The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language/Part 1/Phonetic Transcription
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PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
The symbols are those employed by the International Phonetic Association. An introduction to this system is to be found in ‘The principles of the International Phonetic Association’ London, 1912, and ‘L’E´criture phonétique international,’ London, 1921 publication of the Association. See also G. Noël-Armfield’s ‘General Phonetics,’ 3rd ed., Cambridge, 1924. The symbols occurring in the present book are given below.
[:] after a symbol denotes length of the sound indicated by it, whether a vowel or a consonant; [~] on the top of a vowel indicates nasalised pronunciation; and [´] before a syllable indicates stress upon it and [˝] indicates strong stress. The little vertical bar [|] beside a stop sound shows that it is unexploded, e.g., [p|, t|, k|].
[a]: ‘front a,’ as in North English man, cat, beard in dialectal West Bengali pronunciation of a word like কা’ল [ka:l] yesterday, tomorrow, as opposed to কাল [kɑ:l] time. Nasalised form = [ã].
[ɐ]: a central vowel occurring in Modern Portuguese: see pp. 621-622.
[ɑ]: ‘back’ or ‘central’ a—as in Standard Bengali কাকা [kɑkɑ] uncle, আমি [ɑmi] I. Nasalised form=[ɑ̃].
[æ]: the sound of a as in Southern English man, cat=West Bengali sound as in কেন [kæno] why, ত্যাগ [tæ:g] abandonment. Nasalised form=[æ̃].
[ɒ]: the sound of o as in Southern English hot, lot: it occured in Old Bengali for the letter অ=[ɔ] (see below): see Text, p. 258. it is a kind of [ɔ] without lip-rounding.
[b]: as in English=the Bengali ব.
[bʼ]: made with simultaneous glottal closure, as in Sindhī, or in dialectal East Bengali, e.g., [bʼɑ:t] boiled rice=Standard ভাত [bɦɑ:t].
[bɦ]: the भ of Sanskrit and Hindī etc.: the voiced labial stop aspirated.
[b̄]: bilabial fricative, the same as [ʋ] for which see below.
[c]: palatal stop, unvoiced—the old sound of Skt. च—resembling in acoustic effect a fronted or palatalised «k», i.e., a sort of «ky»
[ch]: the same aspirated=the old sound of Skt. छ.
[c͡ʃ]: palatal affricate, unvoiced=the West Bengali চ.
[c͡ʃh]: unvoiced palatal affricate, aspirated=the West Bengali ছ.
[ç]: unvoiced palatal fricative, the sound of ch in German ich: the old value of Skt. थ.
[d]: interdental stop, voiced=দ of Bengali. (In OIA., this sound was alveolar).
[dʼ]: the same, with accompanying glottal closure, as in dialectal East Bengali [dʼɑ:n] paddy=Standard Bengali ধান [dɦɑ:n].
[dɦ]: voiced interdental stop, aspitated=ধ of Standard Bengali.
[d]: voiced alveolar stop, as in English and Assamese.
[ḍ]: voiced cerebral or retroflex stop made with curled-up tongue-tip=ड of Sanskrit. The Bengali ড is of the same class, but it is pronounced at a lower position, approaching the .
[ḍʼ]: the above, with accompanying glottal closure: found in Sindhī, and in dialectal East Bengali, e.g., [ḍʼɑ:k] drum. tom-tom; to cover=Standard Bengali ঢাক [ḍɦɑ:k].
[ḍɦ]: voiced cerebral stop aspitated=Sanskrit ढ, West Bengali ঢ.
[ð]: voiced interdental spirant=th in English this [ðɪs], then [ðɛn], same as of Arabic as in [ða:t], [ṉaðr] etc.
[đ]: voiced dental or alveolar stop, velarised, i.e. made with simultaneous raising of the back of the tongue: occurring in Arabic (see Text, pp. 567ff).
[đł]: voiced alveolar unilateral: occurring in Arabic (see Text, p. 568).
[ďz]: voiced dental or alveolar affricate=dialectal East Bengali জ.
[d͡ʒ]: voiced supra-alveolar or palatal affricate, as in English judge=[d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ].
[e]: high-mid front vowel, as in West Bengali দেশ [de:ʃ] land, country. Nasalised form=[ẽ].
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