{{Картка:Мова
  | Назва=Бенгальська мова
  | Самоназва = 
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  | Державна=Бангладеш
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  |}}

'''Бенгальська мова'''&nbsp;— офіційна мова країни Бангладеш, а також штату Індії Західна Бенгалія.

Бенгальська мова відноситься до індійської групи індоєвропейських мов.

Як графічну основу бенгальська мова використовує алфавіт бонгаккхор, який походить (як деванагарі, гурмукхи і інші письменності Індії) від графіки брахми.

Близько 215&nbsp;млн. осіб говорять цією мовою (за оцінкою 2005&nbsp;р.).

----
'''УРЕ'''
— мова бенгальців, корінного населення Сх. Індії. Належить до новоіндійської групи індоєвропейських мов. Нею розмовляють понад 60 млн. чол. Складається з трьох діалектів: західного, східного і південного. Основоположником сучасної літ. Б. м. на народній основі був Р. Тагор. За словниковим складом близька до санскритської мови, але відрізняється від неї граматичною будовою. Графіка Б. м. становить видозміну санскр. письма (нагарі). Найдавніші пам'ятки сягають 9—10 ст.

== Література ==

* 
* Chatteji S. K. The origin and development of the Bengali language, р. 1—2. Calcutta, 1926;
* Kulundžić Z. Historija pisama. Zagreb, 1957.

Категорія:Мови Індії
Категорія:Індоєвропейські мовиКатегорія:Статті, що повинні бути у всіх Вікіпедіях

bcl:Bengali
be-x-old:Бэнгальская мова

dv:ބެންގާލީ

eo:Bengala lingvo
es:Idioma bengalí

{{Infobox Language
|name=Bengali
|nativename=বাংলা ''Bangla''
|states=Bangladesh, India,  and several others
|region=Eastern South Asia
|speakers=230 million (189 million native) <ref name="huq_sarkar">[http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm Bangla language] in </ref>
|rank=6,<ref name="encarta">{{cite web|rank=6
|url = http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500404/Languages_Spoken_by_More_Than_10_Million_People.html
|title = Languages spoken by more than 10 million people
|accessdate = 2007-03-03|date = 2007|work =|publisher = Encarta Encyclopedia}}</ref> 5,<ref name="eth">{{cite web|rank=5
|url = http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=country 
|title = Statistical Summaries 
|accessdate = 2007-03-03|date = 2005|work =|publisher = Ethnologue}}</ref>
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=Indo-Iranian
|fam3=Indo-Aryan
|fam4=Eastern Group
|fam5=Bengali-Assamese
|script=Bengali script 
|nation=,<br /> (West Bengal, Tripura and Barak Valley {comprising districts of south Assam- Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi)
|agency=Bangla Academy (Bangladesh)<br/>Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi (West Bengal)
|iso1=bn|iso2=ben|iso3=ben|map=center|300px<center><small>Global extent of Bengali.|notice=Indic}}
'''Bengali''' or '''Bangla''' (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages.

Bengali is native to the region of eastern most spoken languages (ranking fifth<ref name="eth"/> or sixth<ref name="encarta"/> in the world). 
Bengali is the primary language spoken in Bangladesh and is the second most spoken language in India.<ref name="thirdmost">{{cite web
| url = http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IN
| title = Languages of India
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Gordon
| first = Raymond G., Jr. (ed.
| year = 2005
| work = Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition.
| publisher = SIL International
}}</ref><ref name="lang1991">{{cite web
| url = http://www.censusindia.net/cendat/language/lang_table1.PDF
| archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070614053639/http://www.censusindia.net/cendat/language/lang_table1.PDF
| archivedate=2007-06-14
| title = Languages in Descending Order of Strength - India, States and Union Territories - 1991 Census
| accessdate = 2006-11-19
| year = 
| month = 
| work = Census Data Online
| publisher = Office of the Registrar General, India
| pages =1
}}</ref> Along with Assamese, it is geographically the most eastern of the Indo-Iranian languages.

With its long and rich literary tradition, Bengali serves to bind together a culturally diverse region.  In 1952, when Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan, this strong sense of identity led to the Bengali Language Movement, in which several people braved bullets and died on February 21.  This day has now been declared as the International Mother Language Day. 

