Thriving languages grow and evolve with new words and concepts it comes into contact with. Likewise, new concepts and words prevalent in other cultures will influence any thriving language to either accept those same words or make vocabulary of its own regarding that concept.
Something similar has happened in case of Forex Vocabulary in the Bengali language. To start with, Bengali is the seventh most spoken language in the world, and like other languages in the same situation it has created and adapted Forex concepts and vocabulary from English.
Finance-specific terminology has existed in Bengali for a long time, but with renewed contact with Forex trading concepts a full new range of vocabulary became a necessity. With this in mind, in India (Bengali speaking areas of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura) and Bangladesh, new vocabulary development initiatives were undertaken.
Almost 99% of the English Forex vocabulary has been borrowed into Bengali even superseding the existent Bengali terminologies. For instance, the word for Currency Quotation used to be translated as Mudrar dor prostab, but, eventually, this has been widely substituted for the English phrase.
Forex trading and its associated vocabulary is a new phenomenon that has captured the imagination of the young Bengali speaking population. The truth is that new traders are more comfortable and acquainted with the English terms than with their Bengali equivalents. A few years ago, the Bangla Academy, the official organization responsible for the health of the Bengali Language (both in India and Bangladesh) worked hard to bring out a comprehensive dictionary of Forex terms in Bengali, but they didn’t succeed. English vocabulary clearly won the battle and the dictionary was withdrawn from the market. However, sometimes the English terms do pose problems for Bengali speakers, and many Forex savvy person would like to have a real vocabulary in their own language.
