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Orthographic depth info
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===Orthographic depth=== | ===Orthographic depth=== | ||
The Bengali script in general has a comparatively [[orthographic depth|shallow orthography]], i.e., in most cases there is a one-to-one correspondence between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) of Bengali. But grapheme-phoneme inconsistencies do occur in certain cases. | The Bengali script in general has a comparatively [[orthographic depth|shallow orthography]], i.e., in most cases there is a one-to-one correspondence between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) of Bengali. But grapheme-phoneme inconsistencies do occur in certain cases. | ||
One kind of inconsistency is due to the presence of several letters in the script for the same sound. In spite of some modifications in the 19th century, the Bengali spelling system continues to be based on the one used for Sanskrit,<ref name="huq_sarkar" /> and thus does not take into account some sound mergers that have occurred in the spoken language. For example, there are three letters ({{lang|bn|শ}}, {{lang|bn|ষ}}, and {{lang|bn|স}}) for the [[voiceless postalveolar fricative]] {{IPA|[ʃ]}}, although the letter {{lang|bn|স}} retains the [[voiceless alveolar sibilant]] {{IPA|[s]}} sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in {{lang|bn|স্খলন}} {{IPA|[skʰɔlon]}} "fall", {{lang|bn|স্পন্দন}} {{IPA|[spɔndon]}} "beat", etc. The letter {{lang|bn|ষ}} also retains the [[voiceless retroflex sibilant]] {{IPA|[ʂ]}} sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in {{lang|bn|কষ্ট}} {{IPA|[kɔʂʈɔ]}} "suffering", {{lang|bn|গোষ্ঠী}} {{IPA|[ɡoʂʈʰi]}} "clan", etc. Similarly, there are two letters ({{lang|bn|জ}} and {{lang|bn|য}}) for the [[voiced postalveolar affricate]] {{IPA|[dʒ]}}. | |||