Bengali Romanization Insights

Welcome to the Bengali Romanization Insights page!

Here you’ll find all the necessary rules and guidelines in order to contribute to Bengali lyrics using Roman letters AKA Banglish.

Although, it is not possible to make a solid guideline for that, just make sure to follow these key points below when transcribing-

1. Do not write using inappropriate Banglish spelling (such as Murad Takla style). I’ll share a table with some examples (Left is how it should be written, right is the wrong way) -

2. Do not use machine/AI to transcribe, even if you do make sure you fix every obvious error and issue. Because machines cannot romanize correctly yet. See the photo below for example (Correct Romanized form: “Amar/amaar naam Shovon”)- 

3. Follow the existing transcription guidelines to format your lyrics properly. The punctuation rules, capitalization rules etc. must be followed.
4. For English words, use correct English spelling. Example- 

5. Bangla numbers should be written in words. English numbers should be transcribed as per English guidelines. Example- 

Now that we've covered the key points, let's explore the process in more detail. 

Transliteration, or Romanization, involves converting text from one script to another. For Bengali, this means writing Bengali words using the English alphabet instead of the Bengali script. It's important not to confuse transliteration/romanization with translation. For example, ‘আমার সোনার বাংলা’ becomes ‘Amar shonar Bangla’ when transliterated/romanized, while it's translated as ‘My Bengal of gold.’ Below are some guidelines to follow when transcribing lyrics in Romanized or Transliterated Bengali.

1. Instead of breaking down words into individual letters and transliterating each letter separately, focus on the pronunciation of the whole word and write accordingly. This approach gives a clearer reflection of the words compared to the method where each letter is transliterated individually. For example, 'সর্বত মঙ্গল রাধে' becomes ‘Sorbot mongol Radhe’ when each letter is transliterated individually. However, the sentence is actually pronounced as ‘Shorboto mongolo Radhe’. Therefore, we will use the second option, which reflects the pronunciation more accurately.

1.a. Apply this rule to words with যুক্তবর্ণ (conjunct consonants), কার (vowel signs), ফলা (consonant signs), etc. For instance, 'অক্ষয়' should be transliterated as 'okkhoy' instead of 'akshay', and ‘আত্মা’, 'বিদ্যা', ‘সত্তা’, 'স্বপ্ন’, ‘স্কন্ধ’ should be ‘atta’, ‘bidda’, ‘shotta’, ‘shopno’, ‘skondho’ respectively.

2. Although Bengali letters have no case, when transliterating into English, be mindful of case usage. The first letter of the first word should be in uppercase. Also, be sure to capitalize the first letter of proper nouns. For example: ‘E shoshor jadur shohor, praner shohor Dhaka re’, ‘Bela Bose, tumi paccho ki shunte?’.

   
   
   

3. Use standardized English transliterations for proper nouns. For instance, Cox’s Bazar for ‘কক্সবাজার’, not Koksbajar. If there’s no standardized transliteration for a proper noun, transcribe it according to the Musixmatch writing guidelines.

   
   
   

4. Avoid joining two words into one or breaking one word into two unnecessarily. Some examples are::

   
   

   ❌ Ekhonto shomoy bhalobashar

✅ Ekhon to shomoy bhalobashar

❌ Ami amar ami ke chiro din ei Banglay khuje pai

✅ Ami amar amike chirodin ei Banglay khuje pai

5. Refrain from inserting unnecessary syllables into words.

   
   
   

✅ Tumi to shei jabei chole

❌ Tumi toh shei jabei chole

✅ Kotha koiyo na

❌ Kotha koiyoh nah

6. Be mindful when using ‘I’ and ‘Y’ in words. While their pronunciation might seem similar, they are not always interchangeable. Generally, use ‘I’ in Bengali transliterations where there’s a sound similar to ‘ই’ in Bengali and ‘Y’ for ‘য়’.

