Help:IPA/Bengali

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Bengali on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Bengali in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or its value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

Shortcuts

Charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Bengali pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-bn}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Bengali phonology and Bengali alphabet for a more thorough look at the sounds of Bengali.

Consonants
IPA	Bengali	Examples	English Approximation
b	ব	বালি	abash
bʱ	ভ	ভীরু	abhor
d	দ	দাম	the
dʱ	ধ	ধারা	without
ɖ	ড	ডুমুর	guard
ɖʱ	ঢ	ঢোল	guardhouse
dʒ	জ, য^[1]	জল যবন	hedge
dʒʱ	ঝ	ঝাউ	hedgehog
ɡ	গ	গম	agate
ɡʱ	ঘ	বাঘা	pigheaded
ɦ	হ, ঃ	মহান	head
k	ক	কলম	scan
kʰ	খ	শাখা	can
l	ল	মালিনী	leaf
m	ম	মানুষ	much
n	ন, ণ, ঞ	নীলা বাণ	not
ŋ	ঙ, ং	বাঙালি	bank
p	প	পাকা	span
pʰ^[2]	ফ	ফল	naphtha
r^[3]	র,‍‍ র্ক, ‍‍্র	বিরাম	ring
ɽ	ড়, ঢ়	বড়ো দৃঢ়	US: larder
s	স	সেলাম	sue
ʃ	শ, ষ, স	মশা ষাট সময়	shoe
t	ত, ৎ	তমাল উৎস	think
tʰ	থ	থাবা	thought
ʈ	ট	বট	art
ʈʰ	ঠ	কাঠুরে	artist
tʃ	চ	মুচি	catch
tʃʰ	ছ	ছাগল	choose
Marginal consonants
z	জ, য^[1]	জাকাত	zip

Vowels
IPA	Bengali	Examples	English Approximation
a	আ, পা	আঙিনা	Australian father or RP cut
ɛ	অ্যা, প্যা, এ, পে	ত্যাগ খেলা	dress
e	এ, পে	মেদিনী	may
i	ই, পি, ঈ, পী	দিন দীন	very
o	ও, পো, অ, প	ওজন অঙ্কুর	sole
ɔ	অ, প	অমর	off
u	উ, পু, ঊ, পূ	কুল কূল	boot
̃	ঁ	ইঁদুর	nasal vowel ([ã], [õ], etc.)
Semivowels
e̯	য়	খায়	Similar to face
i̯	ই	ভাই	Similar to happy
o̯	ও	যাও হাওয়া	Similar to look
u̯	উ	ঝাউ	Similar to goose

Suprasegmentals
IPA
ˈ	primary stress (placed before stressed syllable)^[4]
ˌ	secondary stress (placed before stressed syllable)^[4]
ː	doubled consonant

NotesEdit

^ ^a ^b ⟨জ⟩ and ⟨য⟩ may represent a voiced affricate /dʒ/ in Standard Bengali words of native origin, but they can also represent /z/ in foreign words and names (জাকাত [zakat] 'zakah charity', আজিজ [aziz] 'Aziz'). However, many speakers usually replace /z/ with /dʒ/. Additionally, some words that originally had /z/ are now pronounced with /dʑ/ in Standard Bengali (সবজি [ɕobdʑi] 'vegetable', from Persian sabzi).
^ /pʰ/ is phonetically realised either as [pʰ] or [f] depending on the speaker and variety.
^ /r/ is phonetically an alveolar trill [r], alveolar tap [ɾ] or alveolar approximant [ɹ] depending on the variety and speaker.
^ ^a ^b Primary stress occurs in word-initial positions with secondary stress occurring afterwards.

BibliographyEdit

Khan, Sameer ud Dowla (2010), "Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 221–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000071

[Voiced_alveolar_sibilant-1] ⟨জ⟩ and ⟨য⟩ may represent a voiced affricate /dʒ/ in Standard Bengali words of native origin, but they can also represent /z/ in foreign words and names (জাকাত [zakat] 'zakah charity', আজিজ [aziz] 'Aziz'). However, many speakers usually replace /z/ with /dʒ/. Additionally, some words that originally had /z/ are now pronounced with /dʑ/ in Standard Bengali (সবজি [ɕobdʑi] 'vegetable', from Persian sabzi).

[Voiceless_bilabial_stop-2] /pʰ/ is phonetically realised either as [pʰ] or [f] depending on the speaker and variety.

[alveolortrill-3] /r/ is phonetically an alveolar trill [r], alveolar tap [ɾ] or alveolar approximant [ɹ] depending on the variety and speaker.

[Stress-4] Primary stress occurs in word-initial positions with secondary stress occurring afterwards.

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[2]

[3]

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