Ukindia Learn to Read Bengali

Lesson 5- Alphabet


Lesson 2......Home Page
Here is the Bengali Alphabet

The vowel marks

The compound letters

To follow

Comments on the above by Sameer Khan

First of all, the letter that looks like a "y" in hindi is NOT a "z" in
bangla, it is a harder "j", a sound not found in Hindi.  there is no real "z"
sound in bangla, the first "j" is used for a "z".

Also, the "s" letter is pronounced like a softer "sh", though in a few words
it is pronounced as an "s".  I would recommend that you (if u don't mind my
saying) write "s, sh" under that letter.

And the vowels are different from Hindi to Bangla:
   the vowels are:

aw    (NOT the same sound as in Hindi, it is the sound in "hot" or "lot")
aa    (similar to Hindi)
i       (similar to Hindi)
ee    (similar to Hindi)
u      (similar to Hindi)
oo    (similar to Hindi)
ri      (similar to Hindi)
e      (similar to Hindi)
oi    (NOT the same as in Hindi, it is the sound in "loin" or "join")
o     (similar to Hindi)
ou   (NOT the same as in Hindi, no similar letter, it's just an "o" that
becomes a "u"      making an "ou" sound)