Bengali alphabet explained

Also Known As:Bengali: {{Script|Beng|বাংলা বর্ণমালা বা লিপি
Official Script: for Bengali language and Meitei language[1] [2]
Languages: Bengali, Sanskrit, Kokborok, Kudmali, Hajong, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Meitei
Region:Bengal
Time:11th century to the present[3]
Fam1:Egyptian
Fam2:Proto-Sinaitic
Fam3:Phoenician
Fam4:Aramaic
Fam5:Brahmi script
Fam6:Gupta script
Fam7:Siddham
Fam8:Gaudi script[4]
Sisters:Assamese and Tirhuta
Sample:Bengali Alphabet - বাংলা বর্ণমালা.svg
Imagestyle:background-color: white !important;
Unicode:U+0980–U+09FF
Iso15924:Beng

The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet (Bengali: বাংলা বর্ণমালা|Bangla bôrṇômala, Manipuri: {{Script|Beng|বেঙ্গলি ময়েক) is the alphabet used to write the Bengali language based on the Bengali-Assamese script, and has historically been used to write Sanskrit within Bengal. It is one of the most widely adopted writing systems in the world (used by over 265 million people).[5] It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. It is used as the official script of the Bengali language in Bangladesh, West Bengal, Tripura and Barak valley of Assam Until recently, it was the usual script for the Meitei language in Manipur, but is being replaced by Meitei mayek.[6] two of the official languages of India.[7] [8]

From a classificatory point of view, the Bengali writing system is an abugida, i.e. its vowel graphemes are mainly realised not as independent letters, but as diacritics modifying the vowel inherent in the base letter they are added to. It is written from left to right and uses a single letter case, which makes it a unicameral script, as opposed to a bicameral one like the Latin script. It is recognisable, as are some other Brahmic scripts, by a distinctive horizontal line known as a mātrā (Bengali: মাত্রা) running along the tops of the letters that links them together. The Bengali writing system is less blocky, however, and presents a more sinuous shape than the Devanagari script.[9]

Characters

The Bengali script can be divided into vowels and vowel diacritics, consonants and Conjunct consonants, diacritical and other symbols, digits and punctuation marks. Vowels and consonants are used as letters and also as diacritical marks.

Vowels

The Bengali script has a total of 11 vowel graphemes, each of which is called a Bengali: স্বরবর্ণ swôrôbôrnô "vowel letter". The swôrôbôrnôs represent six of the seven main vowel sounds of Bengali, along with two vowel diphthongs. All of them are used in both Bengali and Assamese languages.

The table below shows the vowels present in the modern (since the late nineteenth century) inventory of the Bengali alphabet:

+ Bengali vowels
(Bengali: স্বরবর্ণ sbôrôbôrnô)
Bengali: হ্রস্ব (short)Bengali: দীর্ঘ (long)
Bengali: স্বর
(vowel phoneme)
Bengali: কার
(vowel mark)
Bengali: স্বর
(vowel phoneme)
Bengali: কার
(vowel mark)
কন্ঠ্য
(Guttural)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link///
-
pronounced as /link/
তালব্য
(Palatal)

pronounced as /link/
ি
pronounced as /link/
ওষ্ঠ্য
(Labial)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link///

pronounced as /link/
মূর্ধন্য
(Retroflex)

pronounced as //ri//
দন্ত্য
(Dental)

pronounced as //li//
Bengali: যুক্তস্বর (complex vowels)
কন্ঠ্যতালব্য
(Palatoguttural)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link///

pronounced as //oi//
কন্ঠৌষ্ঠ্য
(Labioguttural)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link///

pronounced as //ou//

Notes

Consonants

Consonant letters are called Bengali: ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ bænjônbôrnô "consonant letter" in Bengali. The names of the letters are typically just the consonant sound plus the inherent vowel Bengali: ô. Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written, most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (the name of the letter Bengali: is itself ghô, not gh).