==History==

Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from the eastern Buddha, had evolved into Apabhramsa Abahatta, eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups: the Bihari languages, the Oriya languages, and the Bengali-Assamese languages. Some argue for much earlier points of divergence—going back to even 500<ref></ref> but the language was not static; different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects. For example, Magadhi Prakrit is believed to have evolved into Apabhramsa Abahatta around the 6th century which competed with Bengali for a period of time.<ref name="abahatta">[http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/A_0001.htm Abahattha] in </ref>

Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali:<ref name="tb"></ref> 
# Old Bengali (900/1000–1400)—texts include ''Oriya and Assamese branch out in this period.
# Middle Bengali (1400–1800)—major texts of the period include Chandidas's ''Srikrishnakirtan''; elision of word-final ''ô'' sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian influence. Some scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
# New Bengali (since 1800)—shortening of verbs and pronouns, among other changes (e.g. ''tahar'' → ''tar'' "his"/"her"; ''koriyachhilô'' → ''korechhilo'' he/she had done).

Historically closer to Pali, Bengali saw an increase in Punjabi are more influenced by Persian.<ref name=chisholm></ref> 

thumb|right|[[Shaheed Minar, or the Martyr's monument, in Dhaka, commemorates the struggle for the Bengali language]]
Until the 18th century, there was no attempt to document the grammar for Bengali. The first written Bengali dictionary/grammar, ''Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes'', was written by the Portuguese missionary Manoel da Assumpcam between 1734 and 1742 while he was serving in Bhawal.<ref name="firstgram">{{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/G_0193.htm
| title = Grammar
| accessdate = 2006-11-19
| last = Rahman
| first = Aminur
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref> British types in print for the first time.<ref name="huq_sarkar">[http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm Bangla language] in </ref> Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali reformer,<ref></ref> also wrote a "Grammar of the Bengali Language" (1832).

During this period, the ''Choltibhasha'' form, using simplified inflections and other changes, was emerging from ''Shadhubhasha'' (older form) as the form of choice for written Bengali.<ref name="SKumar">{{cite web
| url = http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/translation/articles/bengali-language.html
| title = The Bengali Language and Translation
| accessdate = 2006-11-19
| last = Ray
| first = S Kumar
| work = Translation Articles
| publisher = Kwintessential
}}</ref> 

Bengali was the focus, in 1951–52, of the Bengali Language Movement (''Bhasha Andolon'') in what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).<ref></ref> Although Bengali speakers were more numerous in the population of Pakistan, Urdu was legislated as the sole national language.<ref></ref> On February 21, 1952, protesting students and activists walked into military and police fire in Dhaka University and three young students and several others were killed.<ref>{{cite news 
  | title =Dhaka Medical College Hostel Prangone Chatro Shomabesher Upor Policer Guliborshon. Bishwabidyalayer Tinjon Chatroshoho Char Bekti Nihoto O Shotero Bekti Ahoto
  | language =Bengali
  | work =The Azad
  | date =22 February 1952
  }}</ref> Later in 1999, UNESCO decided to celebrate every 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the deaths of the three students.<ref></ref><ref></ref> In a separate event in May 1961, police in Silchar, India, killed eleven people who were protesting legislation that mandated the use of the Assamese language.<ref name="Assam2">{{cite web
 | url = http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031227/asp/northeast/story_2721710.asp
 | title = No alliance with BJP, says AGP chief
 | publisher = The Telegraph
 | accessdate = 2006-11-19
}}</ref>

==Geographical distribution==
thumb|right|200px|The native geographic extent of Bengali 

Bengali is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal and many parts of Assam. Around 98% of the total population of Bangladesh speak Bengali as a native language.<ref name="BDFacts">{{cite web
 | url = https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html
 | chapter = Bangladesh
 | title = The World Fact Book
 | publisher = CIA
 | accessdate = 2006-11-04
}}</ref> There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in immigrant populations in the West and Malaysia. 

