Bengali

Vowels and Diphthongs (see Note 1)

a I e ai u o au

Consonants (see Note 2)

Gutturals Palatals Cerebrals Dentals

ka ca a ta kha cha ha t ga ja a tha gha jha a da a a ha dha ha na

a

Labials Semivowels Sibilants Aspirate

pa ya a ha pha a sha ba (see Note 3) ra sa bha la ma ba (see Note 3)

Anusvra Bisarga Candrabindu (anunsika) (see Note 4)

Abagraha (see Note 5)

n, m (apostrophe) Notes

1. Only the vowel forms that appear at the beginning of a syllable are listed; the forms used for vowels following a consonant can be found in grammars; no distinction between the two is made in transliteration.

2. The vowel a is implicit after all consonants and consonant clusters and is supplied in transliteration, with the following exceptions: a) when another vowel is indicated by its appropriate sign; and b) when the absence of any vowel is indicated by the subscript symbol ( ) called hasanta

or birma.

3. is used both as a labial and as a semivowel. When it occurs as the second consonant of a consonant cluster, it is transliterated va. When is doubled, it is transliterated bba.

4. Candrabindu before guttural, palatal, cerebral, and dental occlusives is transliterated n. Before labials, sibilants, semivowels, the aspirate, vowels, and in final position it is transliterated m.

5. When doubled, abagraha is transliterated by two apostrophes ( ).

Bengali alphabet 1

Bengali alphabet

Bengali alphabet

Type Abugida

Languages Bengali

Time period 11th Century to the present[1]

Parent systems Proto-Sinaitic

Phoenician

Aramaic

Brhm

Gupta

Siddham

Assamese/Bengali

Bengali alphabet

ISO 15924 Beng, 325

Direction Left-to-right

Unicode alias Bengali

Unicode range U+0980U+09FF [2]

BrhmThe Brahmic script and its

descendants

The Bengali alphabet (Bengali: Bangla horof or Bengali: Bangla lipi) is the writing systemfor the Bengali language. The script with variations is shared by Maithili (also called Mithilakshar/Tirhutiya),Assamese and is the basis for the Meitei, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Kokborok, Garo and Mundari alphabets. All theselanguages are spoken in the eastern region of South Asia. Historically, the script has also been used to write theSanskrit language in the same region. From a classificatory point of view, the Bengali script is an abugida, i.e. itsvowel graphemes are mainly realized not as independent letters, but as diacritics attached to its consonant letters. Itis written from left to right and lacks distinct letter cases. It is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line runningalong the tops of the letters that links them together, a property it shares with two other popular Indian scripts:Devanagari (used for Hindi, Marathi and Nepali) and Gurumukhi (used for Punjabi). The Bengali script is, however,less blocky and presents a more sinuous shape.Because of the large population of literate Bengali speakers, Bengali script is one of the more widely used writingsystems in the world.

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Bengali alphabet 2

HistoryThe Bengali script evolved from the Siddham, which belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts, along with theDevanagari and other written systems of the Indian subcontinent. In addition to differences in how the letters arepronounced in the different languages, there are some typographical differences between the version of the scriptused for Assamese and Bishnupriya Manipuri as well as Maithili languages, and that used for Bengali and otherlanguages.Illustration:

The character (Assamese khy, Bengali khio) is considered a separate letter in Assamese script ( )but considered a conjunct (orthographically + ) in Bengali. In both languages, it functions as though itwere orthographically .

r is represented as in Bengali, in Assamese, and either of the two variants in Bishnupriya Manipuri andMaithili.

Assamese script has an additional character sounding w represented as not found in Bengali script.The Bengali script was originally not associated with any particular language, but was often used in the easternregions of Medieval India. It was standardized into the modern Bengali script by Ishwar Chandra under the reign ofthe British East India Company. The script was originally used to write Sanskrit. Epics of Hindu scripture, includingthe Mahabharata or Ramayana, were written Mithilakshar/Tirhuta script in this region. After the medieval period, theuse of Sanskrit as the sole written language gave way to Pali, and eventually to the vernacular languages we knownow as Maithili, Bengali, and Assamese.There is a rich legacy of Indian literature written in this script, which is stilloccasionally used to write Sanskrit today.

Standardization

Signature of Rabindranath Tagore ( ) in Bengali script

In the Bengali script, clusters of consonantsare represented by different and sometimesquite irregular forms; thus, learning to readis complicated by the sheer size of the fullset of letters and letter combinations,numbering about 350. While efforts atstandardizing the alphabet for the Bengalilanguage continue in such notable centres asthe Bangla Academies (unaffiliated) at Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal, India), it is still not quiteuniform as yet, as many people continue to use various archaic forms of letters, resulting in concurrent forms for thesame sounds. Among the various regional variations within this script, only the Assamese and Bengali variationsexist today in the formalized system.

It seems likely that the standardization of the alphabet will be greatly influenced by the need to typeset it oncomputers. The large alphabet can be represented, with a great deal of ingenuity, within the ASCII character set,omitting certain irregular conjuncts. Work has been underway since around 2001 to develop Unicode fonts, and itseems likely that it will split into two variants, traditional and modern.In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Bengali language, a Romanization scheme used by linguistsspecializing in Bengali phonology is included along with IPA transcription.A recent effort by the government of West Bengal focused on simplifying Bengali orthography in primary schooltexts.

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Bengali alphabet 3

Description of Bengali glyphsThe glyphs of the Bengali script can be divided into vowel diacritics, consonant and vowel letters (includingconsonant conjuncts), modifiers, digits, and punctuation marks.

Vowels

The consonant (k) along with the diacritic form of the vowels , , , , , , , ,, and .

The Bengali script has a total of 11vowel graphemes, each of which iscalled a shrobrno "vowelletter". These shrobrnos representsix of the seven main vowel sounds ofBengali, along with two voweldiphthongs. All of these are used in both Bengali and Assamese, the two main languages using the script. There is nostandard character in the script for the Bengali main vowel sound //, and vowel length differences thought to berepresented by different vowel graphemes (e.g., hrshsho i vs. dirgho i) do not hold true for the spoken language.Also, the grapheme called ri does not really represent a vowel phoneme, rather the sound /ri/.

