UNESCO debunks years-old rumour it crowned Bengali 'world's sweetest language'

"Many Bengalis deny that Bengali has been recognised by UNESCO as the sweetest language in the world," Bangladesh's former post and telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar posted on February 18, 2024 to his more than 220,000 Facebook followers.

"What kind of Bengali speakers are they?" he added.

Jabbar's post linked to an article from Bengali broadcaster Somoy Television headlined: "Bengali is the world's sweetest language".

Bengali is Bangladesh's official language and is also widely spoken across neighbouring India.

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A screenshot of the false post on Facebook captured on February 26, 2024.

Somoy Television's article, which was published on December 14, 2021, says: "In 2010, after a long study by a group of UNESCO linguists, our mother tongue Bengali was recognised as the most melodious language in the world."

"Spanish and Dutch hold second and third place on the list respectively. Until now, Bengali has held the top position."

Similar Facebook posts circulated here and here ahead of International Mother Language Day in February 2024 -- which is promoted by UNESCO to promote linguistic and cultural diversity.

In 2022, Bangladesh's culture ministry shared the false claim in a Facebook post quoting the then state minister of cultural affairs, K M Khalid.

Old rumour

A spokeswoman for UNESCO said the organisation had never declared any language as the "world's sweetest".

"After verification with our experts, UNESCO has never carried out a survey or study on this subject," head of press Polina Huard told AFP.

AFP found no such ranking on UNESCO's website or Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram or LinkedIn pages.

The false claim has circulated online for years; the earliest posts AFP found were from April 2010.

One X post from April 15, 2010 said in reply to another account: "Cool facts bout bengali language (sic). Do provide me the link (sic) where UNESCO declares it as the sweetest language."

However, AFP found no trace of the claim on the account to which the post replied.

Another X post from April 21, 2010 said: "The UNESCO study also stated that the top three sweetest sounding language (sic) are Bengali, Spanish and Dutch."

The Times of India reported on social media hype around the rumour in an article on April 22, 2010 that said there was "no official confirmation from Unesco" on the findings.