Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal and also in Malawi, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Australia, the UAE, UK and USA.

Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the easternmost branch of the Indo European family of languages. Originating around the middle of the tenth century, it descended from the Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit languages and is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.

There are two main versions of Bengali, namely Sadhu bhaasha (literally Language of Sages) and Cholti bhaashaa (literally Running or Going Language). Sadhu bhaasha is the more highly refined form and is used primarily in formal and literary contexts. The Indian national anthem "Jana Gana Mana" (by Rabindranath Tagore) was composed in Sadhu bhaashaa Bengali. Cholti bhaashaa, on the other hand, is essentially the colloquial Bengali language, and features regional variations (dialects) of its own.

Cholti bhaashaa is the more “diluted” language with many words from Arabic, English, Hindi and Persian origins forming part of the language alongside the main body of Sanskrit-derived lexicon. The different pronunciation of certain words and a less strict adherence to grammatical expressions are two of the main factors that distinguish Cholti bhaashaa from Sadhu bhaasha.

While the literary Bengali is rather consistent throughout East Bengal ( Bangladesh) and West Bengal, there are marked differences in the respective speech patterns.

The manner of pronunciation adopted by the Bangladeshis is closely related to the 'Sylheti' dialect of East Bengal, which has a greater Arab-Persian influence and a distinct departure from standard Bengali grammar. In Kolkata, West Bengal, the Cholti bhaashaa adheres to more standard forms of Bengali, retaining the traditional sound structures that have their roots in the formal Sadhu bhaasha.

Besides the distinct styles in pronunciation of certain characters and regional grammatical variations, it is interesting to note that many Sanskrit-derived words that are standard Bengali, have been dropped in the Bangladeshi (sometimes called Dhaka) Bengali.

The Bengali script is derived from the Brahmic script and is very similar to the Devanagari used for Hindi and Sanskrit.

The Bengali alphabet is a syllabic alphabet in which consonants all have an inherent vowel which has two different pronunciations, Each base symbol represents a syllable, and other diacritical symbols can be added to change (or suppress) the vowel of that syllable.

When consonants occur together in clusters, special conjunct letters are used. Inherent vowel only applies to the final consonant.

Bengali is the second most commonly spoken language in India (after Hindi).

As the Bengali spelling system is based on an older version of the language, it does not cater to some vowel mergers that have evolved in the spoken language. Hence the Bengali script is not entirely phonetic.