Bengali Flag of Bangladesh

Multiple Templates for Bengali (Bangla)

The Bengali (Bangla) language has multiple DBT templates:

Bangladesh has published a guide book on braille. The first template matches these translation rules. The next two give the preferred translation used in India. The difference between these two tables is just the braille math code. Bengali (Indian) - Basic with Nemeth uses Nemeth Code for technical notation while Bengali (Indian) - Basic uses UEB for technical notation.

Font Issues

In Bangladesh, non-Unicode fonts are common. DBT has been modified to import text what has been encoded in the MJ Suttony font. Of course, DBT also imports files encoded in Unicode fonts (standard MS Word files and Open Office files).

For the details about the DBT translator used, first select one of the DBT Templates for this language.

Uncontracted Braille

Bengali is usually produced in uncontracted braille. This means that words in the text are produced in braille on a one-for-one basis. One braille character for each inkprint symbol. Some inkprint punctuation may require more than one braille character. Showing upper case, emphasis, or numbers will add braille characters to the character count. But there are no abbreviations or contractions. If you have questions about how braille is produced, please contact a member of the relevant braille authority.

Non-Roman Script

Bengali is written in a script other than the Roman alphabet. This may result in problems when importing files into DBT. Your best option is to import files from Microsoft Word or Open Office that are written in a Unicode font. You can contact support at Duxbury Systems if you have a file which does not import properly into DBT. Please send the file which does not import (the original inkprint file), not a screen shot of DBT.

Please contact us if you have any concerns.