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Wikipedia

Bengali–Assamese script

May 05, 2023

"Bengali script" and "Assamese script" redirect here. For the use of this script in specific languages, see Bengali alphabet and Assamese alphabet.
Not to be confused with Meitei script, even though the Meitei language popularly uses the Bengali-Assamese script.

The Bengali–Assamese script,[7] also known as Eastern Nagari,[8] is a modern eastern Indic script that emerged from the Brahmi script.[9] Gaudi script is considered the ancestor of the script.[10] It is known as Bengali script among Bengali speakers,[11] as Assamese script among Assamese speakers,[12] and Eastern-Nāgarī is used in academic discourse.[13] It is one of official scripts of the Indian Republic for being used officially by Assamese language, Bengali language and Meitei language (officially called "Manipuri")[a],[14] three of the 22 official languages of the Indian Republic.[15][16][17]

Bengali–Assamese
বাংলা-অসমীয়া
Image 1: The text, from the 18th-century Hastividyārnava, commissioned by Ahom king Siva Singha, reads: sri sri mot xivo xingha moharaja. The modern Bengali glyph "র" currently used for ra is used in this pre-modern Assamese/Sanskrit manuscript for va, the modern form of which is "ৱ". Though the modern Assamese alphabet does not use this glyph for any letter, modern Tirhuta continues to use this for va.
Image 2: The constitutional names as well as the native names (in Eastern Nagari and Latin transliterations) of the 3 official languages of the Indian Republic that use the Eastern Nagari writing system as their official scripts
Script type
Time period
c. 1100–present
Directionleft-to-right 
Official scriptfor Assamese language, Bengali language and Meitei language (constitutionally termed as Manipuri)[1][2]
LanguagesAssamese, Bengali, Bishnupriya, Meitei, Sylheti, Santali, Kokborok, Garo, Hajong, Chakma, Chittagonian, Maithili, Kamtapuri, Urdu and others.
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
Assamese, Bengali, Tirhuta
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Beng (325), ​Bengali (Bangla)
Unicode
Unicode alias
Bengali
U+0980–U+09FF (Bengali),
U+011480–U+0114DF (Tirhuta)
[a] The Semitic origin of Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.[3]
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
This article contains Bengali text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.
This article contains Tirhuta text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

Besides Bengali and Assamese it is used to write Bishnupriya, Chakma, Meitei (Manipuri), Santali and other languages[18][19]—historically, it was used for old and middle Indo-Aryan and it is still used for Sanskrit.[20] Other languages, such as Bodo, Karbi, Maithili and Mising were once written in this script.[21] The two major alphabets in this script – Assamese and Bengali – are virtually identical, except for two characters, with Assamese differing from Bengali in one letter for the /r/ sound, and an extra letter for the /w/ or /v/ sound.[22][23][24]

History

 
Places where the Eastern Nagari script (Purva Nagari) is used

The Bengali—Assamese script was originally not associated with any particular regional language, but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions of Medieval India for Old- and Middle-Indo-Aryan including Sanskrit.[20] All of these eastern Magadhan scripts are based on a system of characters historically related to, but distinct from, Devanagari. Brahmi, an ancient Indian syllabary, is the source of most native Indian scripts including the South Indian languages and Devanagari, the script associated with classical Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages.[23]

The modern eastern scripts (Bengali-Assamese, Odia, and Maithili) became clearly differentiated around the 14th and 15th centuries from the predecessor Gaudi.[7] While the scripts in Bengal, Assam and Mithila remained similar to each other the Odia script developed a curved top in the 13th-14th century and became increasingly different.[25] Old Maithili also used a script similar to the Bengali–Assamese script, and Maithili scholars (particularly of the older generation) still write Sanskrit in that script.[22][26]

Modern Bengali–Assamese script saw further standardisations following the introduction of printing.

Printing

Though there were early attempts to cut Bengali types[27] it was the East India Company's interest in propagating the Bengali language[28] that ultimately prevailed. It first commissioned Willem Bolt, a Dutch adventurer, to create a grammar for Bengali, but he had to leave India after he ran into trouble with the company.[29] The first significant book with Bengali typography was Halhed's 1778 "A Grammar of the Bengal Language"[30] which he compiled from a meagre set of six Bengali manuscripts.[31] When Halhed turned to Warren Hastings for publishing, he was referred to Charles Wilkins, the type-founder at the Company press at Hoogly. Learned in Sanskrit and Persian, Wilkins singlehandedly cut the most complete set. He was assisted by the Bengali blacksmith, Panchanan Karmakar, who is often erroneously credited as the father of the Bengali type.[32]

Script

Further information: Bengali alphabet, Assamese alphabet, and Tirhuta
Evolution of Bengali-Assamese script
 
Inscription from Valavarman III from 9th-10th century, Nagaon, Assam. Modern forms of letters and matras are already discernible.
 
Early 13th century rock inscription near Guwahati, Assam
 
The text, from the 18th-century Hastividyārnava, commissioned by Ahom king Siva Singha, reads: sri sri mot xivo xingha moharaja. The modern Bengali glyph "র" currently used for ra is used in this pre-modern Assamese/Sanskrit manuscript for va, the modern form of which is "ৱ". Though the modern Assamese alphabet does not use this glyph for any letter, modern Tirhuta continues to use this for va.
 
