Bengali (Bangla)

orthography notes

Plain vowels

Complex vowels

There are a large number of diphthongs in Bangla, and the chart below shows an incomplete set.wp

Vowel harmony

The pronunciation of a vowel can be affected by the vowel in the following syllable. Radice provides the following table, though this is a simplification and there are many exceptions.

For example, the verb শোনা ʃonɑ to hear with an i ending becomes ʃuni, দেখা dækʰa to see becomes dekʰi, etc. This sometimes accounts for the pronunciation of the inherent vowel, eg. অতিথি otitʰi guest and অনুবাদ onubad translation start with o rather than ɔ.

Consonant-based orthographic syllables

[C[n]h] [C[n]h] C[n] [h | v (n)] [f]

The core of a consonant-based syllable is a base consonant character, which may or may not additionally represent an inherent vowel if it stands alone.

There is no inherent vowel if it is followed by a vowel sign, eg. কী kī কি ki কো ko or hasant, eg. ক্ k͓.

At the end of a word, there may or may not be an inherent vowel, even if there is no hasant.

Any base consonant may be a combination of consonant code point plus nukta.

The base consonant can be preceded by up to two consonant+hasant pairs (where the consonant may also be a combination of consonant+nukta), but only if those consonants form conjuncts (ie. the hasant is invisible), eg. ক্ক k͓k ম্প m͓p ক্ষ k͓ʃ̇ ন্ত্র n͓t͓r. If the preceding consonants carry visible hasant symbols, those are treated as separate orthographic syllables.

Likewise, the variable use of the hasant in Bengali means that a phonetic cluster of consonants can constitute a larger series of orthographic syllables. For example, this word for cymbal has two phonetic syllables, but 3 orthographic since the rt combination is not combined: করতাল

A vowel sign may optionally be followed by a nasalisation diacritic.

Unless the base consonant is followed by a hasant, the syllable may be terminated by a final consonant repesented by khanda ta, anusvara, or visarga.

Consonant clusters

Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters, and word-final clusters are rare. However, words borrowed from Sanskrit, English, etc. have introduced many such features.

Many Bengali speakers, however, retain the native phonology, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম gerɑm (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম g͓rɑm village (CCVC), or ইস্কুল ịʃ͓̈kul (VC.CVC) forস্কুল ʃ͓̈kul school.wp,#Consonant_clusters

Most word-final clusters were introduced from English, eg. লিফ্ট lipʰ͓ʈ lift, elevator or ব্যাংক b͓ʲɑŋ̽k bank. In some dialects, a final nasal+stop is written as a cluster, whereas in standard Bengali it would use nasalisation, eg. চান্দ cɑn͓d vs. চাঁদ cɑm̽d moon.wp,#Consonant_clusters

For more information, see Wikipediawp,#Consonant_clusters.

Vowel-based orthographic syllables

Vowel-based syllables begin with a standalone vowel, which is represented by a single independent vowel or vocalic.

An independent vowel may be followed by an anusvara, visarga or candrabindu (nasalisation), eg. উঃ, আঁ ụh̽, ɑm̽

Inherent vowel suppression

Bengali uses 09CD (called হসন্ত hʃ̈n͓t hasant hɔsonto in Bengali) to indicate that the inherent vowel is not pronounced after a consonant, eg. ক্ explicitly represents just the sound k.

The hasant is rarely seen. It is not used at the end of a word even though the inherent vowel is pronounced at the end of some words and not others, eg. গরম gɔrôm, hot vs. গড়ান gɔɽɑnô, to roll. There is no real way to tell when the inherent vowel is pronounced and when not in this position, except that it is usually pronounced following a word-final consonant cluster.

Within a word also, some clusters don't use the hasant in Bengali, and the reader simply has to know that the inherent vowel is not pronounced, eg.

করতাল

This is particularly common at morpheme boundaries, for example in verb forms.

Consonant clusters that are represented by conjunct forms use the hasant between consonants to invoke the shape changes. If the font has the glyphs needed to produce the conjunct the hasant is hidden (see clusters).

Refs: Radice 3, 7-8, 21, 148; Daniels 400

Plain vowels

The following panel shows the primary vowels for Bengali, and how they are written. Most sounds are written using a single, dedicated code point, but one is represented by a sequence that includes a character usually used as a consonant (see otherV for more details).

