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The Bengali script (Bengali: বাংলা লিপি Bangla lipi) is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Assamese and Bishnupriya Manipuri. The Eastern Nagari script belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts, along with the Devanagari script and other written systems of the Indian Subcontinent. It is an abugida system of writing, although it is less blocky and presents a more sinuous shaping than Devanagari. Both Eastern Nagari and Devanagari were derived from the ancient Nagari script. The modern script was formalized in 1778 when it was first typeset by Charles Wilkins. In addition to differences in how the letters are pronounced in the different languages, there are some minor typographical differences between the version of the script used for Assamese and Bishnupriya Manipuri, and that used for Bengali and other languages. For example, the letter rô (Bengali র; Assamese ৰ; Bishnupriya Manipuri র/ৰ) and wô (Bengali not available; Assamese/Bishnupriya Manipuri ৱ) have distinct variations depending on the language being written. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Bengali script. ... Image File history File links Example. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ... An inscription of Swampy Cree using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, an abugida developed by Christian missionaries for Aboriginal Canadian languages An abugida, alphasyllabary, or syllabics is a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. ... Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. ... The Middle Bronze Age alphabets are two similar but undeciphered scripts, dated to be from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BC), and believed to be ancestral to nearly all modern alphabets: the Proto-Sinaitic script discovered in the winter of 1904-1905 by William Flinders Petrie, and dated to... It became one of the most widely used writing systems, and was spread by traders of Phoenicia across Europe and the Middle East, where it became used for a variety of languages and spawned many subsequent scripts. ... Bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) by the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great, 3rd century BC. The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... The Gupta script was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material prosperity and great religious and scientific developments. ... Siddham (Sanskrit, accomplished or perfected) — referred to in Japanese as bonji (梵字) — is the name of a North Indian script used for writing Sanskrit. ... The Kanai Baraxiboa rock inscription near Guwahati. ... ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems (scripts). ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... The Kanai Baraxiboa rock inscription near Guwahati. ... Assamese ( ) (IPA: ) is a language spoken in the state of Assam in northeast India. ... The Bishnupriya Manipuri language (BPM) (ইমার ঠার/বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী) is an Indo-Aryan language. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ... च् + छ = च्छ Devanagari in Unicode The Unicode range for Devanagari is U+0900 . ... Map of South Asia (see note) This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia. ... An inscription of Swampy Cree using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, an abugida developed by Christian missionaries for Aboriginal Canadian languages An abugida, alphasyllabary, or syllabics is a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. ... 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Sir Charles Wilkins (1749?–1836), was an English Orientalist. ...

The Bengali script was originally not associated with any particular language, but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions of Medieval India. The script was originally used to write Sanskrit, which for centuries was the only written language of the Indian Subcontinent. Epics of Hindu scripture, including the Mahabharata or Ramayana, were written in older versions of the Bengali script in this region. After the medieval period, the use of Sanskrit as the sole written language gave way to Pali, and eventually the vernacular languages we know now as Bengali and Assamese. Srimanta Sankardeva used it in the 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese and Brajavali the language of the Bhakti poets. It was also used by the later Ahom kings to write the Buranjis, the Ahom chronicles, in the Assamese language. There is a rich legacy of Indian literature written in this script, which is still occasionally used to write Sanskrit today. Middle kingdoms of India refers to the political entities in India from the 6th century BCE through to the Islamic invasions and the related Decline of Buddhism from the 7th century CE. // Kingdoms and Empires The Aryans had invaded India from the Northwest, according to the Aryan Invasion Theory, and... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Map of South Asia (see note) This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia. ... A Hindu ( , Devanagari: हिन्दु), as per modern definition, is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, and the religious, philosophical and cultural system that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... For the film by Peter Brook, see The Mahabharata (1989 film). ... For the television series by Ramanand Sagar, see Ramayan (TV series). ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva (1449-1568) is a colossal figure in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India. ... Assamese ( ) (IPA: ) is a language spoken in the state of Assam in northeast India. ... Brajavali is the language used by Srimanta Sankardeva, Madhabdev and other composers who belonged to the religious sect started by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in Assam. ... Bhakti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Ahoms established the Ahom kingdom (1228-1826) in parts of present-day Assam and ruled it for nearly 600 years. ... Buranjis are historical literatures written in Assamese. ...

