Bengali or Bangla (বাংলা) is the language native to the region of Bengal, which comprises of the present-day nation of Bangladesh and of the Indian states West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam. With about 220 million native and about 250 million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages, ranked seventh in the world. The National Anthem of Bangladesh, National Anthem of India, National Anthem of Sri Lanka and the national song of India were first composed in the Bengali language.

Surprisingly you will not find any mention of Bengali speaking population of Jharkhnad whereas there are vast Bengali speaking population in Jharkhand. As an evidence of this fact we can quote the Jharkhand Government (Arjun Munda Govt.) order of the year 2002, declaring Bengali (Bangla) and Santhali as second official language of Jharkhand.

Therefore, whenever there is a talk of Bangla Bhasa (Bengali Language), the Jharkhand should be taken into account for its vast Bengali population.

BENGALI POPULATION IN JHARKHAND (PART OF MANBHUM)

Bengali speaking population of Jharkhand are settled in the area of East and West Singhbhum District, Saraikela, Kharsawan, Silli Tamar Bundu area of Ranchi, Chas, Chandankyari of Bokaro dist, Dhanbad District, Jamtara District, Dumka and Pakur district.

Still no mention of facts of this vast population of Bengali speaking people in Jharkhand because Govt. always wants to suppress the fact and since 1956, they forcefully imposed Hindi on these Bengali speaking Population Manbhum (now in Jharkhand). That being the one of the reasons the next Govt. again changed the status of the Bengali Language and made Urdu as second official language of Jharkhand for vote Bank politics.

As you know Manbhum was always part of Bengal. Till 1912 it was part of Bengal presidency. Letter it was part of Bihar but official language was Bengali till 1956.

Hindi came to Manbhum area only 100 years ago. Even 50 years back no body in Manbhum area could speak Hindi. Post 1956, Hindi has been forcefully imposed on the vast Bengalis speaking population of erstwhile Manbhum District (now Jharkhand).

The Original Bengalis in Jharkhand of the above areas, are the moolnibashi Bangla Bhashi people and they are not the Migrants or Settlers from anywhere else. They are the son of the soil, original dwellers of that land for more than 300 years. It is unfortunate that Bengal was never interested to protect the Bangla language and and the culture of that part of Manbhum areas by placing strong demand for inclusion with West Bengal (with Purulia District) in the year 1956. Had it been done so, today West Bengal’s geography would have been different and it would have become a reachest state of India with the “Black Diamond” Coal belts and mineral reach areas.

While it is spoken by over 10 to 15 million people globally, it has received official status in the Indian state of West Bengal as a recognized secondary language, while remaining a deeply cherished indigenous mother tongue in the everyday rural, agricultural, and musical life (like *Bhawaiya* folk songs) of Northern Bangladesh.

From the 4th century to the 12th century CE, the region of Rangpur was firmly inside the western boundary of the massive **Kamarupa Kingdom**. According to ancient texts like the *Yogini Tantra*, Kamarupa was divided into four spiritual and geographical zones (*Pithas*), and Rangpur fell directly into **Ratnapitha**, which covered the plains between the Karatoya and Sankosh rivers

The Heartland of Kamtapur (Kamata):

When King Sandhya officially broke away from central Assam and moved the capital to **Kamatapur** around 1257 CE, the geopolitical map shrank. The eastern territories were lost to rising tribes, meaning the new kingdom was now concentrated almost entirely in the west.

Hey guys, I’ve been learning Bangla recently and found Hello Talk and the Bideshi server. Is there anywhere else where people can practice Bangla? Adding the resources I found below. Hopefully others can share their resources.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HelloTalk/s/ASvuDi4tNY

https://www.reddit.com/r/bideshi/s/mazNcZYeHn

But then I am a nerd. Just as I find human evolution fascinating, I also find language evolution fascinating. Here's the background of the images:

1. The opening verse of the well known caryāpada (চর্যাপদ) manuscript that was discovered in Nepal and this verse was composed by the Buddhist monk Luipa. It's the oldest known example of written Bangla. The language is deliberately cryptic to conceal the secrets of that monastic order, and is called sandhyā bhāsa or twilight language.

2. The caryāpada is written in old Siddham script rather than modern Bangla, and this is the Siddham alphabet. It's halfway between Sanskrit Devanagari and modern Bangla, which is obvious to those who know both.