When a vowel sound occurs at the beginning of a syllable or when it follows another vowel, it is written using adistinct letter. But when a vowel sound follows a consonant (or a consonant cluster), it is written with a diacriticwhich, depending on the vowel, can appear above, below, before or after the consonant. The diacritic cannot appearwithout a consonant. A diacritic form is named by adding a "-kar" to the end of the name of the corresponding vowelletter (see table below).An exception to the above system is the vowel //. This has no diacritic form, but is considered inherent in everyconsonant letter. To specifically denote the absence of this inherent vowel [] following a consonant, a diacriticcalled the hshonto () may be written underneath the consonant.Although there are only two diphthongs in the inventory of the script, the Bengali sound system has in fact manydiphthongs.[3] Most of these diphthongs are represented by juxtaposing the graphemes of their forming vowels, as in keu /keu/.The table below shows the vowels present in the modern (i.e., since late nineteenth century) inventory of the Bengalialphabet, which has abandoned three historical vowels, rri, li, and lli, traditionally placed between ri and e.

Full form Name offull form

IPAtranscription

Diacritic form,used with

the consonant [k] ()

Name ofdiacritic form

Transliteration IPA

shro (shre )"vowel "

// and /o/[4] (none) (none) k and ko /k/ and /ko/

shro a(shre a)"vowel a"

/a/ akar ka /ka/

hrshsho i(hrshshoi)"short i"

/i/ hrshsho ikar(roshshikar)

ki /ki/

dirgho i"long i"

/i/ dirgho ikar(dirghikar)

kee /ki/

hrshsho u(rshsho u)"short u"

/u/ hrshsho ukar(roshshukar)

ku /ku/

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ABengali_Vowel_Signs.pnghttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graphemehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_phonology%23Consonants_and_vowelshttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_phonology%23Diphthongshttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assamese_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_Phonetic_Alphabethttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanization_of_Bengalihttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_Phonetic_Alphabet

Bengali alphabet 4

dirgho u"long u"

/u/ dirgho ukar(dirghukar)

koo /ku/

ri /ri/ rikar/rifla kri /kri/

e /e/ and // ekar k and ke /ke/ and /k/

oi /oj/ oikar koi /koj/

o /o/ okar ko /ko/

ou /ow/ oukar kou /kow/

|+ Bengali vowels ( shrobrno)

ConsonantsConsonant letters are called bnjonbrno "consonant letter" in Bengali. The names of these letters aretypically just the consonant sound plus the inherent vowel . Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written,most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter is itself gh). Some letters thathave lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Bengali are called by a more elaborate name. For example, sincethe consonant phoneme /n/ can be written , , or (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these lettersare not simply called n; instead, they are called donto n ("dental n"), murdhonno n ("cerebraln"), and / ni/ing. Similarly, the phoneme // can be written talobbo sh ("palatal s"), murdhonno sh("cerebral s"), or donto sh ("dental s"), depending on the word. Since the consonant // cannot occur at thebeginning of a word in Bengali, its name is not ng but ung (pronounced by some as um or ).Similarly, since semivowels ([j], [w], [e], [o]) cannot occur at the beginning of a Bengali word, the name for"semi-vowel e" is not ntostho e but ntostho .In the earlier inventories of the Bengali alphabet, one can find a second b (called ntostho b) following l. Thisntostho b originally represented a /v/ or /w/ sound, but later merged with the borgio b in the Bengali language.The two b's were represented with identically but occurred in two different places in the inventory. In theorthography of Bangladesh, only borgio b is retained. The ntostho b continues to be used in the Indian state ofWest Bengal.The table below presents the Bengali consonant letters in their traditional order.

Letter Name ofconsonant

Transliteration IPA

k k /k/

kh kh /k/

g g //

gh gh //

ung, um //

ch ch /t/

chh chh /t/

borgio j(burgijj)

j /d/

jh jh /d/

ing, ni n /n/

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dental_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroflex_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palatal_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanization_of_Bengalihttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_Phonetic_Alphabet

Bengali alphabet 5

//

h h //

//

h h //

murdhonno n(moddhenn)

n /n/

t t /t/

th th /t/

d d /d/

dh dh /d/

donto n(dontenn)

n /n/

p p /p/

ph ph /p/

b (the so-called borgio b) b /b/

bh bh /b/

m m /m/

ntostho j(ontostej)

j /d/

(be bindu/shunno) r r //

l l /l/

talobbo sh(taleboshsh)

sh and s // / /s/

murdhonno sh(muddhennoshsh)(pe kaa sh)

sh //

donto sh(donteshsh)

sh and s // / /s/

h h /h/

ntostho (ontoste)

e and /e/ /-

e shunno/bindu //

he shunno/bindu h //

|+ Bengali consonants ( bnjonbrno)

Bengali alphabet 6

Consonant conjuncts

The consonant ligature ndr () : (n) in gray, (d) in blue and (r) in red.

List of all Bengali consonant conjuncts.

Up to four consecutive consonants not separated by vowels can beorthographically represented as a ligature called a "consonantconjunct" (Bengali: juktakkhor or juktobrno). Typically, the first consonant in the conjunct is shownabove and/or to the left of the following consonants. Manyconsonants appear in an abbreviated or compressed form whenserving as part of a conjunct. Others simply take exceptional formsin conjuncts, bearing little or no resemblance to the base character.

Often, consonant conjuncts are not actually pronounced as would beimplied by the pronunciation of the individual components. Forexample, adding l underneath sh in Bengali creates theconjunct , which is not pronounced shl but sl in Bengali.Many conjuncts represent Sanskrit sounds that were lost centuriesbefore modern Bengali was ever spoken, as in , which is acombination of j and ni, but is not pronounced jn. Instead,it is pronounced gg in Bengali. Thus, as conjuncts often represent(combinations of) sounds that cannot be easily understood from thecomponents, the following descriptions are concerned only with theconstruction of the conjunct, and not the resulting pronunciation.Thus, a variant of the IAST romanization scheme is used instead ofthe phonemic romanization.