Clusters of consonants are represented by different and sometimes quite irregular characters; thus, learning to read the script is complicated by the sheer size of the full set of characters and character combinations, numbering about 500. While efforts at standardizing the script for the Bengali language continue in such notable centers as the Bangla Academies (unaffiliated) at Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal, India), it is still not quite uniform as yet, as many people continue to use various archaic forms of letters, resulting in concurrent forms for the same sounds. Among the various regional variations within this script, only the Assamese and Bengali variations exist today in the formalized system. Dhaka (previously Dacca; Bengali: Ḍhākā; IPA: ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. ... , “Calcutta” redirects here. ... , West Bengal (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ Poshchimbôŋgo) is a state in eastern India. ...

It seems likely that the standardization of the script will be greatly influenced by the need to typeset it on computers. 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 it seems likely that it will split into two variants, traditional and modern. Standardization, in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... Image:ASCII fullsvg There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... In typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. ...

In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Bengali language, a Romanization scheme used by linguists specializing in Bengali phonology is included along with IPA transcription. The Romanization of Bengali, or the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script, is hardly as uniform as the Romanizations of many other languages such as Japanese, Sanskrit, or Chinese. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ...

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 Bengali 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 [i] and two symbols for the vowel sound [u]. This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short [i] and a long [iː], and a short [u] and a long [uː]. These letters are preserved in the Bengali script with their traditional names of rhôshsho i (lit. 'short i') and dirgho i (lit. 'long i'), etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech. Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... Assamese ( ) (IPA: ) is a language spoken in the state of Assam in northeast India. ...

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

The Romanization of Bengali, or the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script, is hardly as uniform as the Romanizations of many other languages such as Japanese, Sanskrit, or Chinese. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ...

Modifiers

The Romanization of Bengali, or the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script, is hardly as uniform as the Romanizations of many other languages such as Japanese, Sanskrit, or Chinese. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ... Virama is a generic term for the diacritic character in many Brahmic scripts that is used to suppress an inherent vowel sound that occurs with every consonant character. ... Anusvaara (or anusvaaram) appears in the alphabet of Indian languages like Sanskrit which use the Devanagari script, and in the Dravidian languages. ... The velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Visarga () is a Sanskrit word meaning sending forth, discharge. In Sanskrit phonology (), (also called, equivalently, by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone, , written as IAST <>, Harvard-Kyoto <H>, Devanagari <>. Visarga is an allophone of and in pausa (at the end of an utterance). ... The voiceless glottal transition, commonly called a fricative, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages which often behaves like a consonant, but sometimes behaves more like a vowel, or is indeterminate in its behavior. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with anunaasika. ... In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that air escapes partially or wholly through the nose during the production of the sound. ...

Consonants

The names of the consonant letters in Bengali are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel ô. 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 ঘ is itself ঘ ghô). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Bengali are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called nô; instead, they are called দন্ত্য ন donto nô ("dental n"), মূর্ধন্য ণ murdhonno nô ("cerebral n"), and ঞীয়/ইঙ niô/ingô. Similarly, the phoneme /ʃ/ can be written as শ talobbo shô ("palatal s"), ষ murdhonno shô ("cerebral s"), or স donto shô ("dental s"), depending on the word. Since the consonant ঙ /ŋ/ cannot occur at the beginning of a word in Bengali, its name is not ঙ ngô but উঙ ungô (pronounced by some as উম umô or উঁঅ ũô). Similarly, since semivowels ([j], [w], [e̯], [o̯]) cannot occur at the beginning of a Bengali word, the name for "semi-vowel e̯" য় is not অন্তঃস্থ য় ôntostho e̯ô but অন্তঃস্থ অ ôntostho ô. Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ...

