The Sounds of Bengali

Extract

In the first issue of our Bulletin the Director was good enough to allow me to insert a very diffident and tentative attempt to record the characteristic sounds of Bengali in the script of the International Phonetic Association, and to reduce them to some sort of rule for the benefit of students. Writing at a long distance of time and space from Bengal, I was not so rash as to suppose that my assertions were beyond question. On the contrary, I hoped and wished to provoke discussion on a subject which has only recently become the subject of serious study. I was not surprised, therefore, when a valued colleague (not himself a Bengali) told me that some Bengali friends of his were convinced that my attempt was a failure and my statements incorrect. This criticism, however, was not of much help to me, since it did not give details.