UDHR in Bengali

[wfroede]

Hi, I'm the webmaster of a site that deals with languages and scripts. Right now I'm collecting language examples for my site, so I'd like to know if anybody here can give me a translation of Article 1 of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" into the Bengali language.

The English version is:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Thank you all in advance
Werner

[Tanweer]

Hi

The official site of UN has already done it.

http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/navigate/alpha.htm

You can simply click on Bengali.

Thanks

[wfroede]

Hi Tanweer,
in the meantime I have also found the UN site: http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/bng.htm
But unfortunately the picture quality is rather poor and my knowledge of Bengali is quite limited, so I have serious troubles recognizing most of the letters. Would you be kind enough to post the two sentences into this thread in Bengali? Thank you :-)
Werner

[Tanweer]

Hi Werner.

I guess you want me to transliterate those two sentences into Latin alphabet? If that is the case then here is the transliteration according to pronunciation (not according to the alphabets).

" shOmosto manush shadhin_bhabe shOman morjada ebong odhikar niye jOnmo_grohon kOre. taNder bibek ebong buddhi achhe; shutorang shOkoler_i AEke Oporer proti bhrattritto_shulobh mOnobhab niye achoron kOra uchit "

Note: 1. All t's in this particular passage are soft as in French or Spanish t.
2. Similarly d's are also soft.
3. h's are added to represent emphatic bangla sounds (bh, dh, chh etc.)
4. capital O's are used here to represent AU sound as in English word Autumn.
5. small o's are like English o's as in Go, No etc.
6. AE is used once to represent A sound as in Bank, Cat etc.
7. Otherwise a's represent UH sound as in Up, Under etc
8. e's are like the ones in Pet, Get etc. u's as in Put.
9. In the word taNder, the N is not like English N. It only nasaliges the preceeding 'ta'. Such nasalizations are found in many French words like Jean, Mont Blanc etc.
10. Like German, Bangla can combine two or more words or prepositions or suffixes into one word. I have used underscores to seperate them. (just like writing 'under_score' instead of 'underscore' )

Hope this helps.

[wfroede]

Dear Tanweer,
yes, your transcription has indeed helped me to convert the two sentences into Bangla script. You can see my humble attempt here: http://www.geonames.de/udhr.html#ben
Since I couldn't find the danda-sign in the Bengali Unicode repertory I replaced them by simple dots.
It would be great if you could tell me about the mistakes I surely made. But don't pay too much attention to the romanization I used. It takes more importance to the written language then to the spoken one.
Thank you again :-)
Werner

[Tanweer]

Hi Werner

I couldn't view the Bangla letters. Probably the computer I am using here doesn't have the proper software to show Bangla alphabet (I live in Canada). I could only see a lot of empty rectangles.

I will get back to you if I can read them.

You can contact Deutschewelle Bangla service http://www.dwelle.de/bengali/Welcome.html
if you want to know more about Bangla language or font etc.

Good luck with your efforts.

[wfroede]

Hi Tanweer,
I'm using the same font on my site as Deutsche Welle (BN Bidisha Opentype), so if you are able to see the Bangla script on their site, it should be possible on my site as well. But computers sometimes work miracles on us, I know that all to well.
You could download the Bangla font from here: http://www.dwelle.de/bengali/fontdownload/
or I could send you a screen shot of my site to your email address if you don't mind. If you don't want to publish it here, you could send me an email (werner@geonames.de) and I can send you the screen shot by return mail.
Thank you very much for all you help :-)
Werner