Fused forms

Some consonants fuse in such a way that one stroke of the firstconsonant also serves as a stroke of the next. The consonants can be placed on top of one another, sharing

their vertical line: kk gn gl nn pn pp ll etc.

As the last member of a conjunct, w and b can hang onthe vertical line under the preceding consonants, taking the shapeof b (here referred to as bfla): gw/gb w,b dw/db lw/lbo w/b.

The consonants can also be placed side-by-side, sharing theirvertical line: dd nd bd bj p c ch etc.

Approximated forms

Some consonants are simply written closer to one another toindicate that they are in a conjunct together. As the last member of a conjunct, g can appear unaltered, with the preceding consonant simply written closer

to it: dg. As the last member of a conjunct, w and b can appear immediately to the right of the preceding consonant,

taking the shape of b (here referred to as bfla): dhw/dhb bb/bw hb/hw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ABengali_conjunct_ndr.pnghttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ABangla_consonant_conjuncts.svghttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ligature_%28typography%29https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IASThttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanization_of_Bengali

Bengali alphabet 7

Compressed forms

Some consonants are compressed (and often simplified) when appearing as the first member of a conjunct. As the first member of a conjunct, the consonants c b and w are often compressed and

placed at the top-left of the following consonant, with little or no change to the basic shape: k kh gh m cc cch c bb/bw wb/wwo.

As the first member of a conjunct, t is compressed and placed above the following consonant, with little or nochange to the basic shape: tn tm tw/tb.

As the first member of a conjunct, m is compressed and simplified to a curved shape. It is placed above or tothe top-left of the following consonant: mn mp mf mb/mw mbh mm ml.

As the first member of a conjunct, is compressed and simplified to an oval shape with a diagonal strokethrough it. It is placed to the top-left of the following consonants: k h p f m.

As the first member of a conjunct, s is compressed and simplified to a ribbon shape. It is placed above or tothe top-left of the following consonant: sk skh s st sth sn sp sf sw/sb sm sl.

Abbreviated forms

Some consonants are abbreviated when appearing in conjuncts, losing part of their basic shape. As the first member of a conjunct, j can lose its final downstroke: jj j jw/jb. As the first member of a conjunct, can lose its bottom half: c ch j jh. As the last member of a conjunct, can lose its left half (the part): j. As the first member of a conjunct, and p can lose their downstroke: h pt ps. As the first member of a conjunct, t and bh can lose their final upward tail: tt tth tr

bhr. As the last member of a conjunct, th can lose its final upstroke, taking the form of h instead (this form is

called - khno th or "broken th"()) : nth sth. An exception is mth (see on thecompressed forms part)

As the last member of a conjunct, m can lose its initial downstroke: km gm m m m tm dm nm mm m m sm.

As the last member of a conjunct, s can lose its top half: ks ns. As the last member of a conjuct , and h can lose their matra: p h As the last member of a conjuct can change its shape:

Variant forms

Some consonants have forms that are used regularly, but only within conjuncts. As the first member of a conjunct, can appear as a loop and curl: k g. As the last member of a conjunct, the curled top of dh is replaced by a straight downstroke to the right, taking

the form of jh instead: gdh ddh ndh bdh. As the first member of a conjunct, r appears as a diagonal stroke (called ref) above the following

member: rk rkh rg rgh etc. As the last member of a conjunct, r appears as a wavy horizontal line (called rfla) under the previous

member: khr gr ghr br etc. In some fonts, certain conjuncts with rfla appear using the compressed (and often simplified) form of

the previous consonant: jr r hr r mr sr. In some fonts, certain conjuncts with rfla appear using the abbreviated form of the previous

consonant: kr tr bhr

Bengali alphabet 8

As the last member of a conjunct, y appears as a wavy vertical line (called jfla) to the right of theprevious member: ky khy gy ghy etc. In some fonts, certain conjuncts with jfla appear using special fused forms: dy ny y

y sy hy.

Exceptions

When followed by r, k takes on the abbreviated form of t with the addition of a curl to the right: kr.

When preceded by the abbreviated form of , c takes the shape of b: c When preceded by another , is reduced to a leftward curl: . When preceded by , appears as two loops to the right: . As the first member of a conjunct, or when word-final and followed by no vowel, t can appear as (called

- khno t or "broken t"): ts tp tk etc. When preceded by h, n appears as a curl to the right: hn. Certain combinations simply must be memorized: k hm. When followed by t, k takes on the shape of tt with the addition of a curl to the right: kt.

Exceptional consonant-vowel combinations

When serving as a vowel sign, u, , and take on many exceptional forms. u

When following g or , it takes on a variant form resembling the final tail of o: gu u. When following a t that is already part of a conjunct with p, n or s, it is fused with the t to

resemble o: ntu stu ptu. When following r, and in many fonts also following the variant rfla, it appears as an upward curl

to the right of the preceding consonant as opposed to a downward loop below: ru gru tru thru dru dhru bru bhru ru.

When following h, it appears as an extra curl: hu.

When following r, and in many fonts also following the variant rfla, it appears as a downstroke tothe right of the preceding consonant as opposed to a downward hook below: r gr thr dr dhr bhr r.

When following h, it takes the variant shape of : h.

Conjuncts of three consonants also exist, and follow the same rules as above. Examples include s + t + r = str, m + p + r = mpr, + k + = k, j + j + w = jjw, k + + m = km. Theoretically, four-consonant conjuncts can also be created, as in r + s + + r = rsr, but these are not found in real words.

