Bengali–Assamese বাংলা-অসমীয়া
Image 1: The text, from the 18th-centuryHastividyārnava, commissioned byAhom kingSiva Singha, reads:sri sri mot xivo xingho moharaja. The modern Bengali glyph "র" currently used forra is used in this pre-modern Assamese/Sanskrit manuscript forva, the modern form of which is "ৱ". Though the modern Assamese alphabet does not use this glyph for any letter, modernTirhuta continues to use this forva. Image 2: The native names, in Bengali–Assamese, of the threescheduled languages of India that commonly use this script, followed by their standard English names and aLatin transliteration of the native name in parentheses.
Script type	Abugida
Period	c. 1100–present
Direction	Left-to-right
Official script	forBengali language,Assamese language andMeitei language (constitutionally termed asManipuri)[1][2]
Languages	Bengali,Assamese,Bishnupriya,Maithili,Meitei,Sylheti,Santali,Kokborok,Garo,Hajong,Chakma,Mizo,Khasi,Chittagonian,Kudmali,Ho,Kamtapuri,Noakhali, and others.
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī[3] Gupta[4] Siddhaṃ[5] Gaudi[6] Bengali–Assamese
Child systems	Bengali,Assamese,Tirhuta
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Beng(325), ​Bengali (Bangla)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Bengali
Unicode range	U+0980–U+09FF (Bengali), U+011480–U+0114DF (Tirhuta)
This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article containsBengali text. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols.

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TheBengali–Assamese script,^[7] sometimes also known asEastern Nagri,^[8] is an easternBrahmic script, primarily used today for theBengali andAssamese language spoken ineastern South Asia. It evolved fromGaudi script, also the common ancestor of theOdia andTrihuta scripts.^[9][10] It is commonly referred to as theBengali script byBengalis^[11] and theAssamese script by theAssamese,^[12] while in academic discourse it is sometimes calledEastern-Nāgarī.^[13] Three of the22 official languages of the Indian Republic—Bengali,Assamese, andMeitei^[a][14]—commonly use this script in writing;^[15][16][2] Bengali is also theofficial andnational language ofBangladesh.

Besides,Bengali andAssamese languages, it is also used to writeBishnupriya Manipuri,Meitei,Chakma,Santali and numerous other smaller languages spoken in eastern South Asia.^[17][18] Historically, it was used to write variousOld andMiddle Indo-Aryan languages, and, like many other Brahmic scripts, is still used for writingSanskrit.^[19] Other languages, such asBodo,Karbi,Maithili andMising were once written in this script.^[20] The two major alphabets in this script –Assamese andBengali – 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.^[21][22][23]

The Bengali–Assamese script was originally not associated with any particular regional language, but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions ofMedieval India for Old- and Middle-Indo-Aryan includingSanskrit.^[19] 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.^[22]

The modern eastern scripts (Bengali-Assamese, Odia, and Maithili) became clearly differentiated around the 14th and 15th centuries from the predecessorGaudi.^[7] While the scripts in Bengal, Assam andMithila remained similar to each other the Odia script developed a curved top in the 13th–14th century and became increasingly different.^[24] 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.^[21][25]

According tod'Hubert (2014) manuscripts written in the 17th–18th century from eastern Bihar in the west to Manipur in the east followed related scripts, that could be classed largely into three on the basis of the letterro: (1) western - with the current Bengaliro; (2) northern - with the current Assamesero; and (3) eastern - largely lost today with aro not seen today.^[26]

Modern Bengali–Assamese script saw further standardisations following the introduction of printing.

Though there were early attempts to cut Bengali types^[27] it was theEast India Company's interest in propagating theBengali language^[28] that ultimately prevailed. It first commissionedWilliam Bolts, a Dutch adventurer, to create a grammar for Bengali, but he had to leave India after he ran into trouble with the company.^[29][30] The first significant book with Bengali typography wasHalhed's 1778 "A Grammar of the Bengal Language"^[31] which he compiled from a meagre set of six Bengali manuscripts.^[32] When Halhed turned to Warren Hastings for publishing, he was referred toCharles 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.^[33]

Evolution of Bengali-Assamese script

Inscription from Valavarman III from 9th-10th century, Nagaon, Assam. Modern forms of letters andmatras are already discernible.

Early 13th century rock inscription nearGuwahati, Assam

The text, from the 18th-centuryHastividyārnava, commissioned byAhom kingSiva Singha, reads:sri sri mot xivo xingha moharaja. The modern Bengali glyph "র" currently used forra is used in this pre-modern Assamese/Sanskrit manuscript forva, the modern form of which is "ৱ". Though the modern Assamese alphabet does not use this glyph for any letter, modernTirhuta continues to use this forva.

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 Assameseৰ, the Bengaliর was used interchangeably in the text.

In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Assamese and Bengali languages, aRomanization scheme used by linguists specialising in Bengali phonology and a separateAssamese transliteration table used by linguists specialising in Assamese phonology are included along withIPA transcription.

There are three major modern alphabets in this script:Bengali,Assamese, andTirhuta. 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 Bengaliর and the letterক্ষ 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 letterক্ষ, for example. Languages like Meitei and Bishnupriya use a hybrid of the two alphabets, with the Bengaliর and the Assameseৱ. Tirhuta is more different and carries forward some forms used in medieval Assamese.^{[citation needed]}

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.

In theBengali alphabet,অ্যা is used when the intended pronunciation would otherwise be ambiguous.^{[clarification needed]} Some other languages use a vowelঅৗ 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 phonemesঅʼ andএʼ.

Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified byক, 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, ahôsôntô (্) may be written underneath the consonant.

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 itselfঘghô, notgh). 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 writtenন,ণ, orঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply callednô; instead, they are called "dental nô", "cerebral nô" andniô. 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.

There are twoUnicode blocks for Bengali–Assamese script, called Bengali and Tirhuta. The Bengali block is U+0980–U+09FF:

The Tirhuta block isU+11480–U+114DF:

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