Bangla alphabet is very close to a phonetic alphabet, in other words almost every speech sound of Bangla is represented by a designated letter. The standard alphabet for describing the Bangla language is developed from Bengali-Assamese script, a descendant of the Brahmi script. Like any alphabet based on the Brahmi script, the Bangla alphabet is alphasyllabary, which means a subset of letters, namely consonant letters, in the alphabet serve a dual purpose: they represent consonant sounds and syllables.
Bangla alphabet includes three sets of letters shown below:
a) the vowel letters,
b) the consonant letters, and
c) the vowel signs/markers.
A consonant letter represents the designated consonant sound, or a syllable comprised of the designated consonant sound followed by the vowel sound ɔ. The vowel sound ɔ is equivalent of the vowel represented by a in the word call in American English. For instance, the consonant letter ক represents either the consonant sound k or the syllable kɔ. This vowel ɔ as part of the syllable represented by a consonant letter is often called the default/inherent vowel. Elsewhere the vowel ɔ is represented by the vowel letter অ, for instance, অক that transliterates as ɔk or ɔkɔ.
Except for the vowel letter অ, a vowel letter has a corresponding vowel sign/marker representing the same vowel. A vowel sound immediately after a consonant sound is always represented by a vowel sign/marker. Elsewhere a vowel sound is represented by a vowel letter. For instance, কো (ko) comprises the letter ক, which represents the consonant sound k here, and the vowel sign/marker ো that represent the vowel sound o. Recall that the letter ক may also represent the syllable kɔ; in that case any vowel sound after ɔ will be represented by a vowel letter, for example কও (kɔo).
Bangla is written from left to right. Vowel and consonant letters occur in the same order as the sounds they represent. But that is not always the case for the vowel signs/markers. Some of the vowel signs/markers occur after a consonant letter, some before, some under, and some around, although all of them indicate a vowel sound right after the consonant sound, for instance, কা (ka), কি (ki), কু (ku), কো (ko).
Bangla writing system also includes so-called conjunct letters, i.e., two or more consonant letters crammed together or stacked on each other. In such compounds of consonant letters, all but the final (the rightmost or the bottom) consonant letter represent their respective consonant sounds. Only the final consonant letter is followed by a vowel sound. For instance, in the word অল্প ‘story’, the conjunct letters ল্প consist of ল and প, where the former represents the consonant sound l and the latter represents a syllable, pɔ. The word is ɔlpɔ (pronounced ɔlpo in the standard variant) in transliteration. Some conjunct letters are not transparent, and one needs to memorize them separately; for instance, শক্ত ‘hard,’ the conjunct ক্ত includes ক and ত, in transliteration, the word is shɔktɔ (pronounced shɔkto in the standard variant).
Finally, there is a set of special characters consisting of consonant signs/markers, diacritics, and unique letters that occur in some special contexts in Bangla writing. They can be named “Other signs/makers and special letters.” For instance, the consonant sound r is represented by a consonant sign/marker when a consonant sound immediately follows the sound. Here the conjunct letters প্র comprise the consonant sounds p and r; the former is represented by the consonant letter প, and the latter is represented by the consonant sign/marker under প. Although it might sound a bit overwhelming for the users of the English alphabet, the Bangla alphabet is easier to learn and takes a week of practice to start writing Beginners-level Bangla.