===Official status===
Bengali is the national and official language of official languages recognised by the Republic of India.<ref name="secondmost">{{cite web
 | url = http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IN 
 | title = Languages of India
 | publisher = Ethnologue Report
 | accessdate = 2006-11-04
}}</ref> It is the official language of the states of West Bengal and Tripura.<ref></ref> It is a major language in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.<ref></ref><ref></ref> It was made an official language of Sierra Leone in order to honour the Bangladeshi peacekeeping force from the United Nations stationed there.<ref name="sierra">{{cite news 
 | title = Sierra Leone makes Bengali official language
 | url = http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-12-2002_pg9_6
 | publisher = Daily Times
 | date = 2002-12-29
 | accessdate = 2006-11-17
}}</ref> It is also the co-official language of Assam, which has three predominantly Sylheti-speaking districts of southern Assam: Silchar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi.<ref>{{cite web
| author = NIC, Assam State Centre, Guwahati, Assam
| publisher = Government of Assam | url=http://www.assam.gov.in/language.asp | archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20061206111055/http://www.assam.gov.in/language.asp | archivedate=2006-12-06 | title=Language | accessdate=2006-06-20
}}</ref> The national anthems of both India and Bangladesh were written by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.<ref></ref>

===Dialects===

Regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a dialect continuum. Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee grouped these dialects into four large clusters &mdash; Rarh, Banga, Kamarupa and Varendra;<ref name="huq_sarkar">[http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm Bangla language] in </ref> but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed.<ref name="morshed">{{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/D_0212.htm
| title = Dialect 
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Morshed
| first = Abul Kalam Manjoor
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref> The south-western dialects (Rarh) form the basis of standard colloquial Bengali, while Bangali is the dominant dialect group in Bangladesh. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bengal (fricatives. Western palato-alveolar affricates চ [], ছ [], জ Chittagonian and Chakma Bengali, have contrastive tone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Rajbangsi, Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects.<ref name="hajong">{{cite web
 | url = http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=haj
 | title = Hajong
 | publisher = The Ethnologue Report
 | accessdate = 2006-11-19
}}</ref> 

During the standardization of Bengali in the late 19th and early 20th century, the cultural center of Bengal was its capital Nadia, a district located near Kolkata.<ref name="daniul">{{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/C_0103.htm
| title = Chalita Bhasa
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Huq
| first = Mohammad Daniul
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref> There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word than a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, ''nun'' (salt) in the west corresponds to ''lôbon'' in the east.<ref name=Banglabetelco/>

==Spoken and literary varieties==
Bengali exhibits diglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language.<ref name=cornellbengali></ref> Two styles of writing, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax, have emerged:<ref name="daniul">{{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/C_0103.htm
| title = Chalita Bhasa
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Huq
| first = Mohammad Daniul
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref><ref name="daniul1"> {{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/S_0014.htm
| title = Sadhu Bhasa
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Huq
| first = Mohammad Daniul
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref>
# ''Shadhubhasha'' (সাধু ''shadhu'' = 'chaste' or 'sage'; ভাষা ''bhasha'' = 'language') was the written language with longer verb inflections and more of a Sanskrit-derived (তৎসম ''tôtshôm'') vocabulary. Songs such as India's national anthem ''Jana Gana Mana'' (by Rabindranath Tagore) and national song ''Vande Mātaram'' (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) were composed in Shadhubhasha. However, use of ''Shadhubhasha'' in modern writing is negligible, except when it is used deliberately to achieve some effect. 
# ''Choltibhasha'' (চলতিভাষা ) or ''Cholitobhasha'' (চলিত ''cholito'' = 'current' or 'running') , known by linguists as ''Manno Cholit Bangla'' (Standard Colloquial Bengali), is a written Bengali style exhibiting a preponderance colloquial idiom and shortened verb forms, and is the standard for written Bengali now. This form came into vogue towards the turn of the 19th century, promoted by the writings of Peary Chand Mitra (''Alaler Gharer Dulal'', 1857),<ref name="alal">{{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/A_0152.htm
| title = Alaler Gharer Dulal
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Huq
| first = Mohammad Daniul
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref> Pramatha Chowdhury (''Sabujpatra'', 1914) and in the later writings of Rabindranath Tagore. It is modeled on the dialect spoken in the Shantipur region in Nadia district, West Bengal. This form of Bengali is often referred to as the "Nadia standard" or "Shantipuri bangla".<ref name="morshed">{{cite web
| url = http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/D_0212.htm
| title = Dialect 
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Morshed
| first = Abul Kalam Manjoor
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref> 

