I owe a very special debt of gratitude to two distinguished personalities, Professor Probal Dasgupta, under whose punctilious supervision, advice and (both intellectual and moral) support this book has taken shape, and Professor U.N. Singh, whose immense academic interest and patient encouragement has made possible the publication of this book.

I am sincerely grateful to Prof. P. Bhaskararao, who always extended unlimited help in completing the doctoral research that this study is based on; Prof. Subhadra Kumar Sen, who patiently read through the first draft of chapter 4 and commented; Dr. Alokananda Mitter and Dr. Amitav Choudhry of LRU, ISI, Kolkata, who rendered aid of all kinds for this work to take shape; and Mr. Bijon Mukherjee and Prof. Asoke Kumar Datta of ECSU, ISI, Kolkata, whose technical assistance made the technical studies incorporated here possible.

At this point I should add the bibliographical detail that the doctoral dissertation of which this book is a recast version was submitted to the University of Poona (now called the University of Pune) in 1992 under the guidance of Prof. Probal Dasgupta. I had left this work unpublished expecting that some better phonologist would publish a more insightful version of Bangla phonology on the basis of this pioneering study full of gaps and tentative statements. But till date nothing of the sort has happened. Moreover, scholars interested in the field of Bangla phonology have kept requesting copies of the dissertation. This inspired me to follow the "better late than never" principle and recast my own work.

Thus this study has two phases - old and new. I combine both as I express my gratitude to Prof. Pabitra Sarkar, Prof. Aditi Mukherjee, Prof. K.A. Jayaseelan, Prof. R. Amritavalli, Prof. Krishna Bhattacharya, the late Dr. S.D. Pandey, Dr. B.P. Mallik, Dr. Sumita Bhattacharya, Dr. Malasree Dasgupta, Dr. Abhijit Majumdar, Dr. Rina Biswas, Dr. Kajal De, Ms. Chhabi Kundu, Ms. Krishna Kundu, Ms. Jharna Sinha, Dr. Sohini Ghosh, Dr. Manashi Dasgupta and other well-wishers without whose encouragement and forbearance this work might never have come into existence.

For technical advice and assistance during the new phase I am indebted to Mr. Arun Gupta, Mr. Saikat Sanyal, Mr. Bikas Chakraborty and Mr. Sukumar Gupta.

I am immensely grateful to Mr. Somnath Dan, Jhinuk and Nandik, the other members of my family, who not only rendered perpetual support but also have been tolerant of my pestering demands while I was preparing the MS.

However, I alone, of course, am responsible for any shortcomings that remain.

Kolkata Mina Dan