Bengali has lost the distinction between short and long vowels in pronunciation, but retains the difference in spelling.

Other sounds are associated with some of the above graphemes. The variation in pronunciation for the vowel signs can often be explained by vowel harmony.

Click on the characters in the panel for more details.

09CB was originally pronounced ʊ, and that pronunciation sometimes persists alongside the o that came from Sanskrit, eg. নোংরা

Vowel signs (particularly U) may form ligatures with a preceding base consonant. The use of ligatures may vary with the type of content (see vowelligatures).

Jô-phôla

ক্য kæ U+0995 BENGALI KA + U+09CD SIGN VIRAMA + U+09AF LETTER YA

When it occurs as the last member of a consonant cluster 09AF has the special shape ্য and is called ʤɔ-pfɔlɑ (য-ফলা). One of its functions is to create the sound æ, eg.

ব্যাঙ্ক

There are exceptions to the previous rule, when the a-kar produces its normal value, eg. ব্যাখ্যা

সন্ধ্যা

The sound æ can also be produced when there is no vowel sign, eg.

ব্যথা

According to Radice, vowel harmony may phonetically produce e when the following syllable is i.

Unusually for Indian scripts, jô-phôla can also be used after independent vowels to create the standalone sound æ. The sequences 0985 09CD 09AF 09BE and 098F 09CD 09AF 09BE are used mostly in transliterations of borrowed words, eg. অ্যাটর্নি এ্যাডভোকেট

See also compositeV, which explains how independent vowels are used for the off-glide of diphthongs.

Diphthongs

Like several other brahmi-derived scripts, the following 2 diphthongs are written using a single character each.

However, most of the many additional diphthongs are represented by a sequence of vowelswa,#Vowels, where the off-glide is typically represented using one of the following independent vowels:

• 0987
• 0989
• 0993
• 09AF 09BC (for e̯).

The following are examples of diphthongs. Hyphens indicate a consonant with inherent vowel. The detailed character notes contain examples of Bangla words containing the diphthongs shown.

Pre-base vowel signs

কে ke U+0995 BENGALI KA + U+09C7 VOWEL SIGN E

Three vowel signs appear to the left of the base consonant letter or cluster, eg.

বিড়ি

বেগ

তৈরি

These combining marks are always typed and stored after the base consonant(s), ie. the code points follow the order in which the items are pronounced. The rendering process places the glyph before the base consonant without changing the code points. The following shows the sequence of code points that make up the first word just above.

The vowel sign is actually placed before the start of a conjunct. In fig_prebase the sequence of glyphs for the orthographic syllable is rendered VCC, whereas the pronunciation is CCV. In conjuncts with 3 consonants, it will still be rendered before all the consonants, eg.

প্লিজ

However, if the cluster doesn't form a conjunct, or is split by a visible virama, the cluster becomes two orthographic syllables and the pre-base vowel sign appears after the last consonant that has a virama. The sequence of displayed glyphs is now CVC. If the conjunct contains 3 consonants, the displayed order will be CCVC.

Circumgraphs

কো ko U+0995 BENGALI KA + U+09CB VOWEL SIGN O

Two vowels are represented by circumgraphs, producing glyphs on opposite sides of the consonant onset. These are combining marks that are always stored after the base consonant. The rendering process places the glyphs around the base consonant, as needed

বোন

নৌকো

Like pre-base glyphs, these do not split a conjunct, but instead they treat the conjunct as a single unit and place glyphs either side of it, eg,

প্রৌঢ়

These circumgraph vowel signs are normally a single code point, but in decomposed text the base consonant can be followed by two code points , eg. compare the following equivalent ways of writing ko:

Vowel elongation

09BD is a Sanskrit-derived symbol that is used in modern Bengali to lengthen vowel soundsws, eg. কিঽঽঽ? kiiii Whaaatt? শুনঽঽঽ ʃunooo Listennn

Nasalisation

0981 nasalises the vowel in a syllable, eg. হ্যাঁ হাঁপান Nasalised vowels include ĩ ũ ẽ õ ɛ̃ ɔ̃ ã.

The candrabindu should be placed over the top of an independent vowel, but over the base consonant when a vowel sign is attached – not over the vowel sign. In the code point sequence, however, this should occur after any combining vowel sign associated with the same syllable. Note how the base consonant is identified correctly in the second word of fig_candrabindu, even though the candrabindu is 4 code points away. Some fonts do not position the candrabindu correctly.