While most writings are carried out in Standard Colloquial Bengali, spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. South-eastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in Standard Colloquial Bengali. Other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh speak in dialects that are minor variations, such as the variety—often, speakers are fluent in ''cholitobhasha'' (Standard Colloquial Bengali) and one or more regional dialects.<ref name="SKumar"/>

Even in Standard Colloquial Bengali, vocabulary items often divide along the split between the Muslim populace and the Hindu populace. Due to cultural and religious traditions, Hindus and Muslims might use, respectively, Sanskrit-derived and Perso-Arabic words.<ref name=ray80></ref> Some examples of lexical alternation between these two forms are:<ref name=Banglabetelco>{{cite web
| url = http://www.betelco.com/bd/bangla/bangla.html
| title = History of Bangla (Banglar itihash)
| accessdate = 2006-11-20
| accessmonthday = 
| work = Bangla
| publisher = Bengal Telecommunication and Electric Company
}}</ref>

* hello: nômoshkar (S) corresponds to assalamualaikum/slamalikum (A)
* invitation: nimontron/nimontonno (S) corresponds to daoat (A)
* paternal uncle: kaka (S) corresponds to chacha (S/Hindi)
* water : jol (D) corresponds to pani (S)
(here S = derived from Sanskrit, D = deshi; A = derived from Arabic)

==Writing system==

thumb|right|250px|''[[Anandabazar Patrika'', a news daily published from Kolkata in Bengali.]]

The Bengali writing system is not purely Brahmic script around 1000,<ref name="akhor">[http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0140.htm Bangla Script] in </ref> and is similar to the Indic languages such as Hindi. It has particularly close historical relationships with the Assamese script and the Oriya script (although the latter is not evident in appearance). The Bengali abugida is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting the independent form of nine vowels and two diphthongs, and thirty-nine signs denoting the consonants with the so called "inherent" vowels.<ref name="akhor">[http://banglapedia.org.bd/HT/B_0140.htm Bangla Script] in </ref> The concept of capitalization is absent in Bengali writing system. There is no variation in initial, medial and final forms as in the Arabic script. The letters run from left to right on a horizontal line, and spaces are used to separate orthographic words.

Although the consonant signs are presented as segments in the basic inventory of the Bengali script,  they are actually orthographically syllabic in nature. Every consonant sign has the vowel অ  (or sometimes the vowel ও ) "embedded" or "inherent" in it.<ref name=it46>{{cite web
| url = http://www.it46.se/docs/courses/ICT4D_localization_software_primer_it46_v1.5.pdf
| title = Writing Systems/ Scripts
| accessdate = 2006-11-20
| author = Escudero Pascual Alberto
| date = 2005-10-23
| format = PDF
| work = Primer to Localization of Software
| publisher = IT +46
}}</ref> For example, the basic consonant sign ম is pronounced  in isolation. The same ম can represent the sounds  or  when used in a word, as in মত  "opinion" and মন  "mind", respectively, with no added symbol for the vowels  and . 

A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than  is orthographically realized by using a variety of vowel ligature. These allographs, called ''kar''s (cf. Hindi ''matra''s) are dependent vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graph মি  represents the consonant  followed by the vowel , where  is represented as the allograph ি and is placed ''before'' the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা , মী , মু , মূ , মৃ , মে /, মৈ , মো  and মৌ  represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. It should be noted that in these consonant-vowel ligatures, the so-called "inherent" vowel is expunged from the consonant, but the basic consonant sign ম does not indicate this change.

To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it, a special diacritic, called the ''hôshonto'' (্‌), may be added below the basic consonant sign (as in ম্‌ ). This diacritic, however, is not common, and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. 

Three other commonly used diacritics in the Bengali are the superposed ''chôndrobindu'' (ঁ), denoting a suprasegmental for nasalization of vowels (as in চাঁদ  "moon"), the postposed ''onushshôr'' (ং)  indicating the velar nasal  (as in বাংলা  "Bengali") and the postposed ''bishôrgo'' (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative  (as in উঃ!  "ouch!"). 

