Suniti Kumar Chatterji and
Sukumar Sen classified Bengali dialects in six classes by their
phonology,
morphology and
pronunciation. They are: •
Eastern Bengali/
Bangali/
Vanga dialects: the most widely spoken dialect of Bengali language. It is spoken across the
Khulna,
Barisal,
Dhaka,
Mymensingh,
Sylhet and
Chittagong Divisions of Bangladesh,
Tripura and parts of
West Bengal in
India. However, it's not a widely accepted grouping as dialects spoken in Khulna are much closer to
Central dialects. Dialects spoken in central, central-north and southern Bangladesh are very different from
Sylheti and
Chittagonian dialects. •
Central Bengali/
Rarhi dialects: spoken across much of Southern
West Bengal,
India and Southwestern
Bangladesh. It is spoken by almost 20 percent of Bengali people. The regions where it is spoken include the whole of
Presidency division, the northern half of
Khulna Division, the southern half of
Burdwan division and parts of the district of
Murshidabad. •
Southern Bengali/
Sundarbani dialects: spoken in the
Presidency Division and the
Khulna Division of
West Bengal and
Bangladesh. It shares similar features with both the
Bangali and
Rarhi dialects. •
North Central Bengali/
Varendri dialects: spoken in
Rajshahi Division, Western and southern
Rangpur Division of
Bangladesh and
Malda division of
West Bengal,
India (previously part of
Varendra or
Barind division). It is also spoken in some adjoining villages in
Bihar and
Jharkhand bordering Malda. •
Western Bengali/
Manbhumi/
Jharkhandi dialects: spoken in the westernmost Bengali speaking regions which includes the whole of
Medinipur division and the northern half of
Burdwan division in
West Bengal. The dialect is also spoken in parts of
Santhal Pargana division,
Kolhan division and parts of
North Chotanagpur division and
Ranchi district of
Jharkhand. It is also spoken in some adjoining villages in
Odisha bordering
Medinipur. •
Far Northern Bengali/
Rangpuri/
Rajbanshi dialects: spoken in eastern
Rangpur Division of
Bangladesh and
Jalpaiguri division and parts of
Malda division of
West Bengal,
India and nearby areas in
Goalpara of
Assam,
Kishanganj of
Bihar and the
Nepali province of
Koshi.
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, describing the cluster as "Vaṅga Dialects", further divided it into two groups of two: "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga". Eastern Vaṅga is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi
division of
Sylhet and the
Greater Comilla region of
Chittagong along with the
Barak Valley Division of Assam and the state of Tripura in India. Southeastern Vaṅga is spoken in the remaining area of the Chittagong division, corresponding to the former colonial territories of
Noakhali District and
Chittagong District, and historically extended further into
Sittwe. Southwestern Vaṅga is spoken across the
Khulna Division and South
Faridpur, where Eastern Bengali transitions into
Central Standard Bengali. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, in his classification of Bengali dialects, treated the "Rāḍha" cluster as three subgroups, such as: "Western Rāḍha", "Southwestern Rāḍha" and "Eastern Rāḍha". Western Rāḍha is spoken in Northern Greater Medinipur,
West Bardhaman,
Kolhan division,
Chotanagpur,
Santhal Pargana division,
Birbhum,
Purulia and
Bankura. Southwestern Rāḍha is spoken in Southern Greater Medinipur,
Kakdwip subdivision of
South 24 Parganas and parts of
Odisha and
Jharkhand. Eastern Rāḍha is spoken in
Presidency division, Greater Kushtia, parts of
Murshidabad and
East Bardhaman district. He also kept "Varendra" and "Kāmarūpa" as separate regional groupings, with Varendra broadly corresponding to North Central Bengal (
Rajshahi division,
Malda division and parts of
Rangpur division) and Kāmarūpa (Rangpur division, parts of Malda division,
Jalpaiguri division, parts of
Purnia division and
lower Assam division) to Far Northern Bengal and Far Western Assam. Western Vaṅga is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions of
Mymensingh,
Dhaka, and
Barisal.