Halhed's script, 1778, as designed by Charles Wilkins, was the first significant type for printing. As can be clearly seen, not all the glyphs have achieved their modern forms yet. Though the chart sports the Assamese ৰ, the Bengali র was used interchangeably in the text.

In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Assamese and Bengali languages, a Romanization scheme used by linguists specialising in Bengali phonology and a separate Assamese transliteration table used by linguists specialising in Assamese phonology are included along with IPA transcription.

Alphabets

There are three major modern alphabets in this script: Bengali, Assamese, and Tirhuta. Modern Assamese is very similar to modern Bengali. Assamese has at least one extra letter, ৱ, that Bengali does not. It also uses a separate letter for the sound 'ro' ৰ different from the letter used for that sound in Bengali র and the letter ক্ষ is not a conjunct as in Bengali, but a letter by itself. The alphabetical orders of the two alphabets also differ, in the position of the letter ক্ষ, for example. Languages like Meitei and Bishnupriya use a hybrid of the two alphabets, with the Bengali র and the Assamese ৱ. Tirhuta is more different and carries forward some forms used in medieval Assamese.[citation needed]

Vowels and diacritics

The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the seven vowel sounds of Bengali and eight vowel sounds of Assamese, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these vowel letters are used in both Assamese and Bengali. 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 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 script with their traditional names of "short i" and "long i", etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech.

Some language specific usages

In the Bengali alphabet, অ্যা is used when the intended pronunciation would otherwise be ambiguous. Some other languages use a vowel অৗ to denote /ɯ/ which is not found in either Bengali or Assamese; and though the vowel diacritic (matra, ৗ) is found in Tirhuta the vowel letter itself is absent. Assamese alphabet uses an additional "matra" (ʼ) that is used to represent the phonemes অʼ and এʼ.

Vowel Table
Vowels Vowel Diacritic
symbol		 Assamese Bengali Meitei (Manipuri)[33] Sylheti Hajong Rabha Rajbongsi
অ – ô ô/o ô/a o o ô ô
অʼ ʼ o – – – – – –
আ া a a a꞉ a a a a
অ্যা/এ্যা ্যা – æ – – – – –
অৗ ৗ – – – – â â –
ই ি i i i i i i i
ইʼ িʼ – – – – – î –
ঈ ী i i – ī – – (i)
উ ু u u u u u u u
উʼ ুʼ – – – – – â –
ঊ ূ u u – ū – – (u)
ঋ ৃ ri ri – ri – – ri
ৠ ৄ rii rii – – – – –
ঌ ৢ li li – – – – –
ৡ ৣ lii lii – – – – –
এ ে ê e/ê e ê e e ê
এʼ েʼ e – – – – – –
ঐ ৈ ôi ôi ei oi oi – ôi
ও ো û o o/ô – ô o o
ঔ ৌ ôu ôu ou ou ôu – ôu

Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by ক, kô). When no vowel Diacritic symbol is written, then the vowel "অ" (ô) is the default inherited vowel for the consonant. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a hôsôntô (্) may be written underneath the consonant.

Consonants

The names of the consonant letters in Eastern Nagari are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel "অ" 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, not gh). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese and 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 "dental nô", "cerebral nô" and niô. Similarly, the phoneme /ʃ/ in Bengali and /x/ in Assamese can be written as "palatal shô/xhô" শ, "cerebral shô/xhô" ষ, or "dental sô/xô" স, depending on the word.

Consonant Table
Consonant Assamese Bengali Meitei (Manipuri)[33] Chittagonian Dhakaiya
Kutti		 Sylheti Hajong Maithili
ক kô kô kô xô kô xô ko ka
খ khô khô khô xô kô xo kho kha
গ gô gô gô gô gô go go ga
ঘ ghô ghô ghô gô gô go gho gha
ঙ ungô ngô ngô ngô ngô – ngo nga
চ sô cô cô sô cô so co ca
ছ shô chô – sô cô so so -
𑒕 – – – – – – – cha
জ zô jô jô zô zô zo jo ja
ঝ zhô jhô jhô zô zô zo jho -
𑒗 – – – – – – – jha
ঞ niô nô – – – – – nia
ট tô ţô – tô tô to – –
𑒙 – – – – – – – ţa
ঠ thô ţhô – tô tô to – ţha
ড dô đô – dô dô do – da
ড় rô ŗô – rô rô ŗo – –
ঢ dhô đhô – dô dô do - da
ঢ় rhô ŗhô – rô rô ro – –
ণ nô nô – nô nô no - -
ত tô tô tô tô tô ṭo to ta
থ thô thô thô tô tô ṭo tho tha
দ dô dô dô dô dô ḍo do da
ধ dhô dhô dhô dhô dhô ḍo dho dha
ন nô nô nô nô nô no no na
প pô pô pô fô pô fo po pa
ফ fô phô fô fô fô fo fo –
𑒤 – – – – – – – pha
ব bô bô bô vô bô vo bo ra
ভ vô bhô vô vô vô vo vo bha
ম mô mô mô mô mô mo mo ma
য zô jô – zô zô zo - ya
য় yô yô yô yô yô – yo –
র - rô rô rô rô ro wõ va
ৰ rô (rô) ro – ro ra – –
ল lô lô lô lô lô lo – –
𑒪 – – – – – – – la
ৱ wô – wo wô o – – –
শ xô şô – shô sô – - sha
ষ xô şşô – shô sô – - ssha
স xô şô sô shô sô şo - sa
হ hô hô hô ô hô ho ho -
𑒯 – – – – – – – ha