Bengali consonants
(Bengali: ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ)
Bengali: স্পর্শ
(Stop)
Bengali: অনুনাসিক
(Nasal)
Bengali: অন্তঃস্থ
(Approximant)
Bengali: ঊষ্ম
(Fricative)
Bengali: বর্গীয় বর্ণ (Generic sounds)
VoicingBengali: অঘোষ (Voiceless)Bengali: ঘোষ (Voiced)Bengali: অঘোষ (Voiceless)Bengali: ঘোষ (Voiced)
AspirationBengali: অল্পপ্রাণ (Unaspirated)Bengali: মহাপ্রাণ (Aspirated)Bengali: অল্পপ্রাণ (Unaspirated)Bengali: মহাপ্রাণ (Aspirated)Bengali: অল্পপ্রাণ (Unaspirated)Bengali: মহাপ্রাণ (Aspirated)
কন্ঠ্য
(Guttural)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//
তালব্য
(Palatal)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /tʃʰ/ɔ~pronounced as /tsʰ/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /dʒʱ/ɔ~pronounced as /dzʱ/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//
মূর্ধন্য
(Retroflex)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /ʈʰ/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /ɖʱ/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /r/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//
দন্ত্য
(Dental)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /t̪ʰ/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /d̪ʱ/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//
ওষ্ঠ্য
(Labial)

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /pʰ/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /bʱ/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//

pronounced as //pronounced as /w/ɔ//
Post-reform lettersড়
pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ//
ঢ়
pronounced as //pronounced as /ɽʱ/ɔ~pronounced as /link///
য়
pronounced as //pronounced as /link/ɔ~pronounced as /link/ɔ//

Notes

Consonant conjuncts

See main article: Bengali consonant clusters.

Clusters of up to four consonants can be orthographically represented as a typographic ligature called a consonant conjunct (Bengali: যুক্তাক্ষর/যুক্তবর্ণ juktakkhôr/juktôbôrnô or more specifically Bengali: যুক্তব্যঞ্জন). Typically, the first consonant in the conjunct is shown above and/or to the left of the following consonants. Many consonants appear in an abbreviated or compressed form when serving as part of a conjunct. Others simply take exceptional forms in conjuncts, bearing little or no resemblance to the base character.

Often, consonant conjuncts are not actually pronounced as would be implied by the pronunciation of the individual components. For example, adding Bengali: underneath Bengali: shô in Bengali creates the conjunct Bengali: শ্ল, which is not pronounced shlô but slô in Bengali. Many conjuncts represent Sanskrit sounds that were lost centuries before modern Bengali was ever spoken as in Bengali: জ্ঞ. It is a combination of Bengali: ǰô and Bengali: ñô but it is not pronounced "ǰñô" or "jnô". Instead, it is pronounced ggô in modern Bengali. Thus, as conjuncts often represent (combinations of) sounds that cannot be easily understood from the components, the following descriptions are concerned only with the construction of the conjunct, and not the resulting pronunciation.

(Some graphemes may appear in a form other than the mentioned form due to the font used)

Fused forms

Some consonants fuse in such a way that one stroke of the first consonant also serves as a stroke of the next.

Approximated forms

Some consonants are written closer to one another simply to indicate that they are in a conjunct together.

Compressed forms

Some consonants are compressed (and often simplified) when appearing as the first member of a conjunct.

Abbreviated forms

Some consonants are abbreviated when appearing in conjuncts and lose part of their basic shape.

Variant forms

Some consonants have forms that are used regularly but only within conjuncts.

Exceptions

Certain compounds

When serving as a vowel mark, উ u, ঊ u, and ঋ ri take on many exceptional forms.

Diacritics and other symbols

These are mainly the Brahmi-Sanskrit diacritics, phones and punctuation marks present in languages with Sanskrit influence or Brahmi-derived scripts.

