Bengali script

The Bengali script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts whose use is associated with the Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri and Sylheti languages. While it is very similar to Devanagari, it is less blocky and presents a more sinuous shaping, and is derived from a precursor of that script called Nagari. The modern script was formalized in 1778 when it was first typeset by Charles Wilkins. There are some minor differences between the version of the script used for Assamese and that used for the other languages: rô (Bengali র; Assamese ৰ) and vô (Bengali not available; Assamese ৱ).

Bengali symbols

Vowels

The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the seven main vowel sounds of Bengali, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these are used in both Bangla and Assamese, the two main languages using the script. Some of the vowel letters have different sounds depending on the word, and a number of vowel distinctions preserved in the writing system are not pronounced as such in modern spoken Bengali or Assamese. For example, the Bengali script has two symbols for the vowel sound and two symbols for the vowel sound . This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short and a long , and a short and a long . These letters are preserved in the Bengali script with their traditional names of hrôshsho i (lit. 'short i') and dirgho i (lit. 'long i'), etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech.

Related Topics:
Bangla - Assamese

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Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by ?, kô). When no vowel is written, the vowel '?' (ô or o) is often assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a hôshonto (?) may be written underneath the consonant.

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Modifiers

Consonants

Digits