It is an abugida script which means that each character represents a. The bengali alphabet has 50 letters, of which 11 are vowels and 39 are consonants. A few archaic letters were modernised during the 19th century.
বাংলা বর্ণমালায় 50টি অক্ষর রয়েছে, যার মধ্যে 11টি স্বরবর্ণ এবং. Vowels and consonants are used as letters and also as diacritical marks. Bengali alphabet has eight vowels, a semi vowel and two diphthongs.
The bengali script has a total of 11 vowel graphemes, each of which is called a স্বরবর্ণ swôrôbôrnô 'vowel letter'. The current printed form of bengali alphabet first appeared in 1778 when charles wilkins developed printing in bengali. In bengali, they are called `banjonborna. Below is a table showing the bengali alphabet and how it is pronounced in english, and finally examples of how those letters would sound if you place them in a word.
All of these are used in both bengali and assamese languages.