Modifiers and others

Bengali alphabet 9

Symbol with [k]()

Name Function Transliteration IPA

hshonto"final hsh"

Suppresses the inherent vowel [] k /k/

khno t"broken t"

Final unaspirated dental [t] () kt /kt/

nushshr Final velar nasal kng /k/

bishrgo 1. pronounced as syllable-final voiceless breath, as in 2. isn't pronounced, but geminates the following consonant, as in

3. isn't pronounced at all, as in

- 1.1. [uh]2. [duomj]3. [dusto]

chndrobindu"moon-dot"

Vowel nasalization k /k/

|+ Modifier and other graphemes in Bengali -h and -ng are also often used as abbreviation marks in Bengali, with -ng used when the next sound followingthe abbreviation would be a nasal sound, and -h otherwise. For example h stands for kor "doctor"and nng stands for nmbor "number". Some abbreviations have no marking at all, as in habi for haka Bishshobiddale "Dhaka University". The full stop can also be used when writing outEnglish letters as initials, such as .. i iu "E.U.".The jphla is sometimes used as a diacritic to indicate non-Bengali vowels of various kinds in transliterated foreignwords. For example, the schwa is indicated by a jphla, the French u and the German umlaut as , the Germanumlaut as or , etc.The apostrophe, known in Bengali as urdhokma "upper comma", is sometimes used to distinguishbetween homographs, as in paa "plank" and ' paa "the leg". Sometimes a hyphen is used for the samepurpose (as in -, an alternative of ').

Digits and numeralsThe Bengali script has ten digits (graphemes or symbols indicating the numbers from 0 to 9), which are variants ofIndian numerals (known as Arabic numerals in the West). Bengali digits have no horizontal headstroke or "matra".

English digits 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Bengali digits

Bengalinames

of digits

shunno k dui tin char pch chhe shat a ne

|+ Bengali digitsNumbers larger than 9 are written in Bengali using a positional base 10 numeral system (the decimal system), just asin English. A period or dot is used to denote the decimal separator, which separates the integral and the fractionalparts of a decimal number. When writing large numbers with many digits, commas are used as delimiters to groupdigits, indicating the thousand ( hajar), the hundred thousand or lakh ( lakh or lokkho), and the tenmillion or hundred lakh or crore ( koi or kro) units. In other words, going leftwards from the decimalseparator, the first grouping consists of three digits, and the subsequent groupings always consist of 2 digits.For example, the English number 17,557,345 will be written in traditional Bengali as ,,, ( , , , k koi pchattor lakh, shatanno hajar, tin sho petallish, "onecrore, seventy-five lakhs, fifty-seven thousand, three hundred forty-five").

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Bengali alphabet 10

The matraWhereas in western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) the letter-forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengaliletter-forms hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called matra (not to be confused with itsHindi cognate matra, which denotes the dependent forms of Hindi vowels). The presence and absence of this matracan be important. For example, the letter [t] and the numeral "3" are distinguishable only by the presence orabsence of the matra, as is the case between the consonant cluster [tr] and the independent vowel [e]. Theletter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between the visible matraand an invisible baseline).

Punctuation marksBengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke dai (|), the Bengali equivalent of a full stop, have beenadopted from western scripts and their usage is similar. Commas, semicolons, colons, quotation marks, etc. are thesame as in English. The concept of using capital letters is absent in the Bengali script, hence proper names areunmarked.

Characteristics of the Bengali text

An example of handwritten Bengali script. Part of apoem written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath

Tagore in 1926 in Hungary.

Direction

Bengali text is written and read horizontally, from left to right.

Size

The consonant graphemes and the full form of vowel graphemes fitinto an imaginary rectangle of uniform size (i.e. uniform width andheight). The size of a consonant conjunct, regardless of itscomplexity, is deliberately maintained the same as that of a singleconsonant grapheme, so that diacritic vowel forms can be attachedto it without any distortion.

Spacing

In a typical Bengali text, orthographic words, i.e., words as they arewritten, can be seen as being separated from each other by an evenspacing. Graphemes within a word are also evenly spaced, but thisspacing is much narrower than the spacing between words.

Punctuation marks

As discussed earlier, the Bengali punctuation marks are often thesame as their English counterparts, both in form and function.

Characteristics of the orthographic word

In every Bengali orthographic word, one can find different kinds ofgraphemes and their combinations, and they are as follows: Independent form of vowel graphemes, which can be found at the beginning of a word or after another vowel

sound.

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Bengali alphabet 11

Consonant graphemes (or consonant conjuncts) with no diacritic vowel form attached to them. An inherent vowel(either // or /o/, depending on context) is nevertheless assumed to be attached to them.

Consonant graphemes (or consonant conjuncts) with a diacritic vowel form attached to them. Other modifier symbols indicating nasalization of vowels, suppression of the inherent vowel, etc.

The "matra"The matra or the horizontal headstroke on each grapheme usually add up and often form a continuous singleheadstroke over the entire orthographic word, with different graphemes hanging down from it. This gives Bengalitext a distinct look. Among other modern Indic scripts, Devanagari also has this characteristic, as does the Gurmukhialphabet used to write Punjabi.

InconsistenciesThe following inconsistencies are inherent in the Bengali script and orthography. They often put additional burdenon the person learning the script. The inconsistencies manifest themselves in various ways. Sometimes there aremultiple different letters or symbols for the same sound (over-production). Sometimes a letter loses its original soundvalue. In other instances, the coverage of phonological information by the script is incomplete, inconsistent and/orambiguous. Most of these inconsistencies can be attributed to the fact that the script was originally conceived torepresent Sanskrit sounds.

Redundant graphemes for the vowel sounds [i] and [u]The Bengali script has two symbols for the vowel sound [i] and two symbols for the vowel sound [u]. Thisredundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short [i] and along [i], and a short [u] and a long [u]. These letters are preserved in the Bengali script with their traditional namesof hrshsho i/u (lit. "short i/u") and dirgho i/u (lit. "long i/u") despite the fact that they are no longer pronounceddifferently in ordinary speech. These graphemes do serve an etymological function, however, in preserving theoriginal Sanskrit spelling in ttshomo Bengali words (i.e., words that were borrowed from Sanskrit).

The vowel grapheme riThe grapheme called ri does not really represent a vowel phoneme in Bengali, rather the consonant-vowelcombination /ri/. Nevertheless, it is included in the vowel section of the inventory of the Bengali script. Thisinconsistency is also a remnant from Sanskrit, where the grapheme represents a retroflex approximant, a soundconsidered a vowel in Sanskrit.