Composite vowels

কেউ keu̯ U+0995 BENGALI KA + U+09C7 VOWEL SIGN E + U+0989 VOWEL LETTER U

Composite vowels in Bengali may occur when 09CB and 09CC are decomposed, however this is not common. See encoding for more details.

Although 2 of the vowel signs (and independent vowels) represent diphthongs (oi̯ and ou̯) with a single code point, most of the many diphthongs are represented by a sequence of vowels,wa,#Vowels eg.

কেউ

Plain vowels

Diphthongs and other combinations

Khiyɔ

0995 09CD 09B7 is called khiyɔ, pronounced kʰ or kːʰ, and is often treated as a letter of the alphabet in that some dictionaries give it it's own section, eg. ক্ষুদ্র

Assamese & Sanskrit

Medial RA

A trailing 09B0 in a conjunct is displayed as a wavy line below the other consonant(s), eg. gr in

গ্রাম

RA+jô-phôla

In a typical case, a combination of র্য represents an -r coda followed by d͡ʒ. In such cases, the RA is written as a repha mark. For example:

সূর্য

However, in rare cases, the intention may be for the RA to be an onset, and the YA to be a jô-phôla form. In this case, the RA should appear as a full form. These differences in shape are contrasted in fig_ra_zwj_ya.

To create latter shape, add a 200D character before the hasant.

Observation: I was unable to find an example of RA followed by jô-phôla.

RA coda followed by a consonant

When a word-medial syllable ends with -r and the following syllable starts with a consonant, the letter 09B0 is normally displayed as a mark above that consonant (or consonants, in the case of a conjunct), eg.

গর্ত

Unlike Devanagari, it is typically displayed above the consonant glyph, rather than above the vowel sign of the orthographic syllable, eg.

অকর্তা

On the other hand, like other consonant clusters, the sound may also be written without a conjunct at all.

কারসাজি

See also rayapalaa.

Khanda ta

09CE, pronounced t̪, is a variant form of 09A4 that was added to Unicode 4.1 as a separate character. This shape occurs in words where the consonant is not followed by an inherent or other vowel sound. It either comes at the end of words, or before a consonant that doesn't naturally combine with TA, eg.

হঠাৎ

উৎসব

Khanda ta is not used before the following characters:u16,#G33942

Many words, however, use 09A4 in the same situations, and it's not possible to guess which will be used for a given word, eg.

হঠাত্

This character replaces and obsoletes an earlier approach that required the use of the sequence 09A4 09CD 200D.

Anusvara

0982 is a final nasal ŋ, eg. বাংলা

Sometimes spelling is inconsistent, especially when this or 0999 are used in a conjunct, eg. compare these pairs:

সাঙঘাতিক সাংঘাতিক রঙ রং

However, in certain words the spelling is fixed. One such word is বাংলা But, since this cannot support vowel signs, the word for Bengali nation (rather than language) has to be spelled with 0999, ie.

বাঙালী

See also the candrabindu diacritic, which nasalises a vowel.

Visarga

When used to represent a word-final consonant, 0983 produces vigorous final aspiration ɦ, eg. বাঃ

It doesn't appear in many common words.

One of the other uses of the visarga is to lengthen a following consonant, in which case there is no aspiration, eg. নিঃশব্দ

No special rendering

Unlike languages written in the Devanagari script, consonant clusters are often not represented as conjuncts in Bengali. It is necessary to just know that the vowel should not be pronounced, eg. রিকশা

Morphological boundaries, such as grammatical suffixes and endings are typically written without conjuncts, eg. the present tense form of khan plus negative suffix which is na is written খাননা

The stem kôr from kôra plus present continuous ending chô is written করছ

Conjunct formation

To produce a conjunct, 09CD is added between the consonants in the cluster. The font hides the glyph automatically.

The font usually determines how a cluster is rendered, although it is possible to influence this (see formatting). Different fonts may combine the same letters in different ways. The following figure shows characters that are combined in different ways by different fonts.

Quite often, clustered consonants are pronounced differently than you would expect. In particular, conjuncts ending with 09AC or 09AE tend to not pronounce the latter, but double the length of the consonant before it (see clength).

Nasals in conjuncts tend to conform to phonological patterns. Velar consonants combine with ঙ ŋɔ, palatal consonants combine with ঞ ñɔ, retroflex ণ ɳɔ, dental ন nɔ, and labial ম mɔ.