Digits

Digits
Arabic numerals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Bengali numerals ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯
Assamese names xuinnô ek dui tini sari pãs sôy xat ath nô
শূন্য এক দুই তিনি চাৰি পাঁচ ছয় সাত আঠ ন
Bengali names shunnô æk dui tin char pãch chhôy shat aţ nôy
শূন্য এক দুই তিন চার পাঁচ ছয় সাত আট নয়
Meitei names phoon ama ani ahum mari manga taruk taret nipa꞉n ma꞉pan
ফুন অমা অনি অহুম মরি মঙা তরূক তরেৎ নীপান মাপন
Sylheti names shuinno ex dui tin sair fas soe shat/hat aŧ noe
শুইন্য এখ দুই তিন ছাইর ফাছ ছয় সাত/হাত আট নয়
Maithili names shūnya ek du tīn chari pãch chhau sat aţh nau
শূন্য এক দু তীন চাৰি পাঁচ ছৌ সাত আঠ নৌ

In Unicode

Main articles: Bengali (Unicode block) and Tirhuta (Unicode block)

There are two Unicode blocks for Bengali–Assamese script, called Bengali and Tirhuta. The Bengali block is U+0980–U+09FF:

Bengali[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+098x ঀ ঁ ং ঃ অ আ ই ঈ উ ঊ ঋ ঌ এ
U+099x ঐ ও ঔ ক খ গ ঘ ঙ চ ছ জ ঝ ঞ ট
U+09Ax ঠ ড ঢ ণ ত থ দ ধ ন প ফ ব ভ ম য
U+09Bx র ল শ ষ স হ ় ঽ া ি
U+09Cx ী ু ূ ৃ ৄ ে ৈ ো ৌ ্ ৎ
U+09Dx ৗ ড় ঢ় য়
U+09Ex ৠ ৡ ৢ ৣ ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯
U+09Fx ৰ ৱ ৲ ৳ ৴ ৵ ৶ ৷ ৸ ৹ ৺ ৻ ৼ ৽ ৾
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Tirhuta block is U+11480–U+114DF:

Tirhuta[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1148x 𑒀‎ 𑒁‎ 𑒂‎ 𑒃‎ 𑒄‎ 𑒅‎ 𑒆‎ 𑒇‎ 𑒈‎ 𑒉‎ 𑒊‎ 𑒋‎ 𑒌‎ 𑒍‎ 𑒎‎ 𑒏‎
U+1149x 𑒐‎ 𑒑‎ 𑒒‎ 𑒓‎ 𑒔‎ 𑒕‎ 𑒖‎ 𑒗‎ 𑒘‎ 𑒙‎ 𑒚‎ 𑒛‎ 𑒜‎ 𑒝‎ 𑒞‎ 𑒟‎
U+114Ax 𑒠‎ 𑒡‎ 𑒢‎ 𑒣‎ 𑒤‎ 𑒥‎ 𑒦‎ 𑒧‎ 𑒨‎ 𑒩‎ 𑒪‎ 𑒫‎ 𑒬‎ 𑒭‎ 𑒮‎ 𑒯‎
U+114Bx 𑒰‎ 𑒱‎ 𑒲‎ 𑒳‎ 𑒴‎ 𑒵‎ 𑒶‎ 𑒷‎ 𑒸‎ 𑒹‎ 𑒺‎ 𑒻‎ 𑒼‎ 𑒽‎ 𑒾‎ 𑒿‎
U+114Cx 𑓀‎ 𑓁‎ 𑓂‎ 𑓃‎ 𑓄‎ 𑓅‎ 𑓆‎ 𑓇‎
U+114Dx 𑓐‎ 𑓑‎ 𑓒‎ 𑓓‎ 𑓔‎ 𑓕‎ 𑓖‎ 𑓗‎ 𑓘‎ 𑓙‎
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Notes

