Description: Bengali, an official language of Bangladesh and India, is the seventh most-spoken language in the world, with nearly 230 million total speakers. Travelers who like to venture off the beaten path are sure to find adventure and lush natural beauty in Bangladesh. The country is home to a World Heritage Site mangrove forest, Bengal tigers, tropical rain forests, and relics of ancient Buddhist civilizations. This bilingual dictionary and phrasebook contains all the essential language that a traveler to Bangladesh or West Bengal needs to communicate. The dictionary offers instant access to key words, while the phrasebook covers topics including introductions, travel, accommodations, and sight-seeing. A concise grammar section provides an overview of the language. This is the only Bengali phrasebook available. It features 4,000 dictionary entries. Simple phonetics included for all Bengali words. It is perfect for travelers, businesspeople, and foreign aid workers.
Brief description: Hanne-Ruth Thompson is a specialist on Bengali language structures with many years of experience of teaching Bengali at SOAS in London. She is author of Bengali: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge), Bengali published by John Benjamins in Amsterdam, and Beginner's Bengali with Audio CD, Bengali Dictionary & Phrasebook, and Bengali Practical Dictionary, all published by Hippocrene Books.