+ Bengali: সংশোধক বর্ণ
Symbol/
Graphemes
Name Function IPA
transcription
[13] Bengali: খণ্ড ত
khôndô tô
Special character. Final unaspirated dental pronounced as /[t̪]/ t pronounced as //t̪//
Bengali: [14] Bengali: অনুস্বার
ônusshar
Diacritic. Final velar nasal pronounced as /[ŋ]/ ng pronounced as //ŋ//
Bengali: Bengali: বিসর্গ
bishôrgô
Diacritic.
1. Doubles the next consonant sound without the vowel (spelling feature) in Bengali: দুঃখ dukkhô, the k of Bengali: khô was repeated before the whole Bengali: khô
2. "h" sound at end, examples: Bengali: এঃ eh!, Bengali: উঃ uh

3. Silent in spellings like Bengali: আন্তঃনগর
āntônôgôr meaning "Inter-city"
4. Also used as abbreviation, as in Bengali: কিঃমিঃ (similar to "km" in English), for the word Bengali: '''কি'''লো'''মি'''টার|bold=unset "kilometer", or Bengali: ডাঃ (similar to "Dr" in English) for Bengali: '''ডা'''ক্তার|bold=unset
dāktār "doctor".But now using বিসর্গ bishôrgô for making abbreviations is considered grammatically wrong and now dot is used for making abbreviations (as in কি.মি. for the word কিলোমিটার " kilometer", or ডা. for ডাক্তার dāktār "doctor" which are respectively similar to "km" and "Dr" in English) is grammatically correct.[15] [16]
h pronounced as //ḥ//
Bengali: ‍ঁBengali: চন্দ্রবিন্দু
chôndrôbindu
◌̃ / ṃ pronounced as //◌̃//
Bengali: ‍্Bengali: হসন্ত
hôshôntô
Diacritic. Suppresses the inherent vowel pronounced as /[ɔ]/ (ô)
Bengali: ‍ঽBengali: অবগ্রহ
ôbôgrôhô
Special character or sign. Used for prolonging vowel sounds
Example1: Bengali: শোনঽঽঽ shônôôôô meaning "listennnn..." (listen), this is where the default inherited vowel sound ô in Bengali: is prolonged.
Example2: Bengali: কিঽঽঽ? kiiii? meaning "Whatttt...?" (What?), this is where the vowel sound i which is attached with the consonant Bengali: is prolonged.
-
Bengali: ‍্য Bengali: যফলা
jôphôla
Diacritic. Used with two types of pronunciation in modern Bengali depending on the location of the consonant it is used with within a syllable
Example 1 - When the consonant it is used with is syllable-initial, it acts as the vowel pronounced as //æ//: Bengali: ত্যাগ is pronounced pronounced as //t̪æɡ//
Example 2 - When the consonant it is used with is syllable-final, it doubles the consonant: Bengali: মুখ্য is pronounced pronounced as //mukʰːɔ//
Notably used in transliterating English words with pronounced as //æ// sounding vowels, e.g. Bengali: ব্ল্যাক "black" and sometimes as a diacritic to indicate non-Bengali vowels of various kinds in transliterated foreign words, e.g. the schwa indicated by a jôphôla, the French u, and the German umlaut ü as Bengali: উ্য uyô, the German umlaut ö as Bengali: ও্য oyô or Bengali: এ্য eyô
ê / yô pronounced as //æ// or pronounced as //ː//
Bengali: ‍‍্র Bengali: রফলা
rôphôla
Diacritic. pronounced as /[r]/ pronounced following a consonant phoneme. r pronounced as //r//
Bengali: ‍‍র্ক Bengali: রেফ
ref/reph
Diacritic. pronounced as /[r]/ pronounced preceding a consonant phoneme. r pronounced as //r//
Bengali: ‍্ব Bengali: বফলা
bôphôla
Diacritic. Used in spellings only, if they were adopted from Sanskrit and has two different pronunciations depending on the location of the consonant it is used with
Example 1 - When the consonant it is used with is syllable-initial, it remains silent: Bengali: স্বাধীন is pronounced as pronounced as //ʃad̪ʱin// rather than pronounced as //ʃbad̪ʱin//
Example 2 - When the consonant it is used with is syllable-final, it doubles the consonant: Bengali: বিদ্বান is pronounced pronounced as //bid̪ːan// and Bengali: বিশ্ব is pronounced pronounced as //biʃːɔ//
However, certain Sanskrit sandhis (phonetic fusions) such as 'ঋগ্বেদ', 'দিগ্বিজয়', 'উদ্বেগ', 'উদ্বৃত্ত' are pronounced pronounced as //riɡbed̪//, pronounced as //d̪iɡbidʒɔe̯//, pronounced as //ud̪beɡ//, pronounced as //ud̪brittɔ// respectively while usage with the consonant Bengali: defies phonological rules: 'আহ্বান' and 'জিহ্বা' are properly pronounced pronounced as //aobɦan// and pronounced as //dʒiobɦa// rather than pronounced as //aɦban// and pronounced as //dʒiɦba//, respectively.
Also used in transliterating Islam-related Arabic words
Note: Not all instances of Bengali: bô used as the last member of a conjunct are bôphôla, for example, in the words Bengali: অম্বর ômbôr, Bengali: লম্বা lômba, Bengali: তিব্বত tibbôt, Bengali: বাল্ব balb, etc.
- pronounced as //ː//
Bengali: ‍৺Bengali: ঈশ্বর
ishshôr
Sign. Represents the name of a deity or also written before the name of a deceased person
Bengali: Bengali: আঞ্জী/সিদ্ধিরস্তু
anji /siddhirôstu
Sign. Used at the beginning of texts as an invocation