The vowel sound []Even though the near-open front unrounded vowel [] is one of the seven main vowel sounds in the standard Bengalilanguage, no distinct vowel symbol has been allotted for it in the script, since there is no [] sound in Sanskrit, theprimary written language when the script was conceived. As a result, this sound is orthographically realized bymultiple means in modern Bengali orthography, usually using some combination of , , and the jfla(diacritic form of the consonant grapheme ntostho j) as seen in the following examples: word-initially: [to] "so much", [kademi] "academy", [miba] "amoeba" word-medially and following a consonant: [dkha] "to see", [bsto] "busy", [bkron]

"grammar".

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Devanagarihttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gurmukhi_alphabethttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gurmukhi_alphabethttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Punjabi_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sanskrithttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroflex_approximanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Near-open_front_unrounded_vowel

Bengali alphabet 12

and In native or tdbhbo Bengali words, syllable-final t is pronounced /t/, as in /natni/ "grand daughter", /krat/ "saw", etc. (called - khno t "broken t") is always used syllable-finally and always pronounced as /t/. It ispredominantly found in loan words from Sanskrit such as /bobit/ "future", /otodit/ "Satyajit(a proper name)", etc. It is also found in some onomatopoeic words (such as /topat/ "sound of somethingheavy that fell", /mat/ "sound of something breaking", etc.), as the first member of some consonantconjuncts (such as ts, tp, tk, etc.), and in some foreign loanwords (e.g. /natsi/ "Nazi", /dudutsu/ "Jujitsu", etc.) which contain the same conjuncts.This is an over-production inconsistency, where the sound /t/ is realized by both and . This creates confusionamong inexperienced writers of Bengali. There is no simple way of telling which symbol should be used. Usually,the contexts where is used need to be memorized, as these are less frequent.

, and Three graphemes talobbo sh "palatal s", murdhonno sh "cerebral s", and donto sh "dental s"are usedto represent the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative [], as seen in their word-final pronunciations in [pipi]"whisper", [bi] "twenty" and [bi] "poison". The grapheme donto sh "dental s", however, does retain thevoiceless alveolar fricative [s] sound when used as the first component in certain consonant conjuncts as in [sklon] "fall", [spndon] "beat", etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voiceless_palato-alveolar_fricativehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voiceless_alveolar_fricative

Bengali alphabet 13

and There are two letters ( and ) for the voiced postalveolar affricate [d]. Compare [dal] "net" and [dao]"Go!".

What was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal [] is now pronounced as an alveolar [n] (unlessconjoined with another retroflex consonant such as , , and ), although the spelling does not reflect this change.

Comparison

RomanizationThe romanization of Bengali is the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script. While differentstandards for romanization have been proposed for Bengali, these have not been adopted with the degree ofuniformity seen in languages such as Japanese or Sanskrit.[5] Most standardized Bengali romanizations are adaptedfrom standards proposed for Indic languages, and these models are compared below.

HistoryThe Portuguese missionaries stationed in Bengal in the 16th century were the first people to employ the Latin alphabet in writing Bengali books, the most famous of which are the Crepar Xaxtrer Orth, Bhed and the Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes, both written by Manuel da Assumpo. But the Portuguese-based romanization did not take root. In the late 18th century Augustin Aussant used a romanization scheme based on the French alphabet. At the same time, Nathaniel Brassey Halhed used a romanization scheme based on English for his Bengali grammar book. After Halhed, the renowned English philologist and oriental scholar Sir William Jones devised a romanization scheme for Bengali and for Indian languages in general, and published it

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voiced_postalveolar_affricatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroflex_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oriya_VowelComp.gifhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oriya_ConsComp.gifhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oriya_MatraComp.gifhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Latin_scripthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Japanese_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sanskrit_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Latin_alphabethttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Latin_alphabethttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manuel_da_Assump%C3%A7%C3%A3ohttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nathaniel_Brassey_Halhedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sir_William_Jones

Bengali alphabet 14

in the Asiatick Researches journal in 1801.[6] This scheme came to be known as the "Jonesian System" ofromanization, and served as a model for the next century and a half.

Transliteration vs transcriptionThe Romanization of a language written in a non-Roman script can be based on transliteration (orthographicallyaccurate, i.e. the original spelling can be recovered) or transcription (phonetically accurate, i.e. the pronunciation canbe reproduced). This distinction is important in Bengali as its orthography was adopted from Sanskrit, and ignoressound change processes of several millennia. To some degree, all writing systems differ from the way the languageis pronounced, but this may be more extreme for languages like Bengali. For example, the three letters , , and had distinct pronunciations in Sanskrit, but over several centuries, the standard pronunciation of Bengali (usuallymodeled on the Nadia dialect), has lost these phonetic distinctions (all three are usually pronounced as IPA []) whilethe spelling distinction nevertheless persists in orthography.In written texts, it is easy to distinguish between homophones such as shap "curse" and shap "snake". Sucha distinction could be particularly relevant in searching for the term in an encyclopedia, for example. However, thefact that the words sound identical means that they would be transcribed identically; thus, some important meaningdistinctions cannot be rendered in a transcription model. Another issue with transcription systems is thatcross-dialectal and cross-register differences are widespread, and thus the same word or lexeme may have manydifferent transcriptions. Even simple words like "mind" may be pronounced "mon", "mn", or (in poetry) "mn"(e.g. the Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana).Often, different phonemes (meaningfully different sounds) are represented by the same symbol or grapheme. Thus,the vowel can represent both [e] ( elo [elo] "came"), or [] ( k [k] "one"). Occasionally, words written inthe same way (homographs) may have different pronunciations for differing meanings: can mean "opinion"(pronounced mt), or "similar to" (mto). Thus, some important phonemic distinctions cannot be rendered in atransliteration model. In addition, when representing a Bengali word to allow speakers of other languages topronounce it easily, it may be better to use a transcription, which does not include the silent letters and otheridiosyncrasies (e.g. shastho, spelled , or ggn, spelled ) that make Bengaliorthography so complicated.