The vowel signs in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent a vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant,  the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই  "ladder" and in ইলিশ  "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি). A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realized using its independent form.

The ligatures, where the consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Many of their shapes have to be learned by rote. Recently, in a bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from the graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognize both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden.

Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the ''daŗi'' (|), the Bengali equivalent of a full stop, have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. <ref name="huq_sarkar">[http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm Bangla language] in </ref>

Whereas in western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) the letter-forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms hang from a visible horizontal headstroke called the ''matra'' (not to be confused with its Hindi cognate ''matra'', which denotes the dependent forms of Hindi vowels). The presence and absence of this ''matra'' can be important. For example, the letter ত  and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the ''matra'', as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র  and the independent vowel এ . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between the visible ''matra'' and an invisible baseline).

thumb|right|250px|Signature of [[Rabindranath Tagore &mdash; an example of penmanship in Bengali.]] 

===Spelling-to-pronunciation inconsistencies===
In spite of some modifications in the nineteenth century, the Bengali spelling system continues to be based on the one used for Sanskrit,<ref name="huq_sarkar">[http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm Bangla language] in </ref> and thus does not take into account some sound mergers that have occurred in the spoken language. For example, there are three letters (শ, ষ, and স) for the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative , although the letter স does retain the voiceless alveolar fricative  sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in স্খলন  "fall", স্পন্দন  "beat", etc. There are two letters (জ and য) for the voiced postalveolar affricate  as well. What was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal ণ  is now pronounced as an alveolar  (unless conjoined with another retroflex consonant such as ট, ঠ, ড and ঢ), although the spelling does not reflect this change. The near-open front unrounded vowel  is orthographically realized by  multiple means, as seen in the following examples: এত  "so much", এ্যাকাডেমী  "academy", অ্যামিবা  "amoeba", দেখা  "to see", ব্যস্ত  "busy", ব্যাকরণ  "grammar". 

The realization of the inherent vowel can be another source of confusion. The vowel can be phonetically realized as  or  depending on the word, and its omission is seldom indicated, as in the final consonant in কম  "less".

Many consonant clusters have different sounds than their constituent consonants. For example, the combination of the consonants ক্‌  and ষ  is graphically realized as ক্ষ and is pronounced  (as in রুক্ষ  "rugged") or  (as in ক্ষতি  "loss") or even  (as in ক্ষমতা  "power"), depending on the position of the cluster in a word. The Bengali writing system is, therefore, not always a true guide to pronunciation.

For a detailed list of these inconsistencies, consult Bengali script.

===Uses in other languages===
The Bengali script, with a few small modifications, is also used for writing Assamese. Other related languages in the region also make use of the Bengali alphabet. Meitei, a Sino-Tibetan language used in the Indian state of Meitei Mayek (the Meitei abugida) has been promoted in recent times. The script has been adopted for writing the Sylheti language as well, replacing the use of the old Sylheti Nagori script.<ref name="sylnagri">{{cite web| url = http://banglapedia.org/HT/S_0656.htm
| title = Sylheti Nagri 
| accessdate = 2006-11-17
| last = Islam
| first = Muhammad Ashraful
| work = Banglapedia
| publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
}}</ref>

===Romanization===

Several conventions exist for writing Indic languages including Bengali in the Latin script, including "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration" or IAST (based on diacritics),<ref name=IAST1>{{cite web
| url = http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3.html
| archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070212100431/http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3.html
| archivedate=2007-02-12
| title = Learning International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
| accessdate = 2006-11-20
| work = Sanskrit 3 - Learning transliteration
| publisher = Gabriel Pradiipaka & Andrés Muni
}}</ref> "Indian languages Transliteration" or ITRANS (uses upper case alphabets suited for ASCII keyboards),<ref name=ITRANS1>{{cite web
| url = http://www.aczoom.com/itrans/
| title = ITRANS - Indian Language Transliteration Package 
| accessdate = 2006-11-20
| work = 
| publisher = Avinash Chopde
}}</ref> and the National Library at Calcutta romanization.<ref name=NatLib>{{cite web
| url = http://varamozhi.sourceforge.net/iscii91.pdf
| title = Annex-F: Roman Script Transliteration
| accessdate = 2006-11-20
| date = 1999-04-01
| format = PDF
| work = Indian Standard: Indian Script Code for Information Interchange - ISCII
| publisher = Bureau of Indian Standards
| pages = 32
}}</ref>

