I hope these corrections are implemented not only as an addendum tacked on at the end, but are followed through with, thus changing all the flawed lessons and exercises. But my point is: the distinction between short and long has been lost in Bengali, and speakers make no distinction unless they consciously try to force the spelling back on to the pronunciation, which yields an artificial sound. Depending on the speaker and the dialect, these sounds can be a little less extreme, being somewhere between U and OO or somewhere between I and EE. What you label U and OO are both pronounced the same, somewhat like OO in "fool" but shorter. What you label I and EE are both pronounced the same, in a sound somewhat like EE in "meet" but shorter. Khan explains this: there is really no difference in pronunciation between the short and long vowels. So example J does not sound like "on" but like the American English pronunciation of "own."
When, during the third lesson, you transcribe the English word "at" into what is supposed to be the Bengali alphabet, you want the students to look at the Bengali and sound the word "at" because you've taught them the sound is AAE as in "hat." But, in fact, a native Bengali speaker looking at example H shall read "oit" not "at." And example J is thus also flawed, because what in Hindi is the AW sound is in Bengali an OU sound (like American English "coat"). E and O sound like their Hindi counterparts, but OI is the sound of O followed by I (a diphthong, and one absent in English) and OU is the sound of O followed by U (another diphthong, much like American English "coat"). The vowels labeled AE, AAE, O, and AU should first and foremost be re-labelled as E, OI, O, and OU, respectively. Sameer Khan correctly insists that two of these vowels do not resemble the Hindi analogs, but in the lessons, the incorrect explanations are maintained, and worse, English words are given "transliterated" in Bengali script, but done wrong, thus misleading students more. The most grievous errors occur with the treatment of vowels and the consistent use of Hindi vowel sounds for the last four vowels, which you people label AE, AAE, O, and AU. Sameer Khan's corrections, though tacked on at the bottom, have not been implemented into the main lessons. There are, I must point out, some flaws that can easily be corrected. Please read these very helpful comments by Rashid Ullah before proceedingĬongratulations on a fine site. It is hard to get vowel sounds right in any foreign language. Ou (NOT the same as in Hindi, no similar letter, it's just an "o" that Oi (NOT the same as in Hindi, it is the sound in "loin" or "join") The vowels are different from Hindi to Bangla:Īw (NOT the same sound as in Hindi, it is the sound in "hot" or "lot") Reading the vowel marks correctly is half the battle. It is important to go over the previous figures again and again until they are imprinted on your mind. Note also that for the O and Au sounds to mark M there are two components of the vowel mark -one which is put before the letter and the other after. Note that although the AE and AAE sounds follow after the letter M, they are put before it. Lets take the letters M and N and add these vowel marks after the M. Lets look at the vowel marks - the English pronounciation is given as an example in a word, eg the short i is as in the English word Miss
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