Comparison of romanizationsComparisons of standard romanization schemes for Bengali are given in the table below. Two standards arecommonly used for transliteration of Indic languages including Bengali. Many standards (e.g. NLK / ISO), usediacritic marks and permit case markings for proper nouns. Newer forms (e.g. Harvard-Kyoto) are more suited forASCII-derivative keyboards, and use upper- and lower-case letters contrastively and forgo normal standards forEnglish capitalization. "NLK" stands for the diacritic-based letter-to-letter transliteration schemes, best represented by the National

Library at Kolkata romanization or the ISO 15919, or IAST. This is the ISO standard, and it uses diacritic marks(e.g. ) to reflect the additional characters and sounds of Bengali letters.

ITRANS is an ASCII representation for Sanskrit; it is one-to-many, i.e. there may be more than one way oftransliterating characters, which can make internet searching more complicated. ITRANS representations forgocapitalization norms of English so as to be able to represent the characters using a normal ASCII keyboard.

"HK" stands for two other case-sensitive letter-to-letter transliteration schemes: Harvard-Kyoto and XIAST [7]

scheme. These are similar to the ITRANS scheme, and use only one form for each character. XHK or Extended Harvard-Kyoto (XHK [8]) stands for the case-sensitive letter-to-letter Extended Harvard-Kyoto

transliteration. This adds some specific characters for handling Bengali text to IAST.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transliterationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orthographyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transcription_%28linguistics%29https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sound_changehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nadia_districthttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Register_%28sociolinguistics%29https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lexemehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jana_Gana_Manahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phonemeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graphemehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homographhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ASCIIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Library_at_Kolkata_romanizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Library_at_Kolkata_romanizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ISO_15919https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IASThttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITRANShttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ASCIIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvard-Kyotohttp://wiki.gaudiyakutir.com/XIASThttp://wiki.gaudiyakutir.com/XHKhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvard-Kyoto

Bengali alphabet 15

"Wiki" stands for a phonemic transcription-based romanization. It is a sound-preserving transcription based onwhat is perceived to be the standard pronunciation of the Bengali words, with no reference to how it is written inBengali script. It uses diacritics often used by linguists specializing in Bengali (other than IPA), and is thetranscription system used to represent Bengali sounds in Wikipedia articles.

ExamplesThe following table includes examples of Bengali words Romanized using the various systems mentioned above.

Example words

In orthography Meaning NLK XHK [8] ITRANS HK Wiki IPA

mind mana mana mana mana mon [mon]

snake spa sApa saapa sApa shap [ap]

curse pa zApa shaapa zApa shap [ap]

opinion mata mata mata mata mt [mt]

like mata mata mata mata mto [mto]

oil tla tela tela tela tel [tel]

went gla gela gela gela glo [lo]

fever jvara jvara jvara jvara jr [dr]

health svsthya svAsthya svaasthya svAsthya shastho [asto]

Bangladesh blda bAMlAdeza baa.mlaadesha bAMlAdeza Bangladesh [balade]

consonant byajanadhvani byaJjanadhvani bya~njanadhvani byaJjanadhvani bnjondhoni [bndondoni]

suicide tmahaty AtmahatyA aatmahatyaa AtmahatyA atthotta [athota]

Romanization referenceThe IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription is provided in the rightmost column, representing the mostcommon pronunciation of the glyph in Standard Colloquial Bengali, alongside the various romanizations describedabove.

Vowels

Symbol NLK XHK [8] ITRANS HK Wiki IPA

a a a a /o []/[o]

A~aa A a [a]

i i i i i [i]

I~ii I i [i]

u u u u u [u]

U~uu U u [u]

RRi~R^i R ri [ri]

e e e /e []/[e]

ai ai ai ai oi [oj]

o o o o [o]

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phonemic_orthographyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_Phonetic_Alphabethttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Library_at_Kolkata_romanizationhttp://wiki.gaudiyakutir.com/XHKhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITRANShttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvard-Kyotohttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IPAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IPAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Library_at_Kolkata_romanizationhttp://wiki.gaudiyakutir.com/XHKhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITRANShttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvard-Kyotohttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IPA

Bengali alphabet 16

au au au au ou [ow]

Consonants

Symbol NLK XHK [8] ITRANS HK Wiki IPA

k k k k k [k]

kh kh kh kh kh [k]

g g g g g []

gh gh gh gh gh []

~N G ng []

c c ch c ch [t]

ch ch Ch ch chh [t]

j j j j j [d]

jh jh jh jh jh [d]

~n J n [n]

T T []

h h Th Th h []

D D []

.D P []

h h Dh Dh h []

h h .Dh Ph []

N N n [n]

t t t t t [t]

th th th th th [t]

d d d d d [d]

dh dh dh dh dh [d]

n n n n n [n]

p p p p p [p]

ph ph ph ph ph [p]

b b b b b [b]

bh bh bh bh bh [b]

m m m m m [m]

y y y j [d]

y Y Y e/- [e]/

r r r r r [r]

l l l l l [l]

sh z sh/s []/[s]

Sh S sh []

s s s s sh/s []/[s]

h h h h h []

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Bengali alphabet 17

Miscellaneous

Symbol NLK XHK [8] ITRANS HK Wiki IPA

H H varies varies

.m M ng []

.N ~ ~ [~] (nasalization)

y y y y varies varies

v v v v varies varies

k k x kS kkh/kh [k]/[k]

j j GY jJ gg/g []/[]

r r shr zr sr [sr]

UnicodeBengali script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.The Unicode block for Bengali is U+0980 ... U+09FF:

Bengali[1]

Unicode.org chart [2] (PDF)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E FU+098x U+099x U+09Ax U+09Bx U+09Cx U+09Dx U+09Ex U+09Fx

Notes1.^ As of Unicode version 6.3

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Bengali alphabet 18

Bengali keyboard layouts

Avro Phonetic KeyboardThis keyboard is an integral part of an open source initiative, Avro Keyboard, by Omicron Lab

Bijoy keyboard layoutThe Bijoy keyboard layout was commercialized by Mostafa Jabbar as part of the Bengali software package BijoyEkushe.

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Bengali alphabet 19

Inscript keyboard layout

The InScript keyboard layout was designed by the Indian government to standardize the inputting of Indic scripts.