See a table of 2-consonant clusters.
The table allows you to test results for various fonts.

The sections below show examples of the various types of conjunct forms. The lists are not exhaustive. The shapes shown are by default those contained in the Noto Serif Bengali webfont. Other fonts may combine components in different ways. Click on the characters if you want to see the components.

Vertical conjuncts

Conjunct shapes are most commonly formed by arranging the components vertically, reducing and combining the shapes of the individual components as needed. These stacks don't extend below the lower baseline, as they do in conjuncts for many other scripts.

The conjuncts in fig_conjunct_vertical used in words: আস্থা ঝিল্লি রাষ্ট্র

Conjoined conjuncts

Many conjuncts are formed by combining components horizontally. Usually the initial consonant glyph is reduced.

The conjuncts in fig_conjoined used in words: ক্যম্পাস উচ্চারণ কম্প্যাক্ট ডিস্ক

Some people argue that at least some of these conjoined, half-forms (reminiscent of Devanagari) don't belong in the Bengali script, but that instead a visible virama should be shown.@GitHub,https://github.com/notofonts/bengali/issues/10 In this case, the examples above would look like this:

ক্যম্‌পাস

উচ্‌চারণ

Ligating conjuncts

A small set of conjuncts combine the consonants into a ligated shape, where individual components can't always be easily discerned.

The conjuncts in fig_conjunct_ligated used in words: ডাক্তার অঞ্চল লক্ষ্মী

Jô-phôla

Bengali has a particular way of representing a cluster-final য, known as jô-phôla (pronounced ʤɔ-pfɔlɑ). This is typically represented with the shape ্য, using the full form of the preceding consonant followed by a special form of YA, eg.

হ্যাঁ

Jô-phôla at the end of a conjunct usually has two possible effects:

• to double the length of the preceding consonant (see clength), or
• to change the value of the following vowel if it is inherent or a (see otherV).

Cluster-final MA

A cluster-final 09AE is also displayed in a characteristic way. The initial consonant is reduced, and the m is rendered as a long vertical line to the right with an appendage to the left at the bottom, producing a kind of diagonal grouping, eg.

জন্ম

Used this way, this letter is typically silent but produces a lengthening of the previous consonant sound (see clength), eg.

গ্রীষ্ম

পদ্ম

Visible virama

When the virama is used it may be because the font doesn't have a particular conjunct ligature, but it may also be visible in places where the phonology is unusual, eg. ফ্‌ল্যাট লান্‌চ although these may also be spelled with conjuncts, eg. ফ্ল্যাট

It is also quite common to see it used to distinguish words such as the following, which are etymologically related, but phonetically distinct:উদ্‌যাপন ụd͓‌ýɑpnউদ্যান ụd͓ýɑn

If a visible virama is wanted but not what the font does by default, it is possible to force it by inserting a ZWNJ character after the virama (see formatting).

Formatting characters

It's possible to prevent the formation of conjuncts, and force a visible virama, using 200C ( ZWNJ ). To produce a half-form, rather than a ligated form, use 200D ( ZWJ ).

200D (ZWJ) is also used to produce special joining forms for RA (see rayapalaa) and to control vowel ligation (see vowelligatures).

Other

Vowel ligatures

Vowel signs (particularly U) may form ligatures with a preceding base consonant. fig_lig shows ligated (top) and non-ligated (bottom) forms for several combinations. In certain contexts it may be less appropriate to ligate (eg. newspapers and modern typefaces). Both forms are equivalent in every way but visually.u16,#G72339

See a matrix of consonants followed by vowel signs for Bengali.

The table below indicates which sound combinations are rendered by default as ligatures by which fonts. The results cover Noto fonts, and system fonts for macOS (Sequoia) and Windows 11. The shapes resemble those just above. The link takes you to another page which shows all combinations and highlights the shapes indicated here.

* The Windows fonts (Shonar Bangla, Vrinda) create non-ligated forms for Assamese RA by default. All the other fonts create ligated forms, like Bengali RA.

Observation: The shapes in the Bangla MN and Bangla Sangam MN fonts for hū are identical to those used in other fonts for hri. Is this a mistake in the font?

The default behaviour of a given font can be modified using 200C or 200D before the vowel to produce the simple form.u16,#G72339 In principle, if a font produces a ligature by default, and if it has the necessary logic, the ZWNJ should produce the non-ligated form, and vice versa for the ZWJ. In practice, the behaviour varies.