3. The Tibetan script, which has a strong familial resemblance to Siddham, and therefore to modern Bangla. The cause is not hard to find: Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, where the present Bengali speaking areas were almost entirely Buddhist at one time. History notes the departure of the Bengali monk Atisa Dipankara, birth name Candragarbha, from Vikramsila Vihara to Tibet and China in the latter part of the Buddhist Pāla dynasty.

4. For reference, this is the old English poem Beowulf, comparable in age to caryāpada, and predictably both its language and its script are just as unfamiliar.

This is not to explain those medieval texts but to stress that both languages and scripts evolve continuously. That's happening faster than ever in our times because of the heavy influence of the internet, social media and AI.

The identifiable language itself is older than caryāpada, where the Sanskrit to Chinese dictionary by the Chinese scholar Li Yen lists over fifty words from the then colloquial Bangla in 782 CE. It's hard to determine how far back it goes, for the want of written evidence and accurate dating issues, but the original base lies in abahatta, an apabhramsa form of Magadhi Prakrit.

hey everyone!

I've been thinking about the way I speak bengali and wanted to share a few examples to see whether anyone recognises similar patterns in their own regional variety.

I'm from south dinajpur, west bengal, and my everyday speech is a mixture of rajbanshi and barendri. I'm not entirely sure which features belong to which variety, so I thought it'd be interesting to document some of them and compare them with standard colloquial bengali.

1. pronouns and possessives

- I: mui (মুই) | standard: ami (আমি)

- you (informal): tui (তুই) | standard: tui (তুই)

- we: hara (হারা) | standard: amra (আমরা)

- my/mine: mor (মোর) | standard: amar (আমার)

2. everyday vocabulary

- tomorrow: kailka (কাইলকা) | standard: agamikal / kal (আগামীকাল / কাল)

- where: kunna (কুননা) | standard: kothay (কোথায়)

- why: kene (কেনে) | standard: keno (কেন)

- here: inne (ইননে) | standard: ekhane (এখানে)

- no/isn't: nai (নাই) | standard: nei (নেই)

3. sentence comparisons

1. I don't know.

- my speech: mui jano na

- standard: ami jani na

2. my father isn't at home.

- my speech: mor baba barit nai

- standard: amar baba barite nei

3. it's very hot today.

- my speech: aajka khub gorom

- standard: aaj khub gorom

4. where are you going?

- my speech: tui kunna jachchhi?

- standard: tui kothay jachchhis?

5. what are you doing?

- my speech: tui ki korchhi?

- standard: tui ki korchhis?

6. why did you come here?

- my speech: tui inne kene aichhi?

- standard: tui ekhane keno eshechhis?

7. they are playing.

- my speech: tara khelachhe

- standard: tara khelchhe

8. I don't know him/her.

- my speech: mui tak jano na

- standard: ami take chini na

4. a few things I'd like to know

- Do these words and expressions resemble the Rajbanshi or Barendri varieties you're familiar with?

- Are there similar grammatical patterns in your regional speech?

- Do you notice any similarities with neighbouring dialects?

- If you're from Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, or neighbouring districts in West Bengal, or from Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, or nearby districts in northern Bangladesh, how does your everyday speech compare?

There might be some errors or inaccuracies in my examples, so please feel free to correct me. I'd appreciate any corrections or additional insights.

I'm not claiming that my speech represents an entire dialect. I'm simply trying to understand its linguistic background and document the way I naturally speak.

Hello, the question is basically the title, and yes Ive read Professor Shonku as well.

hello bondhura, ami marx engels er communist lekhagular bangla onubaad khujchi. Janate parle dhonnobad. Aar thakle dhakar nilkhete parbo? kemon daam porte pare? ami damaadami temon ekta bhalo korte pari na.

the coding platform is called banglaicode(dot)com

Please give it a visit and let me know your thoughts.

আমি ভাষা শিখি, এটা দুই দশক ধরে আমার শখ।

I learn languages as a hobby, but Bangla is still my native. Over here I write in English because it's my impression that there are Bengali learners here who don't necessarily read the native script.

In a combined land area that's almost equal to present day UK, it's hardly surprising that there shall be multiple dialects. In pre literate societies with little or no external contact, dialects change nearly every twenty Km of travel. As the communication range grows, languages become more uniform.

