U+0985 "অ" Bengali Letter A Unicode Character

U+0985 "অ" Bengali Letter A is the first letter of the Bengali abugida, representing the inherent vowel sound /ɔ/ or /o/ in the Bengali and Assamese languages. It functions as both an independent vowel character when written alone and as a diacritic matra omitted when a consonant is combined with the inherent vowel. This letter is fundamental to writing Bengali text, appearing in numerous common words and forming the basis for many other vowel characters when combined with vowel signs. Its glyph resembles an open curve with a short stem, distinctively different from the Latin letter A in both shape and phonetic value.