Probhat keyboard layoutPeople used to typing Romanized forms of Bengali will find it easier to use a more phonetic layout such as theProbhat layout shown below, which is one of several Bengali input methods available.

Grapheme frequencyAccording to Bengali linguist Munier Chowdhury, the following 9 graphemes are the most frequent in Bengalitexts:[9]

Grapheme Percentage

11.32

8.96

7.01

6.63

4.44

4.15

4.14

3.83

2.78

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Bengali alphabet 20

Collating sequenceThere is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries,indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both India and Bangladesh are currentlyworking towards a common solution for this problem.

Sample texts

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human RightsBengali in Bengali alphabet

: ;

Bengali in Romanization

Dhara k: Shmosto manush shadhinbhabe shman mrjada ebong odhikar nie jnmogrohon kre. Tderbibek ebong buddhi achhe; shutorang shkoleri ke porer proti bhrattrittoshulbh monobhab nie achoron krauchit.

Bengali in IPA

dara k mosto manu adinbabe man mrdada ebo odikar nie dnmorohon kre. tder bibek ebobudi ate; utora koleri ke porer proti bratritoulb monobab nie atoron kra utit.

Gloss

Clause 1: All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken birth-take do. Their reason and intelligenceexist; therefore everyone-indeed one another's towards brotherhood-ly attitude taken conduct do should.

Translation

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason andconscience. Therefore, they should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Amar Shonar BanglaThe following is a sample text of script, from the song Amar Shonar Bangla ( ) written byRabindranath Tagore ( Robindronath hakur). The song was later adopted as the National anthemof Bangladesh.

Bangla (Bengali) script Romanization Literal translation

, - ,

Ma, tor mukher baniAmar kane lageSudhar mto-Ma tor bdonkhani molinholeami nyono may ami nyonjle bhashishonar bangla,ami tomay bhalobashi!

Oh mother mine, words from yourlipsAre like nectar to my ears.Ah, what a thrill!If sadness, O mother mine,Casts a gloom on your face,My eyes are filled with tears!My Bengal of Gold,I love you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collating_sequencehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanization_of_Bengalihttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IPAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amar_Shonar_Banglahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabindranath_Tagorehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_anthemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bangladeshhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_script

Bengali alphabet 21

Jana Gana ManaThe following is a sample text of script, from the song Jana Gana Mana ( Jno Gno Mono). Theselection is a Bengali song, written in Shadhubhasha () style. The song was later adopted as the nationalanthem of India. It was written by Rabindranath Tagore ( Robindronath hakur) who isacknowledgedWikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Unsupported attributions as the single most important anddefining figure of Bengali literature.

- ! , , ! , , , ,

In Romanization:

Jnognomono-odhinaeoko je he Bharotobhaggobidhata!Pnjabo Shindhu Gujorao Mraha Drabio Utklo Bnggo,Bindho Himachlo Jomuna Gngga Uchchhlojlodhitoronggo,Tbo shubho name jage, tbo shubho ashish mage,Gahe tbo jeogatha.Jnognomonggolodaeoko je he Bharotobhaggobidhata!Jeo he, jeo he, jeo he, jeo jeo jeo, jeo he!

Footnotes and references[1] Ancient Scripts (http:/ / www. ancientscripts. com/ bengali. html)[2] http:/ / www. unicode. org/ charts/ PDF/ U0980. pdf[3][3] Different Bengali linguists give different numbers of Bengali diphthongs in their works depending on methodology, e.g. 25 (Chatterji 1939:

40), 31 (Hai 1964), 45 (Ashraf and Ashraf 1966: 49), 28 (Kostic and Das 1972:6-7) and 17 (Sarkar 1987).[4] The natural pronunciation of the grapheme , whether in its independent (visible) form or in its "inherent" (invisible) form in a consonant

grapheme, is . But its pronunciation changes to in the following contexts:

is in the first syllable and there is a or in the next syllable, as in oti "much" , bolcchi "(I am) speaking" if the is the inherent vowel in a word-initial consonant cluster ending in rfla "r ending" , as in prothom "first" if the next consonant cluster contains a jfla "j ending", as in onno "other" , jonno "for"

[5] In Japanese there exists some debate as to whether to accent certain distinctions, such as Thoku vs Tohoku. Sanskrit is well standardized,because the speaking community is relatively small, and sound change is not a large concern

[6][6] Jones 1801[7] http:/ / wiki. gaudiyakutir. com/ XIAST[8] http:/ / wiki. gaudiyakutir. com/ XHK[9][9] See Chowdhury 1963

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jana_Gana_Manahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bengali_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_anthemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_anthemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabindranath_Tagorehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributionshttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanization_of_Bengalihttp://www.ancientscripts.com/bengali.htmlhttp://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0980.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sound_changehttp://wiki.gaudiyakutir.com/XIASThttp://wiki.gaudiyakutir.com/XHK

Bengali alphabet 22

Bibliography Ashraf, Syed Ali; Ashraf, Asia (1966), "Bengali Diphthongs", in Dil A. S., Shahidullah Presentation Volume,

Lahore: Linguistic Research Group of Pakistan, pp.4752 Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1939), Vasha-prakash Bangala Vyakaran (A Grammar of the Bengali Language),

Calcutta: University of Calcutta Chowdhury, Munier (1963), "Shahitto, shnkhattto o bhashattto (Literature, statistics and linguistics)", Bangla

Academy Potrika (Dhaka) 6 (4): 6576 Kostic, Djordje; Das, Rhea S. (1972), A Short Outline of Bengali Phonetics, Calcutta: Statistical Publishing

Company Hai, Muhammad Abdul (1964), Dhvani Vijnan O Bangla Dhvani-tattwa (Phonetics and Bengali Phonology),

Dhaka: Bangla Academy Jones, William (1801), "Orthography of Asiatick Words in Roman Letters" (http:/ / www-personal. umich. edu/

~shashir/ dl/ jonessystem. pdf), Asiatick Researches (Calcutta: Asiatick Society) Sarkar, Pabitra (1987), "Bangla Dishrodhoni (Bengali Diphthongs)", Bhasha (Calcutta) 45: 1012