Notes

Digits and numerals

See main article: Bengali numerals.

The Bengali script has ten numerical digits (graphemes or symbols indicating the numbers from 0 to 9). Bengali numerals have no horizontal headstroke or মাত্রা "matra".

+ Bengali numerals
Hindu-Arabic numerals0123456789
Bengali numerals

Numbers larger than 9 are written in Bengali using a positional base 10 numeral system (the decimal system). A period or dot is used to denote the decimal separator, which separates the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal number. When writing large numbers with many digits, commas are used as delimiters to group digits, indicating the thousand (হাজার hazar), the hundred thousand or lakh (লাখ lakh or লক্ষ lôkkhô), and the ten million or hundred lakh or crore (কোটি koti) units. In other words, leftwards from the decimal separator, the first grouping consists of three digits, and the subsequent groupings always consist of two digits.

For example, the English number 17,557,345 will be written in traditional Bengali as ১,৭৫,৫৭,৩৪৫.

Punctuation marks

Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke দাড়ি dari (।), the Bengali equivalent of a full stop, have been adopted from western scripts and their usage is similar: Commas, semicolons, colons, quotation marks, etc. are the same as in English. Capital letters are absent in the Bengali script so proper names are unmarked.

An apostrophe, known in Bengali as ঊর্ধ্বকমা urdhbôkôma "upper comma", is sometimes used to distinguish between homographs, as in পাটা pata "plank" and পাʼটা pa'ta "the leg". Sometimes, a hyphen is used for the same purpose (as in পা-টা, an alternative of পাʼটা).

Characteristics of the Bengali text

Bengali text is written and read horizontally, from left to right. The consonant graphemes and the full form of vowel graphemes fit into an imaginary rectangle of uniform size (uniform width and height). The size of a consonant conjunct, regardless of its complexity, is deliberately maintained the same as that of a single consonant grapheme, so that diacritic vowel forms can be attached to it without any distortion. In a typical Bengali text, orthographic words, words as they are written, can be seen as being separated from each other by an even spacing. Graphemes within a word are also evenly spaced, but that spacing is much narrower than the spacing between words.

Unlike in western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) for which the letter-forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra. The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example, the letter ত and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra, as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e. The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between the visible matra and an invisible baseline).

Grapheme Percentage
11.32
8.96
7.01
6.63
4.44
4.15
4.14
3.83
2.78

According to Bengali linguist Munier Chowdhury, there are about nine graphemes that are the most frequent in Bengali texts, shown with its percentage of appearance in the adjacent table.[17]

Comparison of Bengali script with ancestral and related scripts

Vowels

āiīuūeaioau
BengaliBengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali:
OdiaOriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya:
DevanagariSanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit:
important; color: black !important;"Siddham

