Bengali alphabet

The Bengali script, also known as the Bangla alphabet, is the main way people write the Bengali language. It is used by around 300 million people, making it the 5th most commonly used writing system in the world. This alphabet is the only national script of Bangladesh and an official script in India, especially in the states of West Bengal, Tripura, and the Barak Valley in Assam. It is also used for the Meitei language in Manipur.

The Bengali writing system comes from the old Brahmi script. People write it from left to right, and it is a special kind of writing called an abugida. In this type of writing, vowels are not separate letters but small marks that change the basic sound of a letter. There are no big or small letter shapes, so it looks the same all the way through. The letters are connected by a line at the top, called matra, which helps link them together. The punctuation marks are mostly taken from English, with just one exception.

Characters

The Bengali script is used to write the Bengali language and can be split into several groups: vowels, vowel diacritics, consonants, conjunct consonants, and punctuation marks. Vowels and consonants can work as letters and as marks that change other letters.

Bengali has 11 vowel letters, called svaravana, which stand for six main sounds and two combinations of sounds, known as diphthongs. These vowels are used in both Bengali and Assamese languages. Some sounds, like /æ/, do not have their own special symbol and are created by mixing other vowel symbols together. There are also special symbols for sounds that came from older Sanskrit writing, even if they are not used much in modern Bengali.