Muhammad Abdul Hye

Not to be confused with Hasnat Abdul Hye.

Muhammad Abdul Hye
Born	(1919-11-26)26 November 1919 Maricha, Raninagar, Murshidabad district, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	3 June 1969(1969-06-03) (aged 49) Dhaka, East Pakistan, Pakistan
Nationality	Pakistani
Alma mater	University of Dhaka

Muhammad Abdul Hye (26 November 1919 – 3 June 1969) also known as Muhammad Abdul Hai was a Bengali educationist, litterateur, researcher and linguist who was and is remembered as a notable figure in the Bengali language movement. He was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1961 and Ekushey Padak in 1996 by the Government of Bangladesh.

Education and career

Hye passed Secondary Education from Rajshahi High Madrasah in 1936 and completed his intermediate from Dhaka Islamic Intermediate College in 1938. He became the first Muslim student who had obtained first class both in honors and master's examinations in Bengali from the University of Dhaka in 1941 and 1942 respectively. He had joined the Bengali Department of the university in 1949. In 1950, he went to England to study linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. In 1952, he wrote a thesis on "A Phonetic and Phonological Study of Nasal and Nasalization in Bengali" to earn his second MA degree. He served as a visiting professor for ten months at the University of Missouri in the United States in 1968–69.

In 1954, Hye was made Reader and the head of the Bengali department. He became a professor in 1962.

Professor Muhammad Abdul Hye, once famously remarked that Bengali was the "French language of the East". He was referring to not only the sweetness of the language, but also the profound use of connotation, pronunciation and the subtlety of the language.

Works

• Sahitya O Sanskriti (literature and culture) (1954)
• Bilete Sare Satsho Din (750 days in England) (1958)
• Toshamod O Rajneetir Bhasha (flattery and the language of politics) (1959)
• Bhasha O Sahitya (language and literature) (1960)
• Dhwanivigyan O Bangla Dhwanitatto (phonetics and Bengali phonology) (1964)

Hye produced Bangla Sahityer Itibritto (history of Bengali literature modern period) jointly with Syed Ali Ahsan. He produced and published books in association with Ahmed Sharif, Muhammad Mansuruddin, Anisuzzaman and Anwar Pasha.