In general use, these joiner characters are rarely needed. A choice of default ligated or non-ligated forms can be made by choosing an appropriate font.

The next table shows the effect of adding ZWJ and ZWNJ between the consonant and vowel for the combinations gu, shu, hu, hri, Bengali ru, rū, and Assamese ru, rū. Without a joiner these fonts all render the sequence as ligated, except for Shonar Bangla and Vrinda, where the Assamese ru, rū is non-ligated. Blink and Gecko browsers appear to render these combinations differently in a textarea element compared to regular HTML, so results are shown for both. Results also indicate the browser engine: B for Blink (Chrome, Edge, ...), G for Gecko (Firefox, ...), and W for Webkit (Safari, ...). indicates Ligated, means Non-Ligated. indicates that the sequence breaks, with a dotted circle between consonant and vowel.

Font	ZWJ		ZWNJ
	HTML	Textarea	HTML	Textarea
Noto Serif Bengali	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:
Noto Sans Bengali	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:
Bangla MN	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:
Bangla Sangam MN	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:	B: G: W:
Tiro Bangla	B: G: W: ?**	B: G: W: ?**	B: G: W: ?**	B: G: W:?**
Baloo Da 2	B: EX ru, rū G: EX ru, rū W:?**	B: EX ru, rū G: EX ru, rū W:?**	B: G: W:?**	B: G: W:?**
Kohinoor Bangla	B: G: W: EX ru, rū*	B: G: W: EX ru, rū*	B: G: W:	B: G: W:
November Bangla Traditional	B: G: W: ?**	B: G: W: ?**	B: G: W: ?**	B: G: W: ?**
Shonar Bangla	B: EX hri G: EX hri, as_ru/ū	B: EX hri, as_ru/ū, as_ru/ū G: EX hri, as_ru/ū	B: G:	B: G:
Vrinda	B: EX hri, as_ru/ū G: EX hri, as_ru/ū	B: EX hri, as_ru/ū G: EX hri, as_ru/ū	B: G:	B: G:
Nirmala UI	B: G:	B: G:	B: G:	B: G:

?** indicates fonts that are not rendered on Safari.

as_ru/rū indicates Assamese RA.

Word boundaries

Words are separated by spaces.

Graphemes

Changes introduced in Unicode 15.1 mean that grapheme clusters alone are now sufficient to represent typographic units in Bengali. Conjuncts are common and must not be split apart by edit operations that visually change the text (such as letter-spacing, first-letter highlighting, and in-word line breaking). For those operations one needs to segment the text using orthographic syllables, which string grapheme clusters together with a virama.

The Bengali virama (hasant) is 09CD, which has an Indic Syllabic Category of Virama.

Simple grapheme clusters

Base ZW(N)J? Combining_mark* ZW(N)J?

Combining marks may include zero or more of the following types of character.

1. Nukta [1] (see extendedC) Only one per grapheme cluster, typed and stored immediately after the base consonant.
2. Dependent vowels [10] (see combiningV and vocalics) Usually a single code point, but in decomposed text can be two (see circumgraphs).
3. Nasalisation mark [1] (see nasalisation) Occurs over an independent vowel, or over a consonant when it is followed by a vowel sign. It is nevertheless typed and stored after any vowel signs.
4. Final consonant marks [2] (see finals) One of 2 possible combining marks, at the end of a grapheme cluster sequence. May also occur after independent vowels.
5. Virama (hasant) (see clusters and novowel) Normally occurs immediately after a consonant (and optional nukta) at the beginning of a cluster, but also occurs after independent vowels, particularly when writing the sound æ. It may also occur after RA+ZWJ to force a particular rendered shape for RA (see below).

In some cases, a ZWJ is inserted between RA + hasant followed by YA in order to specify special shaping rules (see racoda).

A base consonant may be followed by ZWNJ before vowel sign code points where the author wants to prevent ligation of the following vowel sign (see vowelligatures). A ZWNJ may also be used after a virama to prevent conjunct formation and force the virama to be rendered visibly to the reader (see visiblevirama).

The following examples show a variety of grapheme clusters:

Click on the text version of these words to see more detail about the composition.

