Two main styles of Bengali language exist side by side a common or — and a literary or classical style Where “Chalito” style (“Sadhu”). appropriate, the most popular spelling in common style is given first followed in round brackets by the spelling in literary style. Bengali meanings are given both in Bengali script and in a Romanized form. This helps beginners to use the language until they have mastered the script. The romanized form differs from systems used by other writers and has the advantage of providing a consistent system of phonetic conversion from Bengali script that represents each Bengali character element accurately and uniquely. Its appearance reflects the pronunciation closely after accepting a few simple transcription rules. The same process of sound classification is consistent with a family of similar languages derived from Sanskrit. However, some use of Bengali script is no longer truly phonetic mainly in cases where two consonants — are and the initial consonant is emphasized while joined into “conjuncts”, the trailing consonant is effectively lost. See the following sections about and on Where on “Bengali Alphabet” “Hints Special Pronunciation”. appropriate, help with the pronunciation is given in square brackets after the romanized Bengali word. References such as "[See Grammar 57.3]" are for students using the comprehensive manual for learning Bengali that is also produced by the writer of this dictionary. Other hints are stated in square brackets ([…]) THE BENGALI ALPHABET CLASSIFICATION OF BENGALI SOUNDS C O N S O N A N T S V O W E L S Family Hard Soft Soft Soft Hard Held Huffed Held Huffed Nasals Semi- Spirants Short Long Diphthongs vowels Guttural ka kha ga gha n¹a ha hha a aa e, ei ee, oy ± ² ³ ´ µ ã @ A AÁ J K Palatal ca cha ja jha n²a ya sha i ii
Two main styles of Bengali language exist side by side — a common or “Chalito” style and a literary or classical style (“Sadhu”). Where appropriate, the most popular spelling in common style is given first followed in round brackets by the spelling in literary style. Bengali meanings are given both in Bengali script and in a Romanized form. This helps beginners to use the language until they have mastered the script. The romanized form differs from systems used by other writers and has the advantage of providing a consistent system of phonetic conversion from Bengali script that represents each Bengali character element accurately and uniquely. Its appearance reflects the pronunciation closely after accepting a few simple transcription rules. The same process of sound classification is consistent with a family of similar languages derived from Sanskrit. However, some use of Bengali script is no longer truly phonetic — mainly in cases where two consonants are joined into “conjuncts”, and the initial consonant is emphasized while the trailing consonant is effectively lost. See the following sections about on “Bengali Alphabet” and “Hints on Special Pronunciation”. Where appropriate, help with the pronunciation is given in square brackets after the romanized Bengali word. References such as "[See Grammar 57.3]" are for students using the comprehensive manual for learning Bengali that is also produced by the writer of this dictionary. Other hints are stated in square brackets ([…]) THE BENGALI ALPHABET CLASSIFICATION OF BENGALI SOUNDS C O N S O N A N T S V O W E L S Family Hard Soft Soft Soft Hard Held Huffed Held Huffed Nasals Semi- vowels Spirants Short Long Diphthongs Guttural ka kha ga gha n¹a ha hha a aa e, ei ee, oy ± ² ³ ´ µ ã @ A AÁ J K Palatal ca cha ja jha n²a ya sha i ii
french-bengali-dictionary.docx