  1. ^ Besides Bengali script, Meitei language also uses Meitei script as its official script simultaneously.
  1. ^ "GAZETTE TITLE: The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021". manipurgovtpress.nic.in.
  2. ^ "Manipuri language and alphabets". omniglot.com. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  3. ^ a b 'The theory of a Semitic origin for Brahmi, [as opposed to Indus origin], does have a strong, if not entirely conclusive, body of concrete evidence in its favor.' and 'For even many of the supporters of the Semitic hypothesis concede that, in Dani's words, "[T]he Brahmi letters are not literally 'derived' from the Semitic letters as is commonly understood, but are only based on them" (DIP 29).' (Salomon 1998:29)
  4. ^ 'The terminology for the various premodern Brahmi-derived scripts is, however, largely unstandardized and typically made up ad hoc, due mainly to the lack of attested indigenous terms for many of them (2.1.1). D. C. Sircar broadly categorizes the stages of development into "Early", "Middle", and "Late Brahmi" periods, corresponding (in northern India) to the third through first centuries B.C., the first century B.C. through third century A.D., and the fourth through sixth centuries A.D., respectively (HEP 113), though others refer to his "Late Brahmi" as "Gupta script".' (Salomon 1998:19)
  5. ^ "Around the late sixth century, the so-called Gupta script of northern India evolved into a distinct new script for which the preferred name is Siddhamatrka." (Salomon 1998:39)
  6. ^ "In the northeast, the local derivative of Siddhamatrka was the script known as Proto-Bengali or Gaudi, which was current from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries." (Salomon 1998:41)
  7. ^ a b "This, in turn, gave rise to the modern eastern scripts, namely, Bengali-Assamese, Oriya, and Maithili, which became clearly differentiated around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." (Salomon 1998:41)
  8. ^ "The Eastern Nagri script was first created to write Sanskrit and later adopted by regional languages like Bengali and Assamese. The Bengali Unicode block of characters is created from the Eastern Nagri script and contains character variants, like for the ‘r’, that is different in Bengali and Assamese." (Simard, Dopierala & Thaut 2020:5f)
  9. ^ See "Parent Systems" on the right, and the citations therein.
  10. ^ (Salomon 1998:41)
  11. ^ " Bengalis will refer to the script as the 'Bengali script'.." (Brandt 2014:24)
  12. ^ "Assamese has, like Bengali, a long literary tradition in this script which Assamese speakers naturally refer to as the 'Assamese script'." (Brandt 2014:25)
  13. ^ "In fact, the term 'Eastern Nagari' seems to be the only designation which does not favour one or the other language. However, it is only applied in academic discourse, whereas the name 'Bengali script' dominates the global public sphere." (Brandt 2014:25)
  14. ^ "GAZETTE TITLE: The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021". manipurgovtpress.nic.in.
  15. ^ "Assamese alphabet, pronunciation and alphabet". omniglot.com. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  16. ^ "Bengali alphabet, pronunciation and language". omniglot.com. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  17. ^ "Manipuri language and alphabets". omniglot.com. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  18. ^ "Already the fact that most Bengalis will refer to the script of their language exclusively as the 'Bengali script', though it is used for many other languages as well, e.g. Assamese, Bishnupriya, Chakma, Meitei, Santali, etc. gives a glimpse of the dominant role of the Bengali language in the eastern part of South Asia (Brandt 2014:25–26)
  19. ^ Bijan Kumar Roy, Subal Chandra Biswas and Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, Designing Unicode‐compliant Indic‐script based Institutional Digital Repository with special reference to Bengali, page 55, International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology Vol.8, No.3, 53-67 (September, 2018)
  20. ^ a b "(T)he script used today for Assamese and Bengali was, by origin, linked to the region and not any one specific modern language. Historically, it was in fact used for Old and Middle Indo-Aryan. Today it is used not only for other modern languages (e.g. Bishnupriya) but also still for Sanskrit." (Brandt & Sohoni 2018:7)
  21. ^ Prabhakara, M S [Usurped!], The Hindu, 19 May 2005.
  22. ^ a b Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, The History and Culture of the Indian People: British paramountcy and Indian renaissance (Part 2), page 219, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951
  23. ^ a b Bernard Comrie, The World's Major Languages, page 419, Routledge, 2009, ISBN 9781134261567
  24. ^ B. P. Mahapatra, Constitutional languages, page 39, Presses Université Laval, 1989, ISBN 9782763771861
  25. ^ "[T]he phase when the curved tops - so prominent now in many of the Oriya letters - were just appearing, initiating the parting of ways from the proto-[Bengali-Assamese-Maithili] phase. The beginning and progress of this trend can be noticed in many of the Orissa [inscriptions] of the 13th-14th centuries A.D." (Bhattacharya 1969:56f)
  26. ^ Atindra Mojumder, Bengali Language: Historical Grammar (Part 1), page 22, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1972
  27. ^ (Khan 1962:55)
  28. ^ "By 1772, the Company had skillfully employed the sword, diplomacy, and intrigue to take over the rule of Bengal from her people, factious nobles, and weak Nawab. Subsequently, to consolidate its hold on the province, the Company promoted the Bengali language. This did not represent an intrinsic love for Bengali speech and literature. Instead it was aimed at destroying traditional patterns of authority through supplanting the Persian language which had been the official tongue since the days of the great Moguls." (Khan 1962:53)
  29. ^ "[T]he East India Company had commissioned Bolts to prepare a grammar of the Bengali language. But although Bolts, who was a man of great enterprise and ingenuity, had represented himself as a great Orientalist, he ran into difficulties with the Company from 1766 to 1768 which culminated in his deportation from India." (Khan 1962:55–56)
  30. ^ " The first significant stride in Bengali typography, printing, and publication was made in 1778 with the appearance of A Grammar of the Bengal Language by Halhed." (Khan 1962:56)
  31. ^ "Halhed, when compiling his monumental Grammar of the Bengali Language, complained that despite his familiarity with the works of Bengali authors he could trace only six extant books in 1778. These included the great religious epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. All six, of course, were in manuscript." (Khan 1962:53)
  32. ^ (Khan 1962:57–58)
  33. ^ a b "Meetei Mayek keys (in comparison to Bengali script)". Retrieved 16 March 2023.