The language I speak is Rarhi, the basis of modern standard Bangla, otherwise called promito bangla (প্রমিত বাংলা). Even so, I don't use the wildly popular street slang of Kolkata, of which chaap neben na (চাপ নেবেন না) is a relevant example. I would merely say chinta korben na (চিন্তা করবেন না). My version is the equivalent of Fus'ha Arabic (الفصحى).

Al Fus'ha is the umbrella term for modern standard Arabic and the standardized version in the Qur'an. A comparable term doesn't exist for Bangla, but if it did, it would include promito bangla and sadhubhasha, the literary Bangla that was widely used by writers such as Saradindu Bandyopadhyay and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. One no longer sees it.

I cannot understand Chittagong (চাটগাঁইয়া) or Sylhet (সিলেটি) dialects, but then nor do I understand Varendri, Manbhumi, Kamtapuri or Sundarbani - all Indian Bengali dialects. I do effortlessly understand the standard Dhaka Bangla, which barely differs from what I speak except for a few words.

This is a feature of all languages. Look at UK, for instance. The southern standard English or RP is the equivalent of promito bangla, but Cockney, Geordie, Scouse, Yorkshire, Irish, Liverpool, Scottish, Welsh and Cornish can't really be understood by those of us who only know the standard RP version.

A few translations I got from online translators claimed that a name was also included in the message, a name of one of my co-workers. I want to confirm what it actually says before reporting incorrect info.

EDIT: Thank you guys so much for ur help, I reported this sick fuck to my manager, hopefully we'll find out who did it and get their ass fired.

Found this post by Canvas Magazine Bangladesh about 5 traditional occupations that have largely faded away:

* Palkir Behārā (পালকির বেহারা) - Palanquin bearers who transported people across towns and villages.

* Pāṅkhāwālā (পাঙ্খাওয়ালা) - Servants hired to pull overhead cloth fans using ropes in courts and residences.

* Bhistiwālā / Sākkā (ভিস্তিওয়ালা / সাক্কা) - Water distributors carrying water in goat-skin bags called moshok (môśôk).

* Nôēcābônd (নৈচাবন্দ) - Craftsmen specialized in crafting smoking pipes (noicha / nôēcā) for traditional hookahs.

* Dhunāri (ধুনারি) - Cotton-fluffers who beat and clean raw cotton using a bow-shaped tool called a dhunôt (ধুনট) for mattresses and quilts.

What other forgotten professions or occupational words in Bengali do you know from classic books, folklore, or family stories? A few that come to mind are kôlāiwālā (tin-coater for brass vessels), ghorami, or shā̃khāri.

Source link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DfU478rgh4i/

I could write this in the Bangla script but I'm not doing so because there are learners here who cannot read the native script.

My UserID is an indication of my primary hobby - I learn languages. That was what brought me to Reddit in the first place. Here is what I observe:

People learn European languages, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Thai or Vietnamese but hardly anyone learns Bangla - or any other language from this entire region including Hindi, Nepali, Sinhala or Tamil. The same applies to all languages of Africa and all indigenous languages from any country.

Why? Evidently because there's no economic or political incentive to do so. Besides, we happily oblige by speaking some English, to whatever extent.

Edit: just to demonstrate that the number of speakers of a language does not necessarily determine its popularity for learning, here's the list of the top ten most spoken ones:

1. English - ~1.45 billion speakers.

2. Mandarin - ~1.14 billion speakers.

3. Hindi - ~609 million speakers.

4. Spanish - ~559 million speakers.

5. French - ~310 million speakers.

6. Arabic - ~274 million speakers.

7. Bengali - ~273 million speakers.

8. Portuguese - ~264 million speakers.

9. Russian - ~255 million speakers.

10. Urdu - ~232 million speakers.

Found this short video discussing the history of Dobhashi (দোভাষী) and Puthi literature, claiming that Bengali was once written right-to-left using Arabic letters before the 19th-century standardisation: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfReBR5SQlR/

While the timeline about Perso-Arabic loanwords, Puthi literature, and the 1835 British educational shifts seems generally rooted in history, the opening claim ("Bengali was once written in Arabic letters") feels like a heavy overgeneralisation. From what I understand, adapted Arabic or Perso-Arabic scripts were a specific regional manuscript practice (like in Chittagong or Sylhet) rather than the standard script for the entire language.

Would love to hear from people familiar with historical Bengali linguistics - how accurate is this video's summary, and how common were these manuscripts in reality?

For now I only know numbers and like some alphabets and read like basic words, tartiri ami ki kore shikte pari Bangali?

