Chapter 3.2: Greetings and Farewells

Hello friends, we learn greetings and farewell in Bangla.

Greetings

So, how do we greet in Bangla when we meet someone? We say “nomoskar,” if the person is Hindu and if the person is Muslim then we say “salam owalikum.” And in reply, the other person also replies by saying “nomoskar,” or if that person is Muslim then that person would say “owalikum salam” or “adab.”

How are you?

Then, how we talk to someone when we meet. If we know that person from before we instead of saying that “nomoskar, salam owalikum” directly we say “ki khObor” or “kEmon achen” or “sOb bhalo” means “what’s up, how are you,” “hope all’s well.” In reply another person would say “hain bhalo, bhalo achi, apni bhalo to?”

Farewell

When we take leave usually we say “choli, ashi, aschi.” These are all neutral expression and those who are Muslim they say “khoda hafiz” and another person can say “abar dekha habe” which means “see you again” or “khoda hafiz” means. That’s Arabic. So in this way we take leave from someone.

Apart from that people also say “bhalo thakben” which is formal honorific which means “stay well” and if the person is familiar, young we say bhalo theko. Both mean “stay well” and another person could say “abar ashben” which is honorific. Because this ‘n’ sound here that is a honorific marker in Bangla or if the person is very familiar to you or young a very younger than you we use this form which is “esho” and this “abar esho” means “visit again.”

Thank you