	বালতি
	ইংরেজ
	দুঃখও

Larger typographic units

(Consonant Nukta? Virama)+ Simple_grapheme_cluster

Bengali commonly stacks or conjoins glyphs, to form conjuncts (see clusters). The conjuncts represent consonant clusters or gemination.

Editorial operations that change the visual appearance of the text, such as letter-spacing, first-letter highlighting, line-breaking, and justification, should never split conjunct forms apart. For this reason, the extended grapheme cluster rules were modified in Unicode 15.1 to cover a number of named scripts, including Bengali. Since Bengali's ্ has an Indic_Conjunct_Break property value of Linker the hasant effectively extends the grapheme cluster that began the conjunct to include the grapheme cluster that follows it.

The following are examples.

Click on the text version of these words to see more detail about the composition.

	ঝিল্লি
	ক্যম্পাস
	ক্ষণ
	কুর্তা

Note that consonant clusters aren't always rendered as conjuncts, and in those cases the individual letters remain as separate graphemes. For example, consonants without an inherent vowel may be written using a consonant letter on its own at the end of a word or in other locations (see novowel).

Click on the text version of these words to see more detail about the composition.

	রিকশা
	খাননা

On the occasions when a virama needs to be visible even though it is followed by another base, an invisible character must be added to prevent it joining with the following base. 200C can achieve that.

	ফ্‌ল্যাট
	লান্‌চ

Complicating factors

Behaviour is font-dependent. If a font doesn't have a conjunct form for a particular combination of characters it will make the virama visible.

What's important to note here is that it is normally possible to break a line after the grapheme cluster containing the virama when the virama is visible. This is currently difficult to manage because the decision as to whether the text is segmented into 2 graphemes or one depends only on the capabilities of the font used (ie. the rendered result); the code point sequence is identical for both cases, and gives no clues to which approach to segmentation is applicable.

Visible viramas can also affect vowel sign positioning. For the purposes of illustration, see fig_prebase_position, where the placement of the pre-base vowel varies. In the conjunct form on the left, the vowel sign is rendered to the left of the whole conjunct. If the sequence is not rendered as a conjunct, as in the second example, the pre-base glyph precedes the TA, not the SA. (The underlying sequence of characters is the same in both cases.)

The grapheme cluster rules introduced in Unicode 15.1 mean that a sequence with a visible virama is not segmented after the virama. This is not ideal, but given the difficulty in distinguishing between situations where the virama is shown and those where it is not, where a choice has to be made it is probably better that the rules keep sequences together when the virama is invisible.

Phrase & section boundaries

Bangla uses a mixture of ASCII and Bengali punctuation.

The danda, 0964, is used for sentence final punctuation.

Observation: I haven't seen much evidence for the use of the double danda, 0965.

Western punctuation, such as commas, semicolons, colons, quotation marks and hyphens are also used quite commonly.

Quotations & citations

Bengali texts typically use quotation marks. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.

Emphasis

Italicisation, bolding, and underlining are not traditionally features of Bengali text.

Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

The bisɔrgô 0983 is sometimes used to mark initial abbreviations.

A sign called urdha-comma can be used to indicate truncation of words, eg. কʼরেʼপরে The Unicode Standard recommends use of 02BC.u,460

Observation: Wikipedia seems to use a normal apostrophe.

The Unicode Bengali block also has the punctuation 09FD. It is possible that 2026 is used.

Observation: Information is needed about how it is used. It doesn't appear to be in common use.

Other inline features

Line breaking

Bengali is preferably wrapped at word boundaries.

Baselines, line height, etc.

tbd

Bangla uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.

It also has a 'hanging baseline', which may be used for text alignment in things such as initial letter highlighting. The hanging baseline is based on the top bar that joins the letters.

Bangla requires slightly more vertical space than Latin text. To give an approximate idea, fig_baselines compares Latin and Bangla glyphs from Noto fonts. The basic height of Bangla letters is typically slightly higher than the Latin x-height, including conjunct stacks, however certain letters and combining marks extend beyond the Latin ascenders, creating a need for larger line spacing.

fig_baselines_other shows similar comparisons for the Bangla MN and Vrinda fonts.

Counters, lists, etc.

You can experiment with counter styles using the Counter styles converter. Patterns for using these styles in CSS can be found in Ready-made Counter Styles, and we use the names of those patterns here to refer to the various styles.

The modern Bangla orthography uses ASCII digit numbering, but also has a native numeric style.