The Romanization of Bengali, or the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script, is hardly as uniform as the Romanizations of many other languages such as Japanese, Sanskrit, or Chinese. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ...

Digits

Bengali in Unicode

The Unicode range for Bengali is U+0980 ... U+09FF. Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ...

Sample Text

The following is a sample text of script. The selection is a Bengali song, highly Sanskritized in pronunciation and vocabulary. The song was later adopted as the national anthem of India. It was written by a man who is acknowledged as the single most important and defining figure of Bengali literature, the Nobel Laureate and philosopher-saint poet Rabindranath Tagore (Thakur in Bengali). Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that is evoking and eulogizing the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nations government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people. ... The Nobel Prizes (pronounced no-BELL or no-bell) are awarded annually to people who have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society. ... (Bengali: , IPA: ) (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ...

Bengali Text of Jôno Gôno Môno: Jana Gana Mana (Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People) is the national anthem of India. ...

জনগণমন-অধিনায়ক জয় হে ভারতভাগ্যবিধাতা!
পঞ্জাব সিন্ধু গুজরাট মরাঠা দ্রাবিড় উত্কল বঙ্গ
বিন্ধ্য হিমাচল যমুনা গঙ্গা উচ্ছলজলধিতরঙ্গ
তব শুভ নামে জাগে, তব শুভ আশিস মাগে,
গাহে তব জয়গাথা।
জনগণমঙ্গলদায়ক জয় হে ভারতভাগ্যবিধাতা!
জয় হে, জয় হে, জয় হে, জয় জয় জয়, জয় হে॥

জনগণমন-অধিনায়ক জয় হে ভারতভাগ্যবিধাতা!

In Romanization: The Romanization of Bengali, or the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script, is hardly as uniform as the Romanizations of many other languages such as Japanese, Sanskrit, or Chinese. ...

Jônogônomono-odhinaeoko jôeô he Bharotobhaggobidhata!
Pônjabo Shindhu Gujoraţo Môraţha Drabiŗo Utkôlo Bônggo,
Bindho Himachôlo Jomuna Gôngga Uchchhôlojôlodhitoronggo,
Tôbo shubho name jage, tôbo shubho ashish mage,
Gahe tôbo jôeogatha.
Jônogônomonggolodaeoko jôeô he Bharotobhaggobidhata!
Jôeo he, jôeo he, jôeo he, jôeo jôeo jôeo, jôeo he!
Jônogônomono-odhinaeoko jôeô he Bharotobhaggobidhata!

References

1. ^  Ancient Scripts

See also

Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... Bengali grammar is the study of grammar in the Bengali language. ... Bengali phonology is the study of the inventory and patterns of the consonants, vowels, and prosody of the Bengali language. ... The origins of words in the Bengali vocabulary are numerous and diverse, due to centuries of contact with various languages. ... The dialects of the Bengali language are part of the Eastern Indo-Aryan language group of the Indo-European language family. ... Consonant clusters in Bengali are very common word-initially due to a long history of borrowing from English and Sanskrit, two languages with a large cluster inventory. ... The Romanization of Bengali, or the representation of the Bengali language in the Latin script, is hardly as uniform as the Romanizations of many other languages such as Japanese, Sanskrit, or Chinese. ... The first evidence of Bengali literature is known as Charyapada or Charyageeti, which were Buddhist hymns from the 8th century. ... Shaheed Minar, or the Martyrs monument, located near Dhaka Medical College, commemorates the struggle for Bangla language The Language Movement was a cultural and political movement in the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1952. ... There is a disputed proposal that this article should be merged with Language Martyrs Day 21st February has been proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by the UNESCO in 2000. ...

External links

• Omniglot - Bengali Alphabet

digital encoding and rendering

• Free Unicode Compliant Bangla Typing Software
• Free Unicode Bangla Computing Solutions
• Free Bangla Unicode Fonts
• Ankur - Supporting Bangla (Bengali) on GNU/Linux
• Open source Bangla Transliteration Library