Bengali

Bengali is the official language of Tripura. About 80% of the total population in Tripura speak Bengali. Under the branch India, Bengali belongs to Indo-European languages.

Bengali is written in Bengali script, a Brahmanic script. The Brahmanic script is similar to the Devanagri script used for writing Sanskrit and Hindi. In the Brahmanic script, the syllables are represented through the base symbols. To change the vowel of a particular syllable, other symbols are added to it. Two symbols are ligated to form a consonant cluster.

It is noteworthy that the Bengali alphabet is a syllabic alphabet. In the Bengali alphabets, the consonants usually have an inherent vowel with two different pronunciations. But, it is not always easy to determine the difference in the pronunciation.

Moreover, the vowels are written as independent letters. On many instances, the vowels are also written using diacritical marks. Special conjunct letters are used, when too many consonants occur is clusters. The use of conjunct reduces the letter of the consonants. The final consonant remains intact, as the inherent vowel is only applied to the final consonant.

Furthermore, it is to be noted that Tripuri, one of the principle languages in Tripura, does not possess any script of its own. Tripuri is written using the Bengali script. The Chakma language is an instance of the influence of Bengali on the languages of Tripura.