References

  • Banerji, R D (1919). The Origin of the Bengali Script. University of Calcutta.
  • Bhattacharya, Sureshchandra (1969). The Evolution of Script in Northeastern India from CAD 400 to 1200 with Sepcial Reference to Bengal (PhD). University of London.
  • Bora, Mahendra (1981). The Evolution of Assamese Script. Jorhat, Assam: Assam Sahitya Sabha.
  • Brandt, Carmen (2014). (PDF). Depart. Vol. 17. pp. 24–31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2017.
  • Brandt, Carmen; Sohoni, Pushkar (2018). "Script and identity – the politics of writing in South Asia: an introduction". South Asian History and Culture. 9: 1–15. doi:10.1080/19472498.2017.1411048. S2CID 148802248.
  • Khan, M. Siddiq (1962). "The Early History of Bengali Printing". The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. The University of Chicago Press. 32 (1): 51–61. doi:10.1086/618956. JSTOR 4305188. S2CID 148408211.
  • Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
  • Simard, Candide; Dopierala, Sarah M; Thaut, E Marie (2020). "Introducing the Sylheti language and its speakers, and the SOAS Sylheti project" (PDF). Language Documentation and Description. 18: 1–22. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  • Verma, Thakur Prasad (1976). Development of Script in Ancient Kamrupa. Asam Sahitya Sabha.