Sukumar Sen later presented Bengali in a five-part regional scheme, commonly summarized as
Rāṛhī,
Jhaṛkhaṇḍī,
Varendrī,
Baṅgālī and
Kāmrūpī. In this arrangement, Rāṛhī covers the western and south-central Bengali belt, Jhaṛkhaṇḍī the western and south-western region, Varendrī the north-central region, Baṅgālī the eastern and south-eastern Bengali belt, and Kāmrūpī the far northern and north-eastern stretch, including speech areas along the Rangpur-Assam border zone.
George A. Grierson, in the Linguistic Survey tradition, treated Bengali speech as a cluster of seven regional dialect groupings, namely
Central Bengali,
Northern Bengali,
Eastern Bengali,
Rajbanshi Bengali,
Western Bengali, South-western Bengali and South-eastern Bengali. He also mentioned in his work that the dialect spoken in undivided
Jessore,
Khulna and parts of
Faridpur can be treated as distinct sub-dialect named
East-Central Bengali as it is described a connecting dialect between
Central Bengali and the extreme
Eastern Bengali varieties of
Dhaka and
Bakerganj. Later summaries of his work also note that he recognized especially distinctive forms in the extreme eastern regions of Vanga, including the speech of eastern Sylhet, Cachar, Chakma, Noakhali and Chittagong, which he treated as a separate eastern transition zone within the wider Bengali continuum.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah divided all Bengali dialects into two groups: Prācya () and Pāścātya (). Within his Prācya grouping, he created the divisions of "Dakṣiṇa-Pūrva" or "Southeastern" and "Pūrva-Prāntika" or "Extreme Eastern", which approximately correspond to Chatterji's "Western and Southwestern Vaṅga" and "Eastern and Southeastern Vaṅga", respectively. The Southeastern group is spoken across the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the
Greater Noakhali region of the Chittagong division and eastern parts of the
24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The Extreme Eastern group is spoken across the Bangladeshi divisions Sylhet and Chittagong, including Greater Comilla and excluding Greater Noakhali, as well as the Barak Valley division of Assam. In his Pāścātya classification, Shahidullah identified a northern subdivision known as "Udīcya" or "Northern". This area approximately aligns with what is termed North Central Bengali, while also including the Far Northern Bengali dialects spoken in Rangpur. The subdivision corresponds to Chatterji's combined Varendra and Kāmarūpa groups. Shahidullah notes that this northern zone stretches from Goalpara to Purnia, encompassing large parts of the historical Kamarupa and Varendra regions. The rest of the Pāścātya group represents "Dakṣiṇa-Paścima" or "Southwestern" dialects. The southwestern group is spoken across Greater Medinipur, parts of Jharkhand, Bankura, Purulia, Parts of Odisha, Bardhaman and the Presidency division, including Greater Kushtia.
Gopal Haldar, in his study of Eastern Bengali, divided all East Bengali dialects into four groups. Group I or "Central East Bengali" spans the modern Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur, and Barisal, as well as the district of
Chandpur in Chittagong Division. The de facto Standard East Bengali spoken around the
Bikrampur region is a member of this group, comparable to Chatterji's "Typical East Bengali". Group II or "Central North East Bengali" is spoken in eastern areas of the Mymensingh and Dhaka divisions, the western half of the Sylhet Division, as well as the
Brahmanbaria District of the Chittagong Division. Group III or "North East Bengali" is spoken in the eastern half of the Sylhet Division as well as the bordering Barak Valley division of Assam, India. Group IV or "South East Bengali" is spoken in the Chittagong Division, notably excluding the Greater Comilla region. The
Comilla District and Tripura state of India, the Bengalis in the latter chiefly being migrants from the former, sit at the confluence of all the major groupings and thus the speech of this region shares features with all the major groups classified by Haldar. Transitionary East Bengali is spoken in the Khulna division as well as Western Greater Faridpur i.e.
Rajbari District, which shares features with both Standard Bengali and Eastern Bengali dialects. ==Standard registers==