Bengali script

The Bengali script is a Brahmic script, very close to Devanagari. It is used to write various languages, including Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri and nowadays also Sylheti. The modern script was formalised in 1778 when it was first typeset by Charles Wilkins. There are some minor differences between the version of the script used for Bengali and Assamese - ra and va are written differently.

Clusters of consonants are represented by different and sometimes quite irregular characters, so learning to read it is complicated by the size of the alphabet, which numbers about 500 or so characters. While effort at standardizing script continue in such notable centers as the Bangla Academies (unaffiliated) at Dakka and Kolkata, it is still not quite uniform as yet, since different people continue to use a few older forms of letters, thus making for concurrent forms for the same sounds.

It seems likely that the standardisation of the language will be greatly influenced by the need to typeset it on computers. The large alphabet could be represented, with a great deal of ingenuity, within the Ascii character set, but certain irregular conjuncts were omitted. Work has been underway since around 2001 to develop Unicode fonts, and it seems likely that it will split into two variants, traditional and modern.

Bengali in Unicode

The Unicode range for Bengali is U+0980 ... U+09FF.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
980 ঀ ঁ ং ঃ ঄ অ আ ই ঈ উ ঊ ঋ ঌ ঍ ঎ এ
990 ঐ ঑ ঒ ও ঔ ক খ গ ঘ ঙ চ ছ জ ঝ ঞ ট
9A0 ঠ ড ঢ ণ ত থ দ ধ ন ঩ প ফ ব ভ ম য
9B0 র ঱ ল ঳ ঴ ঵ শ ষ স হ ঺ ঻ ় ঽ া ি
9C0 ী ু ূ ৃ ৄ ৅ ৆ ে ৈ ৉ ৊ ো ৌ ্ ৎ ৏
9D0 ৐ ৑ ৒ ৓ ৔ ৕ ৖ ৗ ৘ ৙ ৚ ৛ ড় ঢ় ৞ য়
9E0 ৠ ৡ ৢ ৣ ৤ ৥ ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯
9F0 ৰ ৱ ৲ ৳ ৴ ৵ ৶ ৷ ৸ ৹ ৺ ৻ ৼ ৽ ৾ ৿

Free Bangla Unicode Fonts

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