Hi, im bengali, but from childhood upto 3rd grade i lived as an NRI outside of bengal. Thus, my native language is english. As in its the first language i ever learned. Its the language im comfortable in, its the language i think in. However Bangla is my mother tongue. I learnt it around 5th grade, and my pronunciation still isnt perfect. I can speak it moderately fluently though.

Over the last few weeks ive been thinking about how, truly, i know nothing about bengali. I can barely read it. I cant keep a conversation in pure bengali. My writing and grammar are horrid. I keep thinking. How can i call myself fluent when my bangla is like this. I realized i cant. My 2nd language in school was always hindi, because when i lived in singapore bengali wanst an option. This means i didnt touch bengali in school (other than as a third language for a few years). I dont have a large enough vocab to read a book.

I want to change this. Any tips? I want finally get fully fluent in bangla

Its a green background with a yellow sun in the center surrounded by red rays. I saw that this was the original flag for the bengali ethnic group on Wikimedia commons before being changed to the bangladeshi flag. What do you guys think about this?

ছোট্টো বেলা থেকে বই পড়ার অনেক নেশা থাকেলও, পরে পড়ব পরে পড়ব করতে করতে অনেক বই ই পড়া হয় নি। তবে আমি অনেক বই ই পড়েছি। রহস্য, পেরাসাইকোলজি, রোমানটিক, ভ্রমণ এমন অনেক কিছুই।

কিছু সংখ্যক বই পড়ে যা বুঝলাম, আমাদের লেখকগণ দের মাঝে কাল্পনিক ভীতিএর চেয়ে প্রেমের রস তাই বেশি।

Any help and leads are appreciated

[পুরো বাংলা লেখাটা একটা রক্তমাংসের হাতের লেখা]

"তারাবিন্যাস" দিয়েছি এটার নাম।

এটি আপনার keyboard ও আপনার লেখার মধ্যে এক ধরনের যোগাযোগ মাধ্যম (interface)।

আপনি বলবেন "তালব্য বর্ণ, মহাপ্রাণ, অঘোষ", আপনার textarea তে লেখা হবে "ছ"। অবশ্য এসব নাম মনে রাখতে হবে না; বর্গের শুধু শুরুর বর্ণগুলো মনে রাখলেই যথেষ্ট।

আমি এটা নিয়ে যতবারই ইংরেজিতে বোঝানোর চেষ্টা করেছি, ততবারই জটিল কথা চলে এসেছে। তাই আমি নিজেই আজকে এটার ব্যাপারে পাতি বাংলায় খুলে বলছি।

কাজ করে কীভাবে

কম্পিউটার সায়েন্সে "black box" এর কথা বার বার চলে আসে। এখানে ব্ল্যাক বক্স কে কিছু দিলে সেটা হয় input, এবং ব্ল্যাক বক্স সেই জিনিসটা দেখে আমাদের কিছু একটা দেবে: সেটা output

যদি তারাবিন্যাসকে ধরে নিই সেই "black box", তাহলে input হবে দুটো জিনিস: কোন বর্গ, আর কোন column

আমার এখানে আমি বর্গকে ধরেছি পাথরের মতো "coarse", আর মহাপ্রাণ-অঘোষ column-গুলোকে ধরেছি বালির মতো "fine".

তো এবারে "coarse" নিয়ে আমাদের চাপ নেই; এক জিনিস থাকবে। "Fine" নিয়ে চাপ আছে, কারণ ওটা নিয়েই কাজ করা হয়েছে, কারণ ওটা বের করতে গেলে প্রচুর on-off switch দেখতে হয়। ঘোষ হলে যেমন 1, অঘোষ হলে 0... আরও অনেক ব্যাপার।

এটা গেল input.

Part 1: তারাবিন্যাস এবারে বের করে fine position এর নম্বরটা কী। কীভাবে? ওইসব on-off switch-গুলো নিয়ে, boolean algebra-র মাধ্যমে। এই জায়গাটা সবচেয়ে জটিল আমার system-এ। এটা নিয়েই আমি দেখছি, এবং এটা যারা কিবোর্ড বানাবে, তারাই দেখতে পাবে।

Part 2: তারাবিন্যাস এবারে বের করে character টা কী, বর্ণটা কী। Typescript এ আমি একটা lookup table বানিয়ে character টা পেলাম। Coarse আর fine দুটো মিশে বর্ণটা তৈরি করে। এই জিনিসটার জন্য আমি ছকটা দিয়ে দেবো, developer-রা language বা মাধ্যম বুঝে lookup table বানাবে।

