Bengali transliteration

[Guest guest]

Dear list members,

 

I have been having a longstanding problem with Bengali

transliteration. I know that Rahul Peter Das has

devised a system that has not caught on; if he is

present here, perhaps he could contact me and persuade

me of it.

 

What I am looking for is something that both (1)

respects the integrity of the alphabet and spelling

(and is thus easily convertible), and also (2)

accurately reflects the pronunciation of the words.

 

The character set that I have been using is inadequate

for several reasons, which in the interest of brevity

I won't ennumerate, but among the problems I have are

 

(i) the lack of a separate symbol for Da and Dha when

pronounced as hard-ra or rha. Rahul Peter Das has been

promoting the use of r with a dot over it, but without

much success. Are there any other solutions.

 

(ii) chandra-bindu.

 

(iii) varga-ja/antahstha-ja. Ami jAi or Ami yAi? We

probably need a new character to distinguish the two

ja's, whose pronunciation is identical.

 

(iv) final -a. Pronounced or not pronounced. a's

triple pronunciation as silent, "o", or "ö" is

confusing.

 

(v) antahstha pronounced as a "w". Using "y" for

antahstha does not always work. I often just drop it

entirely, as it is (as its name indicates) only meant

as a space marker. hAoA. jAoA instead of hAoyA jAoyA.

But this is problematic for integrity of spelling.

Using "w" is a possible solution ("hAowAjAowA").

Then, in conversion both "y" and "w" could convert to

antaHstha.

 

Anybody know of a system in operation that is meeting

with success?