Consonants

kkhgghcchjjhñṭhḍhtthddhnpphbbhmẏ,yrl,ḷwśshkṣ
BengaliBengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: য,য়Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: ওয় (ৱ)Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: Bengali: ক্ষBengali: জ্ঞBengali:
OdiaOriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: ଯ,ୟOriya: Oriya: ଲ,ଳOriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: Oriya: କ୍ଷOriya: ଜ୍ଞ
DevanagariSanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: ल,ळSanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: Sanskrit: क्षSanskrit: ज्ञ
important; color: black !important;"Siddham

Vowel diacritics

kakikukṛkṝkḷkḹkekaikokau
BengaliBengali: Bengali: কাBengali: কিBengali: কীBengali: কুBengali: কূBengali: কৃBengali: কৄBengali: কৢBengali: কৣBengali: কেBengali: কৈBengali: কোBengali: কৌ
OdiaOriya: Oriya: କାOriya: କିOriya: କୀOriya: କୁOriya: କୂOriya: କୃOriya: କୄOriya: କୢOriya: କୣOriya: କେOriya: କୈOriya: କୋOriya: କୌ
DevanagariSanskrit: Sanskrit: काSanskrit: किSanskrit: कीSanskrit: कुSanskrit: कूSanskrit: कृSanskrit: कॄSanskrit: कॢSanskrit: कॣSanskrit: केSanskrit: कैSanskrit: कोSanskrit: कौ

Standardization

In the script, clusters of consonants are represented by different and sometimes quite irregular forms; thus, learning to read is complicated by the sheer size of the full set of letters and letter combinations, numbering about 350. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar introduced punctuation marks in Bengali language and wrote a book named Barnaparichay to standardize Bengali alphabets.While efforts at standardising the alphabet for the Bengali language continue in such notable centres as the Bangla Academy at Dhaka (Bangladesh) and the Pôshchimbônggô Bangla Akademi at Kolkata (West Bengal, India), it is still not quite uniform yet, as many people continue to use various archaic forms of letters, resulting in concurrent forms for the same sounds.

Romanization

See main article: Romanization of Bengali.

Romanization of Bengali is the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script. There are various ways of Romanization systems of Bengali, created in recent years but failed to represent the true Bengali phonetic sound. While different standards for romanisation have been proposed for Bengali, they have not been adopted with the degree of uniformity seen in languages such as Japanese or Sanskrit.[18] The Bengali alphabet has often been included with the group of Brahmic scripts for romanisation in which the true phonetic value of Bengali is never represented. Some of them are the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration or "IAST system"[19] "Indian languages Transliteration" or ITRANS (uses upper case alphabets suited for ASCII keyboards),[20] and the extension of IAST intended for non-Sanskrit languages of the Indian region called the National Library at Kolkata romanisation.[21]

Sample texts

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The first line is the Bengali alphabet; the second a phonetic Romanization, the third IPA.

Unicode

See main article: Bengali (Unicode block). Bengali 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:

