Transliteration

Many a times it becomes very discomforting, not to mention confusing, to see Bangla words wrongly written in Roman alphabets in newspapers, on billboards, in online chats and SMSs. There is a very clear guideline for transliterating Bangla into English, and unfortunately many of us fail to abide by it. I am not being orthodox, but just making an urge to follow the guide to avoid any confusion.

In Bangla to English transliteration, the vowels are written as:

অ = a
আ = a (aa or A)
ই = i
ঈ = ee
উ = u
ঊ = oo
ঋ = r
এ = e
ঐ = oi
ও = o
ঔ = ou


And the consonants are as follows.
ক = k
খ = kh
গ = g
ঘ = gh
ঙ = ng
চ = ch
ছ = chh
জ = j
ঝ = jh
ঞ = n
ট = t (T)
ঠ = thh
ড = d
ঢ = d (D)
ণ = n
ত = t
থ = th
দ = d
ধ = dh
ন = n
প = p
ফ = ph
ব = b
ভ = bh
ম = m
য = y
র = r
ল = l
ব = v
শ = sh
ষ = sh
স = s
হ = h
ড় = r (d)
ঢ় = rh
য় = y
ৎ = t
ং = ng
ঃ = repetition of following alphabet
ঁ = n

The letters in brackets are optional ways of writing the same.

Usually, in case of compound letters, the component letters are individually transliterated.

Confusions arise when the first two vowels (অ & আ) are not rightly identified. In Bangla, every consonant must be attached to a vowel to be pronounced. So, when there is no other matra, there is অ attached to a consonant. Therefore, ‘শুভ’ is written as ‘shubha’, where as ‘shubho’ will make it ‘শুভো’. Question arises how you will write ‘শুভা’. It is written as either ‘shubha’ (preferred; pronounced based on context), or as ‘shubhaa’, or as ‘shubhA’. Please keep in mind that, we are using transliteration and not phonetics.

One may ask, why go for transliteration and not simply by phonetics. Well, in that case, we need to first phonetically simplify our own Bangla by eliminating ঈ, ঊ, ঋ, ঙ, ঞ, ড়, ঢ়, ৎ, etc. But, that’s an entirely different debate.

There are a few no-nos in transliterating Bangla to English. Writing ‘ফ’ as ‘f’, ‘ভ’ as ‘v’ and ‘ঝ’ as ‘z’ can be considered as cardinal sins.

I have been ‘accused’ by my friends of being colonially conditioned in promoting this transliteration guide. But, when you write Ganges, or Ganguli, or Dacca, or Chittagong — that’s colonialism. What I am trying to advocate for is to write the Bangla words correctly, not modifying or skewing them into whole new words.

I also prefer to call our language Bangla, and not Bengali, just as we should not be calling Engreji instead of English. But then again, these are names of languages which are known to different nations in different ways. Just like we call the language German and not Deutsch, or Pharasi and not Français, Bangla is known as Bengali in the English speaking world. Therefore, I don’t see any reason for heartburn for referring to our language as Bengali, especially while writing/speaking in English.

Grammars, rules, syntax are made to make a language rich and flourish through centuries. Of course, as because the languages are for us and we are not for the languages, we do modify the grammar, bend the rules, tune the syntax according to the needs. But these alterations should not affect the vital structure of the language.