The Bengali language, also known as Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the seventh most spoken language in the world, with over 230 million native speakers. The language has a rich literary tradition, with notable poets like Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Bengali is written in the Bengali script, which is an abugida, meaning each character represents a consonant with an inherent vowel sound. The language has a diverse vocabulary influenced by Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic. It plays a significant role in the cultural identity of the Bengali people, celebrated through festivals like Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year.