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 Edit this on Wikidata
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]
Part of a series on
Officially used writing systems in India
Category
Indic scripts
Arabic derived scripts
Alphabetical scripts
Related

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 the official scripts of the Indian Republic for official use by the Assamese language, Bengali language and Meitei language (officially called "Manipuri")[lower-alpha 1],[14] three of the 22 official languages of the Indian Republic.[15][16][17]

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 — Assamese differs 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

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.

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
VowelsVowel Diacritic
symbol		AssameseBengaliMeitei (Manipuri)[33]SylhetiHajongRabhaRajbongsi
অ– ôô/oô/aooôô
অʼʼ o––––––
আা aaa꞉aaaa
অ্যা/এ্যা্যা –æ–––––
অৗৗ ––––ââ–
ইি iiiiiii
ইʼিʼ –––––î–
ঈী ii–ī––(i)
উু uuuuuuu
উʼুʼ –––––â–
ঊূ uu–ū––(u)
ঋৃ riri–ri––ri
ৠৄ riirii–––––
ঌৢ lili–––––
ৡৣ liilii–––––
এে êe/êeêeeê
এʼেʼ e––––––
ঐৈ ôiôieioioi–ôi
ওো ûoo/ô–ôoo
ঔৌ ôuôuououôu–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
ConsonantAssameseBengaliMeitei (Manipuri)[33]ChittagonianDhakaiya
Kutti		SylhetiHajongMaithili
ক kôkôkôxôkôxôkoka
খ khôkhôkhôxôkôxokhokha
গ gôgôgôgôgôgogoga
ঘ ghôghôghôgôgôgoghogha
ঙ ungôngôngôngôngô–ngonga
চ sôcôcôsôcôsococa
ছ shôchô–sôcôsoso-
𑒕 –––––––cha
জ zôjôjôzôzôzojoja
ঝ zhôjhôjhôzôzôzojho-
𑒗 –––––––jha
ঞ niônô–––––nia
ট tôţô–tôtôto––
𑒙 –––––––ţa
ঠ thôţhô–tôtôto–ţha
ড dôđô–dôdôdo–da
ড় rôŗô–rôrôŗo––
ঢ dhôđhô–dôdôdo-da
ঢ় rhôŗhô–rôrôro––
ণ nônô–nônôno--
ত tôtôtôtôtôṭotota
থ thôthôthôtôtôṭothotha
দ dôdôdôdôdôḍododa
ধ dhôdhôdhôdhôdhôḍodhodha
ন nônônônônônonona
প pôpôpôfôpôfopopa
ফ fôphôfôfôfôfofo–
𑒤 –––––––pha
ব bôbôbôvôbôvobora
ভ vôbhôvôvôvôvovobha
ম mômômômômômomoma
য zôjô–zôzôzo-ya
য় yôyôyôyôyô–yo–
র (wô)rôrôrôrôrowõva
ৰ rô(rô)ro–rorô–ra
ল lôlôlôlôlôlo––
𑒪 –––––––la
ৱ wô–wowôo–––
শ xôşô–shôsô–-sha
ষ xôşşô–shôsô–-ssha
স xôşôsôshôsôşo-sa
হ hôhôhôôhôhoho-
𑒯 –––––––ha

Digits

Digits
Arabic numerals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Bengali-Assamese 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
Kamtapuri names shuinno ek/aak dui tin chair pãch chhôy sat aat nôy/nôo
শূইন্য এক/আক দুই তিন চাইর/চাইৰ পাঁচ ছয় সাত আট নয়/নও
Hajong names xuinnô ek dui tin câr pas soy sat at noy
শূন্য এক দুই তিন চাৰ/চার পাচ ছয় সাত আট নয়
Rabha names tha sa niŋ tham bri bwŋ kröb sin gin suku
থা ছা নিং থাম ব্ৰি বৗং ক্ৰোব ছিন গিন ছুকু

In Unicode

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)
 0123456789ABCDEF
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 15.1
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)
 0123456789ABCDEF
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 15.1
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. 1 2 '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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 "(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 Scripting a solution[usurped], The Hindu, 19 May 2005.
  22. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 "Meetei Mayek keys (in comparison to Bengali script)". Retrieved 16 March 2023.

References

See also

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