See also

External links

  • Omniglot – Assamese Alphabet
  • Omniglot – Bengali Alphabet

May 05, 2023
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Bengali script and Assamese script redirect here For the use of this script in specific languages see Bengali alphabet and Assamese alphabet Not to be confused with Meitei script even though the Meitei language popularly uses the Bengali Assamese script The Bengali Assamese script 7 also known as Eastern Nagari 8 is a modern eastern Indic script that emerged from the Brahmi script 9 Gaudi script is considered the ancestor of the script 10 It is known as Bengali script among Bengali speakers 11 as Assamese script among Assamese speakers 12 and Eastern Nagari is used in academic discourse 13 It is one of official scripts of the Indian Republic for being used officially by Assamese language Bengali language and Meitei language officially called Manipuri a 14 three of the 22 official languages of the Indian Republic 15 16 17 Bengali Assameseব ল অসম য Image 1 The text from the 18th century Hastividyarnava commissioned by Ahom king Siva Singha reads sri sri mot xivo xingha moharaja The modern Bengali glyph র currently used for ra is used in this pre modern Assamese Sanskrit manuscript for va the modern form of which is ৱ Though the modern Assamese alphabet does not use this glyph for any letter modern Tirhuta continues to use this for va Image 2 The constitutional names as well as the native names in Eastern Nagari and Latin transliterations of the 3 official languages of the Indian Republic that use the Eastern Nagari writing system as their official scriptsScript typeAbugidaTime periodc 1100 presentDirectionleft to right Official scriptfor Assamese language Bengali language and Meitei language constitutionally termed as Manipuri 1 2 LanguagesAssamese Bengali Bishnupriya Meitei Sylheti Santali Kokborok Garo Hajong Chakma Chittagonian Maithili Kamtapuri Urdu and others Related scriptsParent systemsProto Sinaitic alphabet a Phoenician alphabet a Aramaic alphabet a Brahmi 3 Gupta 4 Siddhaṃ 5 Gaudi 6 Bengali AssameseChild systemsAssamese Bengali TirhutaISO 15924ISO 15924Beng 325 Bengali Bangla UnicodeUnicode aliasBengaliUnicode rangeU 0980 U 09FF Bengali U 011480 U 0114DF Tirhuta a The Semitic origin of Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon 3 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters Part of a series onOfficially used writing systems in IndiaCategoryIndic scriptsBengali Assamese script Devanagari script Gujarati script Gurmukhi script Kannada script Malayalam script Meitei script Odia script Tamil script Telugu scriptArabic derived scriptsPerso Arabic script Urdu scriptAlphabetical scriptsOl Chiki script Latin scriptRelatedOfficial scripts of the Indian Republic Writing systems of India Languages of India Asia portal India portal Language portal Writing portalThis article contains Bengali text Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols This article contains Tirhuta text Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols Besides Bengali and Assamese it is used to write Bishnupriya Chakma Meitei Manipuri Santali and other languages 18 19 historically it was used for old and middle Indo Aryan and it is still used for Sanskrit 20 Other languages such as Bodo Karbi Maithili and Mising were once written in this script 21 The two major alphabets in this script Assamese and Bengali are virtually identical except for two characters with Assamese differing from Bengali in one letter for the r sound and an extra letter for the w or v sound 22 23 24 Contents 1 History 1 1 Printing 2 Script 2 1 Alphabets 2 2 Vowels and diacritics 2 3 Some language specific usages 2 4 Consonants 2 5 Digits 3 In Unicode 4 Notes 5 References 6 See also 7 External linksHistory Edit Places where the Eastern Nagari script Purva Nagari is used The Bengali Assamese script was originally not associated with any particular regional language but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions of Medieval India for Old and Middle Indo Aryan including Sanskrit 20 All of these eastern Magadhan scripts are based on a system of characters historically related to but distinct from Devanagari Brahmi an ancient Indian syllabary is the source of most native Indian scripts including the South Indian languages and Devanagari the script associated with classical Sanskrit and other Indo Aryan languages 23 The modern eastern scripts Bengali Assamese Odia and Maithili became clearly differentiated around the 14th and 15th centuries from the predecessor Gaudi 7 While the scripts in Bengal Assam and Mithila remained similar to each other the Odia script developed a curved top in the 13th 14th century and became increasingly different 25 Old Maithili also used a script similar to the Bengali Assamese script and Maithili scholars particularly of the older generation still write Sanskrit in that script 22 26 Modern Bengali Assamese script saw further standardisations following the introduction of printing Printing Edit Though there were early attempts to cut Bengali types 27 it was the East India Company s interest in propagating the Bengali language 28 that ultimately prevailed It first commissioned Willem Bolt a Dutch adventurer to create a grammar for Bengali but he had to leave India after he ran into trouble with the company 29 The first significant book with Bengali typography was Halhed s 1778 A Grammar of the Bengal Language 30 which he compiled from a meagre set of six Bengali manuscripts 31 When Halhed turned to Warren Hastings for publishing he was referred to Charles Wilkins the type founder at the Company press at Hoogly Learned in Sanskrit and Persian Wilkins singlehandedly cut the most complete set He was assisted by the Bengali blacksmith Panchanan Karmakar who is often erroneously credited as the father of the Bengali type 32 Script EditFurther information Bengali alphabet Assamese alphabet and Tirhuta Evolution of Bengali Assamese script Inscription from Valavarman III from 9th 10th century Nagaon Assam Modern forms of letters and matras are already discernible Early 13th century rock inscription near Guwahati Assam The text from the 18th century Hastividyarnava commissioned by Ahom king Siva Singha reads sri sri mot xivo xingha moharaja The modern Bengali glyph র currently used for ra is used in this pre modern Assamese Sanskrit manuscript for va the modern form of which is ৱ Though the modern Assamese alphabet does not use this glyph for any letter modern Tirhuta continues to use this for va Halhed s script 1778 as designed by Charles Wilkins was the first significant type for printing As can be clearly seen not all the glyphs have achieved their modern forms yet Though the chart sports the Assamese ৰ the Bengali র was used interchangeably in the text