Attachments
Chittagonian and Rohingya:
So near and yet so far
At the start of every TWB language training, the attendees are given a worksheet with five images – a dog, window, pregnant woman, mountain, and a child. The worksheet is not just an ice-breaker exercise; their task is to identify the names of the images in Bangla, Chittagonian (also known as Chatgaya), and Rohingya. They start by whispering to each other quietly, but in a matter of minutes, loud debates erupt.
“That’s not how you say dog in Chittagonian!”
“Do you mean a male child or female child? The Rohingya language has different words.”
“Aren’t Chittagonian and Rohingya the same?”
These questions don’t come as a surprise. The Rohingya refugee response is taking place in a diverse linguistic landscape. There are many languages being communicated amongst various communities using a range of alphabets.
Though anecdotally Chittagonian and Rohingya are considered very similar languages, a recent TWB study found that more than 30 percent of the Rohingya population could not understand a basic sentence in Chittagonian. This means a large proportion of the population will struggle to access life-saving information if it is only delivered in spoken Chittagonian.
It is not surprising that Rohingya refugees have a strong preference for communication in Rohingya. However, that is not always practical or possible.
Chittagonian speakers are therefore a pivotal component of communication in the camps. They often bridge the gap between English and Bangla speakers, and the Rohingya speakers.
Differences and similarities between Chittagonian and Rohingya
Like all languages, where you come from influences the words you use. For example, someone from Melbourne, Australia, may use some English terms that are not familiar to someone from New York city or London. But all of those people speak English, and for the most part, they can understand each other.
Chittagonian shows similar geographical variations; someone who lives in Chattogram city will speak a different Chittagonian dialect to someone living in Teknaf. Generally, the differences will not hinder understanding between Chittagonian speakers from different areas. However, the gaps between different Chittagonian dialects and the Rohingya language can be significant. It is important for Chittagonian speakers to understand the extent of variation between their particular dialect and Rohingya.
The Chittagonian dialect spoken around Cox’s Bazar and in towns further south is closer to the Rohingya language than the dialect spoken in northern parts of Chattogram. This applies to both pronunciation and choice of vocabulary. For example, shom-ola means ‘pregnancy’ for both Rohingya and southern Chittagonian speakers. However, it is not understood in the north, where they prefer to say gorbito, derived from Bangla ghorboboti. The word for ‘dog’ is kuyĩr in both Rohingya and southern Chittagonian but kuttei in northern Chittagonian.
There is also a generational component. The younger generations, particularly those that are educated or involved in commerce, incorporate more standard Bangla terms into their Chittagonian conversations. Many of these terms are not familiar to the Rohingya community. Older Chittagonian speakers still use many Arabic, Farsi, and local terms that are also used in the Rohingya language.
These geographical and generational differences may explain the conflicting notions of how close Chittagonian and Rohingya languages are to one another. Humanitarians and interpreters that are native to the southernmost parts of Cox’s Bazar district may find their language and that of a Rohingya speaker’s from Maungdaw – just across the Naf River – very similar. However, the further away from the border region (for both the Chittagonian and Rohingya speaker), the more different their languages may be.