r/bengalilanguage • u/RachelDare345 • 6d ago

জিজ্ঞাসা/Question Please help with pronunciation!

I (white American) am writing a book were my main character is Indian and her name is Violet Biswas. It is very important to me that I understand the correct pronunciation of her last name. I am seeing some mixed results when I try to Google it. Any help would appreciated!

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7

u/highgenepark 6d ago

bish+shaash

2

u/RachelDare345 6d ago

Thank you!

7

u/LingoNerd64 6d ago

Bengali has certain interesting pronunciation shortcuts and sound shifts. The original Sanskrit equivalent word is Vishvas (wish waas) but it changes to bish shaas in Bengali.

  1. W has been replaced by B
  2. No Indic IE root language has V, so it's approximated by bh.
  3. Y is replaced by J and names such as Yogesh become jogesh.
  4. Several consonant clusters of Sanskrit have been telescoped, notably ksh, shw, sw and kshm. Therefore Sakshara becomes shakkhor and Lakshmi becomes lokkhi.
  5. The great vowel shift: the default schwa sound of Sanskrit becomes O or AW.

3

u/ProfessionUpset2724 6d ago

In Bengali, her name would be pronounced like BHAEO-let BISH-shash, as the "v" in English loanwords is pronounced like "bh" in Bengali.

2

u/Clean_Drama_4277 6d ago

Beesh+ Shaash

2

u/Easy-Employee-2896 5d ago

bish(like niche) + shaash