Bengali/Script/Symbols 1

Modifiers and others

Modifier and other graphemes in Bengali

Symbol with [kɔ] (ক)	Name	Function	Transliteration	IPA
ক্	hôshonto "hôshônt" (হসন্ত)	Suppresses the inherent vowel [ɔ]	k	/k/
ৎ	khônđo tô "khonḍ tô" (খন্ড-ত)	Final unaspirated dental [t̪] (ত)	t	/t̪/
কং	ônushshar (অনুস্বার)	Final velar nasal [ŋ] (ঙ) Often replaced with ঙ.	kông	/kɔŋ/
কঃ	bishôrgo (বিসর্গ)	pronounced as syllable-final voiceless breath, as in উঃ isn't pronounced, but geminates the following consonant, as in দুঃসময় isn't pronounced at all, as in দুঃস্থ	-	[uh] [d̪uʃːomɔj] [d̪ustʰo]
কঁ	chôndrobindu "moon-dot" (চন্দ্রবিন্দু)	Vowel nasalization	kôñ	/kɔ̃/
‍৺	iśśôr (ঈশ্বর)	Used before name of a deity, Used before name of a deceased person.	None	None
‍ঽ	ôbôgrôhô (অবগ্রহ)	Used in texts translated from Sanskrit to denote a missing অ. Now obsolete.	None	None

ঃ -h and ং -ng are also often used as abbreviation marks in Bengali, with ং -ng used when the next sound following the abbreviation would be a nasal sound, and ঃ -h otherwise. For example, ডঃ ḍôh stands for ডক্টর ḍôkṭor "doctor" and নং nông stands for নম্বর nômbor "number". Some abbreviations have no marking at all, as in ঢাবি ḍhabi for ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় Ḍhaka Bishshobiddalôe "Dhaka University". The full stop can also be used when writing out English letters as initials, such as ই.ইউ. i iu "E.U.".

The jôphôla is sometimes used as a diacritic to indicate non-Bengali vowels of various kinds in transliterated foreign words. For example, the schwa is indicated by a jôphôla, the French u and the German umlaut ü as উ্য, the German umlaut ö as ও্য or এ্য, etc.

The apostrophe, known in Bengali as ঊর্ধ্বকমা urdhokôma "upper comma", is sometimes used to distinguish between homographs, as in পাটা paţa "plank" and পা'টা paţa "the leg". Sometimes a hyphen is used for the same purpose (as in পা-টা, an alternative of পা'টা).