On শুক্রবার 30 মার্চ 2012 08:50 , Swarup wrote:
> On Thu, 2012-03-29 at 14:31 +0530, Runa Bhattacharjee wrote:
>> 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?
>
> Runa Didi, I deeply appreciate your keen interest in Bangla, and your
> questions reflect this interest. I am attaching here an excerpt from a book
> explaining the importance of maintaining the distinction between 'ব'' and
> 'ৰ'; in the following mail I shall attach two files showing the relevant
> part of the Bangla varnamala with 'ব'' and 'ৰ'.
>
> By reading the excerpted section, the reason for distinguishing in written
> form between the two letters 'ৰ' and 'ব ' will I think become clear. If
> anyone has any further question, feel free to write and I will be happy to
> discuss more. My thanks to all those who take interest in this vital
> subject.
>
What book is this part of? Besides saying the same thing that you have been
saying so far, none of those scanned images provide a citation of any
"legitimacy". Has this "change" (that'll impact the manual and digital writing
form of the language in epic proportions) been approved by the Paschim Banga
Bangla Akademy or any other Authority for the Bangla language?
At the risk of sounding repetitive - ৰ was the ancient form of the alphabet
'Ra' (and not ontostyo 'ba' as claimed by your book) and was used in manuscripts
prior to the time of Bidyasagar's reforms, after which the present form র was
popularised and used in printing. This glyph has *no* connection to any form of
'ba' (borgiyo or antastya) at all. The Assamese however continued using the old
form of 'Ra' and still do. That is the very reason it is part of the Unicode
U0980 code chart (aka Bengali code chart) at U+09F0. Recently this has been
raised as a matter of dispute at Unicode where language authorities from the
state of Assam have claimed for a separate code chart for Assamese and to move
among others U+09F0 (i.e. ৰ) into the Assamese Code chart [1].
What you are trying to do will introduce a taint in the keymap and percolate
into the data that will be written using it.
Runa
[1] http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120224/jsp/frontpage/story_15173871.jsp
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