may also occur as an allophone of /e/ for some speakers, especially in loan words from English. ^ a b c /æ/ is usually pronounced as a near-open but may also be pronounced and transcribed in IPA as open-mid, depending on the speaker or variety.^ a b c When preceding a vowel in word-initial positions, may occur as an allophone of /o/ and /u/, especially in loan words e.g.^ The phonetic quality of /u/ may also be a fully back near-close rounded vowel.In the tables below, the sounds are given in IPA.Īlthough the standard form of Bengali is largely uniform across West Bengal and Bangladesh, there are a few sounds that vary in pronunciation (in addition to the myriad variations in non-standard dialects): Phonemically, Bengali features 29 consonants, 7 oral vowels, and up to 7 nasalized vowels. Phonemic inventory Standard Bangladeshi Bengali vowel chart, from Khan (2010:222) The phonology of Bengali, like that of its neighbouring Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, is characterised by a wide variety of diphthongs and inherent back vowels (both / o/ and / ɔ/). For the distinction between, / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