In the context of Bangla Romanization, it is important to distinguish between 
transcription.  Transliteration is orthographically accurate
(i.e. the original spelling can be recovered), whereas 
transcription is phonetically accurate (the pronunciation
can be reproduced).  
Since English does not have the sounds of Bangla, and since pronunciation does not completely reflect the spellings, being faithful to both is not possible. 

Although it might be desirable to use a transliteration scheme where the original Bangla orthography is recoverable from the Latin text, Bangla words are currently Romanized on Wikipedia using a phonemic transcription, where the pronunciation is represented with no reference to how it is written. The Wikipedia Romanization scheme is given in the table below, with the IPA transcriptions as used above.

{| style="align:center; width:60%;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|- valign="top"
|
{|class="wikitable"
|+'''Vowels'''
!&nbsp;||Front||Central||Back
|-style="text-align:center"
!Close
|i||&nbsp;||u
|-style="text-align:center"
!Close-mid
|e||&nbsp;||o
|-style="text-align:center"
!Open-mid
|ê||&nbsp;||ô
|-style="text-align:center"
!Open
|&nbsp;||a||&nbsp;
|}
|
{|class="wikitable"
|+'''Consonants'''
!colspan="2"|&nbsp;
!Labial
!Dental
!Alveolar
!Apico-<br>Postalveolar
!Lamino-<br>Postalveolar
!Velar
!Glottal
|-align="center"
!colspan="2"|Nasal
|m||&nbsp;||n||&nbsp;||&nbsp;||ng||&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!rowspan="2"|Plosive
! <small>voiceless</small>
|p<br/>ph||t<br/>th||&nbsp;||ţ<br/>ţh||ch<br/>chh|| k<br/>kh||&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!<small>voiced</small>
|b<br/>bh||d<br/>dh||&nbsp;||đ<br/>đ||j<br/>jh||g<br/>gh||&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!colspan="2"|Fricative
|&nbsp;||&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;||s||&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;||sh||&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;||h<br/>&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!colspan="2"|Liquid
|&nbsp;||&nbsp;||l, r|||ŗ||&nbsp;||&nbsp;||&nbsp;
|}
|}

==Sounds==

The phonemic inventory of Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 14 vowels, including the seven nasalized vowels. An approximate phonetic scheme is set out below in International Phonetic Alphabet.
{| style="align:center; width:60%;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|- valign="top"
|
{|class="wikitable"
|+'''Vowels'''
!&nbsp;||Front||Central||Back
|-style="text-align:center"
!Close
|||&nbsp;||
|-style="text-align:center"
!Close-mid
|||&nbsp;||
|-style="text-align:center"
!Open-mid
|||&nbsp;||
|-style="text-align:center"
!Open
|&nbsp;||||&nbsp;
|}
|
{|class="wikitable"
|+'''Consonants'''
!colspan="2"|&nbsp;
!Labial
!Dental
!Alveolar
!Apico-<br>Postalveolar
!Lamino-<br>Postalveolar
!Velar
!Glottal
|-align="center"
!colspan="2"|Nasal
|||&nbsp;||||&nbsp;||&nbsp;||||&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!rowspan="2"|Plosive
! <small>voiceless</small>
|<br/><sup>1</sup>||<br/>||&nbsp;||<br/>||<br/>|| <br/>||&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!<small>voiced</small>
|<br/>||<br/>||&nbsp;||<br/>||<br/>||<br/>||&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!colspan="2"|Fricative
|<br>&nbsp;||&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;||<br/>||&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;||<br/>&nbsp;||&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;||<br/>&nbsp;
|-align="center"
!colspan="2"|Liquid
|&nbsp;||&nbsp;||, |||||&nbsp;||&nbsp;||&nbsp;
|}
|}
===Diphthongs===
Magadhan languages such as Bengali are known for their wide variety of diphthongs, or combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable.<ref></ref> Several vowel combinations can be considered true monosyllabic diphthongs, made up of the main vowel (the '''nucleus''') and the trailing vowel (the '''off-glide'''). Almost all other vowel combinations are possible, but only across two adjacent syllables, such as the disyllabic vowel combination  in কুয়া ''kua'' "well". As many as 25 vowel combinations can be found, but some of the more recent combinations have not passed through the stage between two syllables and a diphthongal monosyllable.<ref></ref>

