On বৃহস্পতিবার 29 মার্চ 2012 08:04 , Swarup wrote:
>
> 2. The classical Bengali script has no letter for "va" (व). It has only "ba"
> (ब). But those who write Sanskrit shlokas using the Bengali script need a
> character for "va", and for that a convention has been adopted that the
> Bengali letter for "ba" ("ব" ) will be used for the sound "va". And for "ba",
> the character is slightly changed i.e. with a line through the bottom portion
> (पेट कटा हुआ), resulting in "ৰ" , just as is done in devanagari.
>
Would you be able to point me to any document or link for this convention?
Afaik, the character ৰ was at some point (way before Ishwar Chandra Bidyasagar's
time) used to represent 'Ra', but was then changed to the present form র. It is
still used in the present Assamese script as the 'Ra'. There used to be another
ব placed in the consonant (byanjan barna) sequence after ল and before শ, known
as the 'antastya ba', which presently is determined phonetically depending upon
the word it is used in (an analogy could be on how the alphabet 'c' is used in
English). However, it did not have any difference in appearance with the regular
'ba'. For instance, in the word 'বিল্ব' (pronounced as 'bil-wa') the first 'ba'
represents 'ba' and and the second that has been used in the conjunct has a 'va'
(or rather a 'wa') sound.
> So to achieve this, I moved the "ব" over to the "va" location in the keymap
> (bn-baraha.mim file). I then found somewhere the changed version of the
> character i.e. with the line through the bottom portion (पेट कटा हुआ), and
> put this new character "ৰ" , in at the "ba" location in the keymap file.
IMO, the representation of 'ba' and 'antastya ba' (if at all) on the keymap
ought to be the other way round. The former is pronounced as 'ba' and the latter
is used for the words where the phonetic 'va' is to be used.
Hope this helps
regards
Runa
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