Bengali phonemic inventory

Phonemically, Bengali features 29 consonants and 14 or 15 vowels (Eastern dialects incorporate an additional vowel featured in a vowel harmony process), including seven nasalized vowels. In the tables below, the sounds are given in IPA.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Consonants

		Labial	Dental, Alveolar	Retroflex	Palato- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless unaspirated	p	t	ʈ	tʃ~ts~tɕ	k
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ	tʃʰ~tsʰ~tɕʰ	kʰ
	voiced unaspirated	b	d	ɖ	dʒ~dz~dʑ	ɡ
	voiced aspirated (murmured)	bʱ	dʱ	ɖʱ	dʒʱ~dzʱ~dʑʱ	ɡʱ
Fricative		(f~ɸ)	(s, z)		(ʃ, ʒ)		h~ɦ
Approximant		(w)	l		(j)
Rhotic				ɾ,r

External links

• Bengali phonology