{|class="wikitable" align="right"
|+'''Diphthongs'''
!IPA||Transliteration||Example
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ii||nii "I take"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||iu||biubhôl "upset"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ei||nei "there is not"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ee||khee "having eaten"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||eu||đheu "wave"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||eo||kheona "do not eat"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||êe||nêe "she takes"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||êo||nêo "you take"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ai||pai "I find"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ae||pae "she finds"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||au||pau "sliced bread"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ao||pao "you find"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ôe||nôe "she is not"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ôo||nôo "you are not"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||oi||noi "I am not"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||oe||dhoe "she washes"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||oo||dhoo "you wash"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ou||nouka "boat"
|-style="text-align:center"
|||ui||dhui "I wash"
|}

===Stress===
In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as '''''shô'''-ho-'''jo'''-gi-'''ta''''' "cooperation", where the '''boldface''' represents primary and secondary stress. The first syllable carries the greatest stress, with the third carrying a somewhat weaker stress, and all following odd-numbered syllables carrying very weak stress. However in words borrowed from Sanskrit, the root syllable is stressed, causing them to be out of harmony with native Bengali words.<ref name="suniti_stress"></ref>

Adding prefixes to a word typically shifts the stress to the left. For example, while the word '''''shob'''-bho'' "civilized" carries the primary stress on the first syllable ['''shob'''], adding the negative prefix [ô-] creates '''''ô'''-shob-bho'' "uncivilized", where the primary stress is now on the newly-added first syllable অ '''''ô'''''. In any case, word-stress does not alter the meaning of a word and is always subsidiary to sentence-stress.<ref name="suniti_stress"></ref>

===Intonation===
For Bengali words, intonation or pitch of voice has minor significance, apart from a few isolated cases. However in sentences intonation does play a significant role.<ref></ref> In a simple tone,<ref name="inton0"></ref> with the exception of the last word in the sentence, which only carries a low tone. This intonational pattern creates a musical tone to the typical Bengali sentence, with low and high tones alternating until the final drop in pitch to mark the end of the sentence.

In sentences involving focused words and/or phrases, the rising tones only last until the focused word; all following words carry a low tone.<ref name="inton0"></ref> This intonation pattern extends to wh-questions, as wh-words are normally considered to be focused. In yes-no questions, the rising tones may be more exaggerated, and most importantly, the final syllable of the final word in the sentence takes a high falling tone instead of a flat low tone.<ref name="inton1"></ref>

===Vowel length===
open monosyllables (i.e. words that are made up of only one syllable, with that syllable ending in the main vowel and not a consonant) have somewhat longer vowels than other syllable types.<ref name="munier"></ref> For example, the vowel in ''cha:'' "tea" is somewhat longer than the first vowel in ''chaţa'' "licking", as ''cha:'' is a word with only one syllable, and no final consonant. (The long vowel is marked with a colon : in these examples.) The suffix ''ţa'' "the" can be added to ''cha:'' to form ''cha:ţa'' "the tea". Even when another morpheme is attached to ''cha:'', the long vowel is preserved. Knowing this fact, some interesting cases of apparent vowel length distinction can be found. In general Bengali vowels tend to stay away from extreme vowel articulation.<ref name="munier"></ref>

Furthermore, using a form of reduplication called "echo reduplication", the long vowel in ''cha:'' can be copied into the reduplicant ''ţa:'', giving ''cha:ţa:'' "tea and all that comes with it". Thus, in addition to ''cha:ţa'' "the tea" (long first vowel) and ''chaţa'' "licking" (no long vowels), we have ''cha:ţa:'' "tea and all that comes with it" (both long vowels).

===Consonant clusters===