Bengali – a brief pronunciation guide

For a more extensive description, please see the appendix of the Maṭh’s Śaraṇāgatī publication. However, it is always best to hear from a native Bengali.

Particularly note the following:

Letter	Pronunciation
a	o in cot, but like the u in sum or the o in go when it occurs after a conjunct consonant or in the second syllable of a word; a is often silent when it follows a single consonant at the end of a word.
ā	a in father or star.
ṛ	ri in rim.
e	ay in play or the a in bat.
ai	o in cot combined with the ee in see.
o	o in go.
au	o in go combined with the oo in moon.
ṅ	ng in sing.
ch	ch in chop.
chh	ch pronounced with aspiration.
ñ	n in lunch.
ṭ	t in taught (pronounced cerebrally).
ṭh	ṭ pronounced with aspiration. Never like the th in through.
ḍ	In between the d in dawn and the r in raw (pronounced cerebrally).
ḍh	ḍ pronounced with aspiration.
th	t pronounced with aspiration. Never like the th in through.
ph	p pronounced with aspiration. Often sounds like the f in fall.
b (v)	b in ball. b if following a consonant, is silent; but preceding, is doubled.
y	When y is the first letter of a word, it is pronounced like the j in job. When y occurs elsewhere within a word and is preceded by a vowel, it is pronounced like the y in yawn or the w in wand. When y follows a consonant, it is silent and the preceding consonant is doubled, except when it is followed by r, in which case it is pronounced like the j in job.
ś, ṣ	sh in shawl.
s	s in song or the sh in shawl.
ṁ	Like a softened form of the ng in sing.
ḥ	ḥ is pronounced similar to a double h when occurring at the end of a word. When it occurs in the middle of a word, the consonant which follows it is doubled.
( ̐)	The chandrabindu indicates to nazalise the vowel beneath it.
kṣ	Pronounced like kh when at the beginning of a word and like k-kh when in the middle of a word.
jñ	Pronounced like g when at the beginning of a word and like g-g between vowels. An ā following jñ is pronounced like the a in bat.