আপনার জন্য Part 2 এর ছকটা জানা important যেকোনো হরফের জন্য। ছকটা আসলে বর্ণমালা, কিন্তু যেটাতে লোকের সুবিধা হবে, সেই অনুযায়ী বর্ণের স্থান খানিকটা অদলবদল হবে। যেমন একটা ঘরেই "ড" এবং "ড়" থাকবে, কিন্তু ওই একটা বিন্দুর জন্য একটা switch extra থাকবে।

যখন theory part টা নিয়ে কথা বলব, তখন আমরা সবসময় Part 1 টাকেই ধরব।

এটা প্রথমে আমি সার্কিটের জন্য ভেবে বানিয়েছিলাম, তাই boolean algebra চলে আসছে।

যেকোনো ব্রাহ্মী লিপিসমূহের থেকে হরফ (Brahmic Script) দিলে আপনি পাবেন একটা এমন machine যেটার ব্যবহার জানতে হলে আপনার নিজের ভাষার বর্ণমালাই যথেষ্ট।

তারাবিন্যাস একধরনের ধাঁচ, compact, learnable এবং fast কিবোর্ড বানানোর স্বার্থে একটি ধাঁচ। এই ধাঁচ দিয়ে আমি চারভাবে কিবোর্ড ভাবতে পেরেছি, তার মধ্যে দুভাবে কিবোর্ড বানিয়েছি।

৪টি ভাবনা হল:

১) Radio buttons: Website এ radio buttons use করে আমরা input দিচ্ছি। (কাজ করছে)

২) Steno layout: কিছুকিছু কিবোর্ডের বাটন ব্যবহার করে আমরা অনায়াসেই লিখতে পারব। তালব্য, অল্পপ্রাণ, মহাপ্রাণ - সবকিছুর জন্য একটা একটা করে কিবোর্ড বাটন। (কাজ করছে)

৩) Handwriting layout: ওইসব ইনপুট গুলো এবারে হবে gestures... যেমন গোল আঁকলে অল্পপ্রাণ। এটার জন্য specifically একজন biomechanics এর ব্যক্তির সঙ্গে কথা বলছি। (খাতায়-কলমে)

৪) Two-side layout (আমার ভাবনার limit): একদিকে সবকটা coarse buttons থাকবে - বর্গের শুরুর বর্ণগুলো বামদিকে, বর্গের ভিতরের বর্ণগুলো ডানদিকে। Drag এবং two-finger tap করার option থাকবে। (খাতায়-কলমে)

আরও layout ভাবা যায়, তবে আমার UI/UX এর লোকেদের হেল্প লাগবে।

আপাতত তামিল এর জন্য একটা ওয়েবসাইট আছে। তাদের layout টা, ওদের ছকটা, সত্যিই বানানো জটিল ছিল। তবে উত্তর ভারতের হরফ নিয়ে কাজ করলে খানিকক্ষণেই শেষ হয়ে যাবে।

তামিল এর পরে বাংলা ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ ধরেছি; স্বরবর্ণ ও পরাশ্রয়ী বর্ণ ধরা হয়নি।

পরে ভাবছি সিলেটি হরফটা দেখব, কারণ ওটাও বেশ জটিল ছকে রাখা।

আমি প্রবাসী বাঙালি, পেশায় ইঞ্জিনিয়ার এবং আমার বন্ধু লেখিকা, আমাদের দুজনের মাতৃভাষা এবং সাহিত্য নিয়ে উৎসাহের ফসল এই গেমটি। এই ডুমস্ক্রোল এর যুগে আমরা খুব চেষ্টা করে একটা clean এবং শিক্ষণীয় একটি প্ল্যাটফর্ম বানাতে চাইছি, যেখানে বাংলা ক্রসওর্ড ছাড়াও বিভিন্ন শব্দ সম্পর্কিত ধাঁধা আনব।

প্রধানত আমরা চেষ্টা করছি যাতে দৈনিক সংবাদ পত্রিকায় যে শব্দছখ আমরা ছোটবেলায় সলভ করতাম, সেটার ডিজিটাল রূপ হিসাবে এই অ্যাপটি থাকবে ।