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: GAZETTE TITLE: The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021 . manipurgovtpress.nic.in . "Manipuri Language" means Meeteilon written in Meetei Mayek and spoken by the majority of Manipur population: Provided that the concurrent use of Bengali Script and Meetei Mayek shall be allowed in addition to English language, for a period up to 10 (ten) years from the date of commencement of this Act. . 3 February 2023 . 6 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230306014600/http://manipurgovtpress.nic.in/en/details_gazzete/?gazette=658 . live .
  2. Web site: Manipuri language and alphabets . 2023-02-03 . omniglot.com . 27 January 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230127043650/https://omniglot.com/writing/manipuri.htm . live .
  3. Web site: Ancient Scripts . 20 March 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101116142505/http://ancientscripts.com/bengali.html . 16 November 2010 . dead . dmy-all .
  4. Book: Daniels . Peter T. . 2008 . Writing systems of major and minor languages . Kachru . Braj B. . Kachru . Yamuna . Sridhar . S. N. . Languages in South Asia . Cambridge University Press . 285–308 . 978-0-521-78141-1.
  5. Web site: Bengali alphabet . 11 June 2005 . 26 January 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080126070518/http://www.omniglot.com/writing/bengali.htm . live .
  6. Web site: GAZETTE TITLE: The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021 . manipurgovtpress.nic.in . "Manipuri Language" means Meeteilon written in Meetei Mayek and spoken by the majority of Manipur population: Provided that the concurrent use of Bengali Script and Meetei Mayek shall be allowed in addition to English language, for a period up to 10(ten) years from the date of commencement of this Act. . 3 February 2023 . 6 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230306014600/http://manipurgovtpress.nic.in/en/details_gazzete/?gazette=658 . live .
  7. Web site: Bengali alphabet, pronunciation and language . 2023-02-03 . omniglot.com . 27 January 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230127043653/https://omniglot.com/writing/bengali.htm . live .
  8. Web site: Manipuri language and alphabets . 2023-02-03 . omniglot.com . 27 January 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230127043650/https://omniglot.com/writing/manipuri.htm . live .
  9. George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge,
  10. Book: Thompson . Hanne-Ruth . Bengali: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Comprehensive Grammars), 1 . 2020 . Routledge . 978-0415411394 . 23 . 1.
  11. 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).
  12. Book: Mazumdar. Bijaychandra. The history of the Bengali language. 2000. Asian Educational Services. New Delhi. 8120614526. 57. Repr. [d. Ausg.] Calcutta, 1920.. The history of the Bengali language. yet it is to be noted as a fact, that the cerebral letters are not so much cerebral as they are dental in our speech. If we carefully notice our pronunciation of the letters of the 'ট' class we will see that we articulate 'ট' and 'ড,' for example, almost like English T and D without turning up the tip of the tongue much away from the region of the teeth..
  13. ৎ (khôndô tô "part-") is always used syllable-finally and always pronounced as pronounced as //t̪//. It is predominantly found in loan words from Sanskrit such as ভবিষ্যৎ bhôbishyôt "future", সত্যজিৎ sôtyôjit (a proper name), etc. It is also found in some onomatopoeic words (such as থপাৎ thôpat "sound of something heavy that fell", মড়াৎ môrat "sound of something breaking", etc.), as the first member of some consonant conjuncts (such as ৎস tsô, ৎপ tpô, ৎক tkô, etc.), and in some foreign loanwords (e.g. নাৎসি natsi "Nazi", জুজুৎসু jujutsu "Jujutsu", ৎসুনামি tsunami "Tsunami", etc.) which contain the same conjuncts. It is an overproduction inconsistency, as the sound pronounced as //t̪// is realised by both ত and ৎ. This creates confusion among inexperienced writers of Bengali. There is no simple way of telling which symbol should be used. Usually, the contexts where ৎ is used need to be memorised, as they are less frequent. In the native Bengali words, syllable-final ত pronounced as //t̪ɔ// is pronounced pronounced as //t̪//, as in নাতনি pronounced as //nat̪ni// "grand-daughter", করাত pronounced as //kɔrat̪// "saw", etc.
