Book excerpt: Learn Bengali with this complete course, now with free audio download! Spoken by over 200 million people worldwide, Bengali (Bangla) is an official language of Bangladesh and India. It is an Indo-Aryan language that descended from Sanskrit and has a rich thousand-year-old literary tradition. Ideal for those new to Bengali/Bangla, learning at home or in the classroom, Beginner's Bengali (Bangla) with Online Audio includes: Introductory Unit 1 that clearly outlines basics of Bengali/Bangla sounds and script and serves as a key building block for subsequent chapters Fourteen carefully-paced units, each chapter including practical grammar lessons, exercises and vocabulary Answer key and helpful appendices including verb charts, numbers and kinship terms Bengali-English and English-Bengali glossaries Online MP3 audio files for free download featuring pronunciation by native speakers