   
   

   Therefore, in case of ‘তুমি তো সেই যাবেই চলে’:

   
   

   ✅ Tumi to shei jabei chole

   ❌ Tumi to shey jabey chole

   
   

   And for ‘আয়, খুকু, আয়’:

   ✅ Ay, khuku, ay

❌ Ai, khuku, ai

7. Take care not to interchange ‘G’ and ‘J’. The letter ‘G’ corresponds to the sound similar to ‘গ’ in Bengali, while ‘J’ matches the sound of ‘জ’. Therefore, the word ‘গান’ should be transliterated as ‘gan/gaan’, and ‘জান’ as ‘jan/jaan’, not the other way around.

   
   
   

8. Similarly, avoid mixing up ‘A’ and ‘E’. Use ‘A’ for sounds akin to ‘আ’ and ‘E’ for sounds similar to ‘এ’. For instance, ‘এমন’ should be written as ‘emon’, not ‘amon’. Conversely, ‘তোমার’ should be ‘tomar’, not ‘tomer’.

   
   

   Consider the following example:

   
   

   ✅ Ei desh amar tomar, e deshe jonmo moder

❌ Ai dash amer tomer, a dasha jonmo modar

9. C or Ch?: ‘Ch’ can be used for both ‘চ’ and ‘ছ’. For example: ‘চা’ is ‘cha’, so is ‘ছা’. However, in some cases, using ‘c’ might be a better option to represent ‘চ’. For instance, ‘কাচ্চি’ would be ‘kacchi’, and ‘পিচ্চি’ would be ‘picchi’. Notice that in both examples, the first ‘চ’ is represented by ‘c’, while the second one is represented by ‘ch’. 

Almost every time when ‘চ’ is not part of a conjunct consonant (যুক্তবর্ণ) with itself, like in ‘চ্চ’, both ‘চ’ and ‘ছ’ can simply be written as ‘ch’.

✓ Original Bengali: চঞ্চল ছেলেটি চট করে চা ছড়িয়ে ফেলল

✓ Romanized Bengali: Chonchol cheleti chot kore cha choriye fello

10. The case of ‘s’ vs ‘sh’: The debate between using ‘s’ vs ‘sh’ is a point of particular interest. While there isn't a strict rule for when to use each, for consistency across our transcriptions, let's adhere to these guidelines:

    
    
    

Use ‘sh’ for ‘শ’ and ‘ষ’: The sound of ‘শ’ closely resembles ‘sh,’ making this an obvious choice. Although ‘ষ’ is typically pronounced with a sharper tone, English lacks a letter that captures this sharpness, so we'll also represent ‘ষ’ as ‘sh’. So, ‘শক্তি’ would be ‘shokti’ and ‘বর্ষা’ would be ‘borsha’.

Coming to ‘স’ now, its pronunciation varies depending on the word, sometimes it sounds like ‘s’, and other times like ‘sh’. For instance, in the word ‘সবুজ’, ‘স’ sounds like ‘sh’, so it’d best be transliterated as ‘shobuj’. Conversely, ‘স’ in ‘স্নেহ’ sounds like ‘s’, making ‘sneho’ the most accurate transliteration. Ultimately, we need to focus on the overall sound of the word when transliterating, rather than judging by the individual letter.

✓ Original Bengali: সালাম সাহেবকে সাথে নিয়ে স্বাধীনবাবু সন্তান সুশান্তকে শুদ্ধ শব্দে সঠিক শিষ্টাচার শেখাচ্ছেন

✓ Romanized Bengali: Salam shahebke sathe niye Shadhinbabu shontan Shushantoke shuddho shobde shothik shishtachar shekhacchen

11. Finally take a look at the following transcriptions and for a broader understanding, compare them side by side. 

Song 1: Prematal by Tahsan. ( Spotify | YouTube )

Song 2: Poth Chola by Artcell. ( Spotify | YouTube )

Song 3: Amaro Porano Jaha Chay by Rishi Panda. ( Spotify | YouTube )

There isn't a standardized method for transliterating Bengali at the moment, so it's a learning process for everyone. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out to the Curator Specialists; they'll be glad to assist you.