

ঃ -h and ং -ng are also often used as abbreviation marks in Bengali, with ং -ng used when the next sound following the abbreviation would be a nasal sound, and ঃ -h otherwise. isn't pronounced, but geminates the following consonant, as in দুঃসময়.pronounced as syllable-final voiceless breath, as in উঃ.Modifiers and others Modifier and other graphemes in Bengali Symbol with (ক) We will inform you when this is different. ^5 In most cases, শ represents /ʃ/ while স represents /s/. Very often this will be transliterated with a 'y' never pronounce this as in yard unless preceded by an ই or ঈ. ^4 Usually this does not have a sound between vowels. It is still important to recognize the difference. ^3 ড় and ঢ় usually sound like র in spoken Bangla. z/ only occurs only in foreign words.Ĭonsonants are referred to by their sound followed by ô (ক = kô), with some exceptions, namely: Of the consonants in Bengali, ten are aspirated-that is, they sound as if an 'H' was appended to it. Here are the ones that will fit in one syllable: But in actual practiced Bangla, there are more diphthongs that are written by putting the vowels together or attaching them to the consonant য় ("ya" pronounced /yɔ/ and called the "semi-vowel অ"). The Bangla alphabet has only two single vowels representing diphthongs (ঐ and ঔ). Moreover, depending on context, the graphs অ and এ can sound like o and â, respectively. There is no symbol for the vowel sound â (like the a in English bat) in the basic inventory of Bengali script, so the ligature অ্যা is used instead. ঐ and ঔ are used to denote two diphthongs, although there are many more diphthongs in use in Bengali. Although ঋ is a vowel in Sanskrit, it is pronounced in Bengali as /ri/, a consonant-vowel combination. These vowel letters were initially adopted from the Devanagari script that is used to write Sanskrit and Hindi.

You must try to use the IPA whenever possible. ^2 This letter is obsolete: now the character for it represents the number 9.Īlways keep in mind that the English pronunciations are only approximations. ^1 In theory they should be lengthened /iː/ and /uː/, but in spoken Bangla this is not the case. However, ই and উ also have prefix 'hrôshsho', and ঈ and ঊ suffix 'dirgho'. Vowels are referred to by their sound and are suffixed by '-kar' when referring to a conjunct.
