Guide to Reading and Pronouncing Bengali The Bengali Alphabet and Roman Diacritical Equivalents Vowels (Svara-varna) Sa Wa Bi Fi Bun Ba are ai So Sau Vowel Signs Whenever a vowel follows a consonant, it is written in sign form as follows: ta fi Vi au ooa@ cr Ce Cai Clo Clan The only exception is the inherent vowel, a. This vowel is con- sidered inherent in all consonants unless they are assigned one of the aforementioned vowel signs or are the first members of a conjunct consonant. Examples: Fka Tha FFki Whe Fku Fka Ske he Chai Ako SH kau Filla Gpta Fnga Wndra 291292 Guide to Reading and Pronouncing Bengali Consonants (Vyatijan-varna) Gutturals: F ka kha F ga ™ gha © na Palatals: 0D cha & chha & ja 4 jha = @ fia Cerebrals: & ta 3 tha ©(®)da ¥(b)dha 4 na Dentals: @tha %da dha 7 na Labial: 9% pa ® pha 4 ba(va) Sbha YT ma Semivowels: (7) ya Tra A la Sibilants: i fa Asa Asa 4 5 Aspirates: 2% ha Gutturals (Kanthya-varna): consonants pronounced using the throat. Palatals ( Talabya-varna): consonants pronounced by bringing the tongue to the palate. Cerebrals (Miirdhanya-varna): consonants pronounced by apply- ing the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth. Dentals (Dantya-varna): consonants pronounced by applying the tip of the tongue to the back of the front teeth. Labials (Osthya-varna): consonants pronounced using the lips. Semivowels (Antabstha-varna): consonants which also function as vowels, Sibilants (Usma-varna): consonants pronounced by making a hissing sound. The three sibilants are also palatal (fa), cerebral (sa), and dental (sa) respectively. Aspirates: consonants pronounced by exhaling air from the throat. The following consonants are aspirates: kha, gha, chha, jha, tha, dha, tha, dha, pha, and bha.Guide to Reading and Pronouncing Bengali 293 Conjunct Consonants There are numerous conjunct characters in Bengali formed by the combination of two or more adjacent consonants. In most cases, these conjunct characters bear close resemblance to the features of the individual characters they represent; there are, however, a number of exceptions. Typical examples: # lla @ pta Wnda Gdva © ota Atypical examples: ksa & stha @ bdha & tya ® ficha A hma ® figa © kta kra gra B sta Additional Signs Anusvar: © rh Visarga: &h Chandrabindu: * Reph: ~ Viram: . Examples: kam f88kih Sha Srka Fk Pronunciation (Uchcharan) Vowels (Svara-varna) a Like the o in cot, but like the u in sum or the o in go when it occurs after a conjunct consonant or in the second syl- lable of a word; a is often silent when it follows a single consonant at the end of a word. Like the a in father or star. Like the i in bin. Like the ee in deep. mom pe