri:
1.Voiced Aspirated (saghosh mahAprAN: gh,jh,Dh,dh,bh) sounds keep themselves intact only at the beginning of a word .In other cases they become Nonaspirated.
Example: baagh>bag

2.Types of vowels are as like Raahrdi. Nasalized vowels are available in Barendri.
3. A special alteration of ‘r’
Example: aam>raam, ras>as

C. Jhaarkhandi:
1.Enormous use of Nasalized Sounds
Example: chA.N, ha.N;ichhe, A.NTA etc.

2.A basic intensity to become o>a
Example: lok>lak, chor>char

3.No use of Umlauts (abhishruti)
Example. raati>raa;ita>raa;ita
4.Intention of Nonaspirated>Aspirated
Example:dUr>dhUr

D. Bangaali:
1.Epenthetic use is common phonological feature
Example:aaji>aaij, baliYA>ba;ilyA

2.Transformation of High-Mid Half-Opened Front vowel ‘e’ >Low-Mid Half-Closed Front vowel ‘^A’
Example: desh>d^Ash

3.Transformation of Half-Opened Back vowel ‘o’ >High Closed Back vowel ‘u’
Examples: lok>luk, sodpur>sudpur

4.Use of Recursive sounds (abaruddha dhwani)
Example: bhaai>baa’i, bhaat>baa’t, ghar>g’ar

5.Usual transformation of Affricate>Fricative/Spirant
Example: chh>s (kheYechhe>khA;ise)

6.Transformation of Flapped sound ‘.D’>Trilled Sound ‘r’
Example: bA.Di> bAri

E. Kaamrupi:
1.Like Bangaali dialect Transformation of Flapped sound ‘.D’>Trilled Sound ‘r’ with an extra application of .Dh>rh
Example: AShA.Dha>AShArah

2. o>u
Example: tomAra>tumAra

3. Position of Supra-segmental Stress in a word : Initial, Medial, Terminal
N.B: for Raahrdi it occurs only at beginning

4.In North Dinajpur consonantal sound ‘ch’ is unchanged.
Example: bAchchA
5.Voiced Aspirated>Nonaspirated [ Initial position> Medial/Terminal position of a word] Example: samajhA-samajhi>samajA-samaji