External links Omniglot Bengali Alphabet (http:/ / www. omniglot. com/ writing/ bengali. htm)digital encoding and rendering Free Unicode Compliant Bangla Typing Software (http:/ / www. omicronlab. com/ avro-keyboard. html) Ekushey Free Unicode Bangla Computing Solutions (http:/ / www. ekushey. org) Free Bangla Unicode Fonts (http:/ / www. nongnu. org/ freebangfont/ ) Ankur Supporting Bangla (Bengali) on GNU/Linux (http:/ / www. bengalinux. org/ ) Open source Bangla Transliteration Library (http:/ / sourceforge. net/ projects/ openbangsee/ )

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Suniti_Kumar_Chatterjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Munier_Chowdhuryhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~shashir/dl/jonessystem.pdfhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~shashir/dl/jonessystem.pdfhttp://www.omniglot.com/writing/bengali.htmhttp://www.omicronlab.com/avro-keyboard.htmlhttp://www.ekushey.orghttp://www.nongnu.org/freebangfont/http://www.bengalinux.org/http://sourceforge.net/projects/openbangsee/

Article Sources and Contributors 23

Article Sources and ContributorsBengali alphabet Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=580348119 Contributors: AA, Acsenray, Aeusoes1, Ahoerstemeier, AjaxSmack, Akut, Andrewman327, Anirvan, AnkonRay, Anubhab91, Armanaziz, BD2412, Badal.dixit, BernardM, BirBikrom, Blogsd, Brishchik, Cacophony, Chaipau, Chandan Guha, Charles Matthews, Chekaz, CommonsDelinker, D.Borah,David Kernow, Dbachmann, Dcljr, DopefishJustin, DrDaveHPP, Drmccreedy, Dwaipayanc, Einrud, Emperorbma, Enzino, Erik9, Evertype, Evolve75, Foobaz, Fratrep, Furkhaocean, GSMR,Gemini1980, Gimboid13, Grover cleveland, Grubbiv, Hippietrail, Hongooi, Iancaddy, Ichwan Palongengi, Imz, Indexheavy, JBDVI, JamesAM, Jdas75, Jfmantis, Joost, Joseph Solis in Australia,Kasradaneshvar, Keithbob, Khossain, Kiwibird, Kmonsoor, Kmzayeem, Koavf, Kurmaa, Kwamikagami, Largoplazo, Leewonbum, LordSimonofShropshire, Mahmudmasri, Mammalia,ManasShaikh, Manosij.m, Mark R Johnson, Maximaximax, Maximillion Pegasus, Medhatmz, Mhss, Mike Storm, Mild Bill Hiccup, Mimihitam, Monedula, Morwen, Moswento, Mutichou,Nafsadh, Nanib, Nauticashades, NickPenguin, Omiazad, Omicronlab, Omnipaedista, Philip Trueman, Pizzadeliveryboy, Pjacobi, Qrc2006, Ragib, Rahman.khan.john, Raiyan.kabir, RaviC,Rayizmi, Rex86, Rich Farmbrough, Risi, Rjwilmsi, Rupnarayandas, Ruptan, Rushyo, SameerKhan, SankarshanMukhopadhyay, Sanshlistha m, Sarayuparin, Sardanaphalus, Shovon76, Snoyes,Sukh, Tarikur, TheAMmollusc, TheParanoidOne, Thnidu, Titodutta, Trinanjon, Tristanb, Urnonav, Usingha, Vanisaac, Verdy p, Wavelength, Wikitanvir, Woohookitty, Xalan mustafa,Yorke.aaron, Zaheen, Zerokitsune, Zundark, , , 225 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Bengali script.png Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bengali_script.png License: Public Domain Contributors: TrinanjonFile:Rabindranath Tagore Signature.svg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rabindranath_Tagore_Signature.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:ConnormahFile:Bengali Vowel Signs.png Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bengali_Vowel_Signs.png License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors:User:TrinanjonFile:Bengali conjunct ndr.png Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bengali_conjunct_ndr.png License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0Contributors: MutichouFile:Bangla consonant conjuncts.svg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bangla_consonant_conjuncts.svg License: Creative Commons Zero Contributors: Roland zh,WikitanvirFile:Tagore handwriting Bengali.jpg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Tagore_handwriting_Bengali.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Rabindranath TagoreFile:Oriya VowelComp.gif Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oriya_VowelComp.gif License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: OldKnipFile:Oriya ConsComp.gif Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oriya_ConsComp.gif License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: OldKnip, TrinanjonFile:Oriya MatraComp.gif Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oriya_MatraComp.gif License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: OldKnipFile:Avro Phonetic Keyboard Layout.png Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Avro_Phonetic_Keyboard_Layout.png License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike3.0 Contributors: User:KmonsoorFile:Bijoy Keyboard image.jpg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bijoy_Keyboard_image.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: TrinanjonFile:Inscript Bengali.svg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Inscript_Bengali.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Jayanta NathFile:KB-Bengali-Probhat.svg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:KB-Bengali-Probhat.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Brishchik(Abhijit Dasgupta)

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Bengali alphabetHistoryStandardizationDescription of Bengali glyphsVowelsConsonantsConsonant conjunctsFused formsApproximated formsCompressed formsAbbreviated formsVariant formsExceptionsExceptional consonant-vowel combinations

Modifiers and othersDigits and numeralsThe matraPunctuation marks

Characteristics of the Bengali textDirectionSizeSpacingPunctuation marksCharacteristics of the orthographic wordThe "matra"

InconsistenciesRedundant graphemes for the vowel sounds [i] and [u]The vowel grapheme riThe vowel sound []4 and ^F, G and H, and ?3

ComparisonRomanizationHistoryTransliteration vs transcriptionComparison of romanizationsExamplesRomanization reference

UnicodeBengali keyboard layouts Avro Phonetic KeyboardBijoy keyboard layout Inscript keyboard layout Probhat keyboard layout

Grapheme frequencyCollating sequenceSample textsArticle 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human RightsAmar Shonar Bangla Jana Gana Mana

Footnotes and referencesBibliographyExternal links

License