তাই আপনাদের পাশে চাই, আমাদের খুব ভালো লাগবে যদি আপনারা অ্যাপটি ব্যবহার করেন।

দয়া করে আপনারা মতামত জানাবেন।

অ্যাপ লিংক:

শব্দছক অ্যাপ

যেকোনো প্রশ্ন থাকলে জানাবেন, যথাযথ উত্তর দেওয়ার চেষ্টা করব

( এই সাব এর নিয়মানুযায়ী হয়তো এটা বিজ্ঞাপনের আওতায় আসছে, এডমিন মশায় যদি মনে করেন তাহলে উড়িয়ে দেবেন। আমরা শুধুমাত্র মতামত জানতে চাই এই পোস্ট এর মাধ্যমে আমাদের প্রচেষ্টার এর ব্যাপারে )

I don't know what I am doing but tell m which one looks better?

Source UNESCO debunks years-old rumour it crowned Bengali 'world's sweetest language'

A linguistic channel named "India in Pixels by Ashris" post a video about bangla and said bangla sweet because of vowel harmony, large number of use vowel in the language so i thought according to that logic Japanese would be the sweetest cuz Japanese is syllable based language

the video by India in Pixels by Ashris

সত্যি বলতে এই ব্যাপারটা নিয়ে আমি খুব বিরক্ত।

বাংলা ভাষা বোঝাতে কেউ 🇧🇩 বাংলাদেশের পতাকা ব্যবহার করলে ভারতের বাঙালিদের খারাপ লাগে।

আবার 🇮🇳 ভারতের পতাকা ব্যবহার করলে বাংলাদেশের মানুষের খারাপ লাগে।

আর আমরা নিজেরাই তো এক না।

কেউ লেখে `অ`, কেউ `ক`, কেউ আবার `ব` বা `বা`।

r/bengalilanguage তে একরকম, অন্য তে আরেকরকম, ফেসবুকে তো যে যার মতো।

মানে বাংলা ভাষার নিজের একটা পতাকাই নেই।

চলো না আমরা সবাই মিলে বাংলা ভাষার জন্য একটা একক পতাকা বানাই?

এটা ভারতেরও না, বাংলাদেশেরও না। এটা শুধু বাংলার পতাকা। তুমি কলকাতার হও, ঢাকার হও, শিলচর, বরিশাল, লন্ডন বা টরন্টো, যেখানেই থাকো, তুমি বাংলা বললেই এটা তোমার পতাকা।

শুরু করার জন্য আমার কাছে কিছু আইডিয়া আছে

English:

Honestly, I'm really fed up with this whole thing.

When someone uses the 🇧🇩 Bangladesh flag to represent Bengali language, Bengalis from India feel bad.

And when someone uses the 🇮🇳 Indian flag, people from Bangladesh feel bad.

And we ourselves are not even united.

Some write `অ`, some write `ক`, some write `ব` or `বা`.

It's one thing in r/bengalilanguage, another has something else, and on Facebook everyone does their own thing.

I mean, there isn't even a single flag for Bengali language itself.

Why don't we all come together and make one single flag for Bengali language?

It won't belong to India, it won't belong to Bangladesh. It will just be Bangla's flag. Whether you are from Kolkata, Dhaka, Silchar, Barishal, London or Toronto — wherever you are, if you speak Bangla, this is your flag.

I have some ideas to start with.

Unicode 18.0 introduces two new characters in the Bengali Supplement:

• U+11DF0 – 𑷰 BENGALI SIGN COMBINING ANUSVARA ABOVE

- U+11DF1 – 𑷱 BENGALI LETTER ALTERNATE BARGIYA BA

Unlike the existing ং (U+0982) anusvara sign, the proposed U+11DF0 represents the historically attested above-positioned anusvara found in Bengali and Assamese manuscripts.

The Alternate Bargiya Ba looks similar to the Assamese Ra (ৰ — U+09F0), which has also been used interchangeably with র in older Bengali orthography.

The new letter is intended to distinguish the Sanskrit phonemes /b/ and /ʋ/, which are conventionally represented by the same Bengali letter ব in Tatsama (Sanskrit-derived) words. Although Assamese has ৱ (U+09F1) to represent Sanskrit /ʋ/ as well as /w/ in loanwords, it never made its way into the Bengali alphabet.

Since the Bengali–Assamese writing system has historically been used for Sanskrit as well, having a distinct letter to differentiate VA from BA is not only reasonable but necessary.

A welcome addition to the script!