In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Assamese and Bengali languages a Romanization scheme used by linguists specialising in Bengali phonology and a separate Assamese transliteration table used by linguists specialising in Assamese phonology are included along with IPA transcription Alphabets Edit There are three major modern alphabets in this script Bengali Assamese and Tirhuta Modern Assamese is very similar to modern Bengali Assamese has at least one extra letter ৱ that Bengali does not It also uses a separate letter for the sound ro ৰ different from the letter used for that sound in Bengali র and the letter ক ষ is not a conjunct as in Bengali but a letter by itself The alphabetical orders of the two alphabets also differ in the position of the letter ক ষ for example Languages like Meitei and Bishnupriya use a hybrid of the two alphabets with the Bengali র and the Assamese ৱ Tirhuta is more different and carries forward some forms used in medieval Assamese citation needed Vowels and diacritics Edit The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters used to represent the seven vowel sounds of Bengali and eight vowel sounds of Assamese along with a number of vowel diphthongs All of these vowel letters are used in both Assamese and Bengali 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 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 script with their traditional names of short i and long i etc despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech Some language specific usages Edit In the Bengali alphabet অ য is used when the intended pronunciation would otherwise be ambiguous Some other languages use a vowel অ to denote ɯ which is not found in either Bengali or Assamese and though the vowel diacritic matra is found in Tirhuta the vowel letter itself is absent Assamese alphabet uses an additional matra ʼ that is used to represent the phonemes অʼ and এʼ Vowel Table Vowels Vowel Diacritic symbol Assamese Bengali Meitei Manipuri 33 Sylheti Hajong Rabha Rajbongsiঅ o o o o a o o o oঅʼ ʼ o আ a a a a a a aঅ য এ য য ae অ a a ই i i i i i i iইʼ ʼ i ঈ i i i i উ u u u u u u uউʼ ʼ a ঊ u u u u ঋ ri ri ri riৠ rii rii ঌ li li ৡ lii lii এ e e e e e e e eএʼ ʼ e ঐ oi oi ei oi oi oiও u o o o o o oঔ ou ou ou ou ou ouVowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant here exemplified by ক ko When no vowel Diacritic symbol is written then the vowel অ o is the default inherited vowel for the consonant To specifically denote the absence of a vowel a hosonto may be written underneath the consonant Consonants Edit The names of the consonant letters in Eastern Nagari are typically just the consonant s main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel অ o 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 gho not gh Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese and 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 no instead they are called dental no cerebral no and nio Similarly the phoneme ʃ in Bengali and x in Assamese can be written as palatal sho xho শ cerebral sho xho ষ or dental so xo স depending on the word Consonant Table Consonant Assamese Bengali Meitei Manipuri 33 Chittagonian DhakaiyaKutti Sylheti Hajong Maithiliক ko ko ko xo ko xo ko kaখ kho kho kho xo ko xo kho khaগ go go go go go go go gaঘ gho gho gho go go go gho ghaঙ ungo ngo ngo ngo ngo ngo ngaচ so co co so co so co caছ sho cho so co so so 𑒕 chaজ zo jo jo zo zo zo jo jaঝ zho jho jho zo zo zo jho 𑒗 jhaঞ nio no niaট to ţo to to to 𑒙 ţaঠ tho ţho to to to ţhaড do đo do do do daড ro ŗo ro ro ŗo ঢ dho đho do do do daঢ rho ŗho ro ro ro ণ no no no no no ত to to to to to ṭo to taথ tho tho tho to to ṭo tho thaদ do do do do do ḍo do daধ dho dho dho dho dho ḍo dho dhaন no no no no no no no naপ po po po fo po fo po paফ fo pho fo fo fo fo fo 𑒤 phaব bo bo bo vo bo vo bo raভ vo bho vo vo vo vo vo bhaম mo mo mo mo mo mo mo maয zo jo zo zo zo yaয yo yo yo yo yo yo র ro ro ro ro ro wo vaৰ ro ro ro ro ra ল lo lo lo lo lo lo 𑒪 laৱ wo wo wo o শ xo so sho so shaষ xo sso sho so sshaস xo so so sho so so saহ ho ho ho o ho ho ho 𑒯 haDigits Edit Digits Arabic numerals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Bengali numerals ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯Assamese names xuinno ek dui tini sari pas soy xat ath noশ ন য এক দ ই ত ন চ ৰ প চ ছয স ত আঠ নBengali names shunno aek dui tin char pach chhoy shat aţ noyশ ন য এক দ ই ত ন চ র প চ ছয স ত আট নয Meitei names phoon ama ani ahum mari manga taruk taret nipa n ma panফ ন অম অন অহ ম মর মঙ তর ক তর ৎ ন প ন ম পনSylheti names shuinno ex dui tin sair fas soe shat hat aŧ noeশ ইন য এখ দ ই ত ন ছ ইর ফ ছ ছয স ত হ ত আট নয Maithili names shunya ek du tin chari pach chhau sat aţh nauশ ন য এক দ ত ন চ ৰ প চ ছ স ত আঠ ন In Unicode EditMain articles Bengali Unicode block and Tirhuta Unicode block There are two Unicode blocks for Bengali Assamese script called Bengali and Tirhuta The Bengali block is U 0980 U 09FF Bengali 1 2 Official Unicode Consortium code chart PDF 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E FU 098x ঀ অ আ ই ঈ উ ঊ ঋ ঌ এU 099x ঐ ও ঔ ক খ গ ঘ ঙ চ ছ জ ঝ ঞ টU 09Ax ঠ ড ঢ ণ ত থ দ ধ ন প ফ ব ভ ম যU 09Bx র ল শ ষ স হ ঽ U 09Cx ৎU 09Dx ড় ঢ় য়U 09Ex ৠ ৡ ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯U 09Fx ৰ ৱ ৼ Notes 1 As of Unicode version 15 0 2 Grey areas indicate non assigned code pointsThe Tirhuta block is U 11480 U 114DF Tirhuta 1 2 Official Unicode Consortium code chart PDF 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E FU 1148x 𑒀 𑒁 𑒂 𑒃 𑒄 𑒅 𑒆 𑒇 𑒈 𑒉 𑒊 𑒋 𑒌 𑒍 𑒎 𑒏 U 1149x 𑒐 𑒑 𑒒 𑒓 𑒔 𑒕 𑒖 𑒗 𑒘 𑒙 𑒚 𑒛 𑒜 𑒝 𑒞 𑒟 U 114Ax 𑒠 𑒡 𑒢 𑒣 𑒤 𑒥 𑒦 𑒧 𑒨 𑒩 𑒪 𑒫 𑒬 𑒭 𑒮 𑒯 U 114Bx U 114Cx 𑓄 𑓅 𑓇 U 114Dx 𑓐 𑓑 𑓒 𑓓 𑓔 𑓕 𑓖 𑓗 𑓘 𑓙 Notes 1 As of Unicode version 15 0 2 Grey areas indicate non assigned code pointsNotes Edit Besides Bengali script Meitei language also uses Meitei script as its official script simultaneously GAZETTE TITLE The Manipur Official Language Amendment Act 2021 manipurgovtpress nic in Manipuri language and alphabets omniglot com Retrieved 27 January 2023 a b The theory of a Semitic origin for Brahmi as opposed to Indus origin does have a strong if not entirely conclusive body of concrete evidence in its favor and For even many of the supporters of the Semitic hypothesis concede that in Dani s words T he Brahmi letters are not literally derived from the Semitic letters as is commonly understood but are only based on them DIP 29 Salomon 1998 29 The terminology for the various premodern Brahmi derived scripts is however largely unstandardized and typically made up ad hoc due mainly to the lack of attested indigenous terms for many of them 2 1 1 D C Sircar broadly categorizes the stages of development into Early Middle and Late Brahmi periods corresponding in northern India to the third through first centuries B C the first century B C through third century A D and the fourth through