  14. Bengali: -h and Bengali: -ng are also often used as abbreviation marks in Bengali, with Bengali: -ng used when the next sound following the abbreviation would be a nasal sound, and Bengali: -h otherwise. For example, ডঃ dôh stands for ডক্টর dôktôr "doctor" and নং nông stands for নম্বর nômbôr "number". Some abbreviations have no marking at all, as in ঢাবি dhabi for ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় Dhaka Bishbôbidyalôy "University of Dhaka". The full stop can also be used when writing out English letters as initials, such as ই.ইউ. i.iu "EU".
  15. Web site: Amin . Mohammed . বিসর্গবিধি ও উচ্চারণ . Bengali . 14 November 2022 . 14 November 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221114171338/https://draminbd.com/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BF-%E0%A6%93-%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%9A%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9A/ . live .
  16. News: May 4, 2019 . সহজ বাংলা বানানের নিয়ম . Bengali . Simple Bengali Spelling Rules . ৪১. বিসর্গ (ঃ) ব্যবহার: বিসর্গ একটি বাংলা বর্ণ এটি কোনো চিহ্ন নয়। বর্ণ হিসেবে ব্যবহার করতে হবে। বিসর্গ (ঃ) হলো অঘোষ ‘হ্’-এর উচ্চারণে প্রাপ্ত ধ্বনি। ‘হ’-এর উচ্চারণ ঘোষ কিন্তু বিসর্গ (ঃ)-এর উচ্চারণ অঘোষ। বাংলায় ভাষায় বিস্ময়াদি প্রকাশে বিসর্গ (ঃ)-এর উচ্চারণ প্রকাশ পায়। যেমন- আঃ, উঃ, ওঃ, ছিঃ, বাঃ । পদের শেষে বিসর্গ (ঃ) ব্যবহার হবে না। যেমন ধর্মত, কার্যত, আইনত, ন্যায়ত, করত, বস্তুত, ক্রমশ, প্রায়শ ইত্যাদি। পদমধ্যস্থে বিসর্গ ব্যবহার হবে। যেমন অতঃপর, দুঃখ, স্বতঃস্ফূর্ত, অন্তঃস্থল, পুনঃপুন, পুনঃপ্রকাশ, পুনঃপরীক্ষা, পুনঃপ্রবেশ, পুনঃপ্রতিষ্ঠা ইত্যাদি। অর্ধ শব্দকে পূর্ণতা দানে অর্থাৎ পূর্ণ শব্দকে সংক্ষিপ্ত রূপে প্রকাশে বিসর্গ ব্যবহার করা হলেও আধুনিক বানানে ডট (.) ব্যবহার করা হচ্ছে। যেমন- ডাক্তার>ডা. (ডাঃ), ডক্টর>ড. (ডঃ), লিমিটেড> লি. (লিঃ) ইত্যাদি। বিসর্গ যেহেতু বাংলা বর্ণ এবং এর নিজস্ব ব্যবহার বিধি আছে— তাই এ ধরনের বানানে (ডাক্তার>ডা., ডক্টর>ড., লিমিটেড> লি.) বিসর্গ ব্যবহার বর্জন করা হয়েছে। কারণ বিসর্গ যতিচিহ্ন নয়। [সতর্কীকরণ: বিসর্গ (ঃ)-এর স্থলে কোলন (:) কোনোভাবেই ব্যবহার করা যাবে না। যেমন- অত:পর, দু:খ ইত্যাদি। কারণ কোলন (:) কোনো বর্ণ নয়, চিহ্ন। যতিচিহ্ন হিসেবে বিসর্গ (ঃ) ব্যবহার যাবে না। যেমন- নামঃ রেজা, থানাঃ লাকসাম, জেলাঃ কুমিল্লা, ১ঃ৯ ইত্যাদি।] . . 14 November 2022 . 14 November 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221114182025/https://www.dailyjanakantha.com/education/news/419882#:~:text=%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%20(%E0%A6%83%20)%20%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%3A%20%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97,%E0%A6%83)%2D%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%B0%20%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%9A%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A3%20%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%98%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%B7%E0%A5%A4(%E0%A6%83%20)%20%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%3A%20%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97,%E0%A6%83)%2D%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%B0%20%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%9A%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A3%20%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%98%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%B7%E0%A5%A4 . live .
  17. See Chowdhury 1963
  18. In Japanese, there is some debate as to whether to accent certain distinctions, such as Tōhoku vs Tohoku. Sanskrit is well-standardized because the speaking community is relatively small, and sound change is not a large concern.
  19. Web site: Learning International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration . https://web.archive.org/web/20070212100431/http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3.html . 12 February 2007 . Sanskrit 3 – Learning transliteration . Gabriel Pradiipaka & Andrés Muni . 20 November 2006.
  20. Web site: ITRANS – Indian Language Transliteration Package . 20 November 2006 . Avinash Chopde . 23 January 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130123020111/http://www.aczoom.com/itrans/ . live .
  21. Web site: Annex-F: Roman Script Transliteration . 20 November 2006 . 1 April 1999 . Indian Standard: Indian Script Code for Information Interchange — ISCII . . 32 . 23 July 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130723090940/http://varamozhi.sourceforge.net/iscii91.pdf . live .