sixth centuries A D respectively HEP 113 though others refer to his Late Brahmi as Gupta script Salomon 1998 19 Around the late sixth century the so called Gupta script of northern India evolved into a distinct new script for which the preferred name is Siddhamatrka Salomon 1998 39 In the northeast the local derivative of Siddhamatrka was the script known as Proto Bengali or Gaudi which was current from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries Salomon 1998 41 a b This in turn gave rise to the modern eastern scripts namely Bengali Assamese Oriya and Maithili which became clearly differentiated around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Salomon 1998 41 The Eastern Nagri script was first created to write Sanskrit and later adopted by regional languages like Bengali and Assamese The Bengali Unicode block of characters is created from the Eastern Nagri script and contains character variants like for the r that is different in Bengali and Assamese Simard Dopierala amp Thaut 2020 5f See Parent Systems on the right and the citations therein Salomon 1998 41 Bengalis will refer to the script as the Bengali script Brandt 2014 24 Assamese has like Bengali a long literary tradition in this script which Assamese speakers naturally refer to as the Assamese script Brandt 2014 25 In fact the term Eastern Nagari seems to be the only designation which does not favour one or the other language However it is only applied in academic discourse whereas the name Bengali script dominates the global public sphere Brandt 2014 25 GAZETTE TITLE The Manipur Official Language Amendment Act 2021 manipurgovtpress nic in Assamese alphabet pronunciation and alphabet omniglot com Retrieved 27 January 2023 Bengali alphabet pronunciation and language omniglot com Retrieved 27 January 2023 Manipuri language and alphabets omniglot com Retrieved 27 January 2023 Already the fact that most Bengalis will refer to the script of their language exclusively as the Bengali script though it is used for many other languages as well e g Assamese Bishnupriya Chakma Meitei Santali etc gives a glimpse of the dominant role of the Bengali language in the eastern part of South Asia Brandt 2014 25 26 Bijan Kumar Roy Subal Chandra Biswas and Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay Designing Unicode compliant Indic script based Institutional Digital Repository with special reference to Bengali page 55 International Journal of Knowledge Content Development amp Technology Vol 8 No 3 53 67 September 2018 a b T he script used today for Assamese and Bengali was by origin linked to the region and not any one specific modern language Historically it was in fact used for Old and Middle Indo Aryan Today it is used not only for other modern languages e g Bishnupriya but also still for Sanskrit Brandt amp Sohoni 2018 7 Prabhakara M S Scripting a solution Usurped The Hindu 19 May 2005 a b Ramesh Chandra Majumdar The History and Culture of the Indian People British paramountcy and Indian renaissance Part 2 page 219 Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan 1951 a b Bernard Comrie The World s Major Languages page 419 Routledge 2009 ISBN 9781134261567 B P Mahapatra Constitutional languages page 39 Presses Universite Laval 1989 ISBN 9782763771861 T he phase when the curved tops so prominent now in many of the Oriya letters were just appearing initiating the parting of ways from the proto Bengali Assamese Maithili phase The beginning and progress of this trend can be noticed in many of the Orissa inscriptions of the 13th 14th centuries A D Bhattacharya 1969 56f Atindra Mojumder Bengali Language Historical Grammar Part 1 page 22 Firma K L Mukhopadhyay 1972 Khan 1962 55 By 1772 the Company had skillfully employed the sword diplomacy and intrigue to take over the rule of Bengal from her people factious nobles and weak Nawab Subsequently to consolidate its hold on the province the Company promoted the Bengali language This did not represent an intrinsic love for Bengali speech and literature Instead it was aimed at destroying traditional patterns of authority through supplanting the Persian language which had been the official tongue since the days of the great Moguls Khan 1962 53 T he East India Company had commissioned Bolts to prepare a grammar of the Bengali language But although Bolts who was a man of great enterprise and ingenuity had represented himself as a great Orientalist he ran into difficulties with the Company from 1766 to 1768 which culminated in his deportation from India Khan 1962 55 56 The first significant stride in Bengali typography printing and publication was made in 1778 with the appearance of A Grammar of the Bengal Language by Halhed Khan 1962 56 Halhed when compiling his monumental Grammar of the Bengali Language complained that despite his familiarity with the works of Bengali authors he could trace only six extant books in 1778 These included the great religious epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata All six of course were in manuscript Khan 1962 53 Khan 1962 57 58 a b Meetei Mayek keys in comparison to Bengali script Retrieved 16 March 2023 References EditBanerji R D 1919 The Origin of the Bengali Script University of Calcutta Bhattacharya Sureshchandra 1969 The Evolution of Script in Northeastern India from CAD 400 to 1200 with Sepcial Reference to Bengal PhD University of London Bora Mahendra 1981 The Evolution of Assamese Script Jorhat Assam Assam Sahitya Sabha Brandt Carmen 2014 The identity politics of language and script in South Asia PDF Depart Vol 17 pp 24 31 Archived from the original PDF on 16 May 2017 Brandt Carmen Sohoni Pushkar 2018 Script and identity the politics of writing in South Asia an introduction South Asian History and Culture 9 1 15 doi 10 1080 19472498 2017 1411048 S2CID 148802248 Khan M Siddiq 1962 The Early History of Bengali Printing The Library Quarterly Information Community Policy The University of Chicago Press 32 1 51 61 doi 10 1086 618956 JSTOR 4305188 S2CID 148408211 Salomon Richard 1998 Indian Epigraphy A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit Prakrit and the Other Indo Aryan Languages New York Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 535666 3 Simard Candide Dopierala Sarah M Thaut E Marie 2020 Introducing the Sylheti language and its speakers and the SOAS Sylheti project PDF Language Documentation and Description 18 1 22 Retrieved 16 October 2020 Verma Thakur Prasad 1976 Development of Script in Ancient Kamrupa Asam Sahitya Sabha See also EditNaoriya Phullo script Official scripts of the Indian RepublicExternal links EditOmniglot Assamese Alphabet Omniglot Bengali Alphabet Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bengali Assamese script amp oldid 1152569805, wikipedia, wiki, 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