Sylheti language

Sylheti (Sylheti: ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ Silôṭi) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, primarily spoken by Sylheti people in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and in India in the Northern part of Tripura, Shillong and Barak Valley region of southern Assam.

The status of Sylheti is heavily debated where some consider it as a dialect of Bengali, while others consider it as a separate language.^[3] There are significant differences between standard Bengali and Sylheti due to grammar and for the lack of mutual intelligibility. There is greater differences of Sylheti to Bengali, than Assamese to Bengali, which is recognised as separate.^[4] Most Sylhetis are at least bilingual to some degree, as they are taught Bengali at all levels of education in Bangladesh. Sylhet was part of the ancient kingdom of Kamarupa,^[5] and Sylheti has many common features with Assamese, including the existence of a larger set of fricatives than other East Indo-Aryan languages. According to George Abraham Grierson,^[6] "The inflections also differ from those of regular Bengali, and in one or two instances assimilate to those of Assamese". Indeed it was formerly written in its own script, Sylheti Nagari, similar in style to Kaithi but with differences, though nowadays it is almost invariably written in Bengali script.^[7] Though there is an incomplete mutual intelligibility, it shares a high proportion of vocabulary with Bengali at least 80% overlap.^[8]

Name of the language

Sylheti is the common English spelling of the language name after the accepted British spelling of the Sylhet District. The transliteration of the Standard Bengali spelling of the name (সিলেটী) is Sileṭī'. The Sylheti name is spelled ছিলটী/ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ, transliterated as Silôṭi.

History

SAMPLE TEXT:
Front page of a Nagari book titled "Halat-un-Nabi", written in the mid-19th century by Sadeq Ali of Sylhet

In ancient literature, Sylhet was referred as Shilahat and Shilahatta.^[9] In the 19th century, the British tea-planters in the area referred to the vernacular spoken in Surma and Barak Valleys as Sylheti language.^[10] In Assam, the language is still referred to as Sylheti.

During the British colonial period, a Sylheti student by the name of Munshi Abdul Karim studying in London, England, after completing his education, spent several years in London and learnt the printing trade. After returning home, he designed a woodblock type for Sylhetinagari and founded the Islamia Press in Sylhet Town in about 1870. Other Sylheti presses were established in Sunamganj, Shillong and Kolkata. These presses fell out of use during the early 1970s.^[11][12] Since then the Sylotinagri alphabet has been used mainly by linguists and academics.^[13] It gradually became very unpopular.^[14][15]

The script includes 5 independent vowels, 5 dependent vowels attached to a consonant letter and 27 consonants. The Sylheti abugida differs from the Bengali alphabet as it is a form of Kaithi, a script that belongs to the main group of North Indian scripts of Bihar.^[16] The writing system's main use was to record religious poetry, described as a rich language and easy to learn.^[17]

Campaigns started to rise in London during the mid-1970s to mid-1980s to recognise Sylheti as a language on its own right. During the mid-1970s, when the first mother-tongue classes were established for Bangladeshis by community activists, the classes were given in standard Bengali rather than the Sylheti dialect which triggered the campaign. During the 1980s, a recognition campaign for Sylheti took place in the area of Spitalfields, East End of London. One of the main organisations was the Bangladeshis' Educational Needs in Tower Hamlets (usually known by its acronym as BENTH). However this organisation collapsed in 1985 and with its demise the pro-Sylheti campaign in the borough lost impetus. Nonetheless, Sylheti remains very widespread as a domestic language in working class Sylheti households in the United Kingdom.^[18]

Sylheti variation from Standard Bengali

Vocabulary look

A phrase in:

• Sylheti: এক দেশর গালি আরক দেশর বুলি / ꠄꠇ ꠖꠦꠡꠞ ꠉꠣꠟꠤ ꠀꠣꠞꠇ ꠖꠦꠡꠞ ꠛꠥꠟꠤ ex deshôr gali arôx deshôr buli
• Standard Bengali: এক দেশের গালি আরেক দেশের বুলি æk desher gali arek desher buli

which literally means "one land's obscenity is another land's language", and can be roughly translated to convey that a similar word in one language can mean something very different in another. For example:

মেঘ megh in Standard Bengali means cloud

• মেঘ / ꠝꠦꠊ megh in Syloti means rain
• In Pali মেঘ megh means both rain and cloud.
• In Sylheti cloud is called বাদল / ꠛꠣꠖꠟ badol, সাজ / ꠢꠣꠎ haz or আসমানী সাজ / ꠀꠡꠝꠣꠘꠤ ꠢꠣꠎ ashmani haz (decor of the sky).
• In Standard Bengali বৃষ্টি brishti means Rain.

নাড়া naṛa in Standard Bengali means to stir or to move

In Sylheti, *নাড়া naṛa is pronounced as lara' (ꠟꠣꠞꠣ)

কম্বল kombol in Standard Bengali means blanket

In Sylheti, blanket is called রাজাই / ꠞꠣꠎꠣꠁ razai.

In Sylheti, *কম্বল / ꠇꠝꠛꠟ xombol means buttockarôk

Grammar comparisons

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• In Sylheti:
  Eastern Nagari: হকল মানইশর আজাদী জন্ম অয় ইজ্জত আর হক লইয়া। তারার হুশ আর আক্কল-বুদ্ধি আছে আর তারা একজন আরকজনর লগে রুহানি ভাইট্টা ব্যবহার থাকতঃ।
  Sylheti Nagari: ꠢꠇꠟ ꠝꠣꠁꠘꠡꠞ ꠀꠎꠣꠖꠤ ꠎꠘꠝ ꠅꠄ ꠁꠎꠎꠔ ꠀꠞ ꠢꠇ ꠟꠂꠀ। ꠔꠣꠞꠣꠞ ꠢꠥꠡ ꠀꠞ ꠀꠇ꠆ꠇꠟ-ꠛꠥꠖꠗꠤ ꠀꠍꠦ ꠀꠞ ꠔꠣꠞꠣ ꠄꠇꠎꠘ ꠀꠞꠇꠎꠘꠞ ꠟꠉꠦ ꠞꠥꠢꠣꠘꠤ ꠜꠣꠁꠐ꠆ꠐꠣ ꠛꠦꠛꠢꠣꠞ ꠕꠣꠇꠔ꠩।
  • Transliteration Hoxol mainshor azadi zonmo oe izzot ar hox loia. Tarar hush ar akkol-buddi ase ar tara exzon aroxzonor loge ruhani baitta bebohar taxto.
• In Standard Bengali:
  সমস্ত মানুষ স্বাধীনভাবে সমান মর্যাদা এবং অধিকার নিয়ে জন্মগ্রহণ করে। তাঁদের বিবেক এবং বুদ্ধি আছে; সুতরাং সকলেরই একে অপরের প্রতি ভ্রাতৃত্বসুলভ মনোভাব নিয়ে আচরণ করা উচিত।
  • Transliteration Shomosto manush shadhinbhabe shôman môrjada ebông ôdhikar niye jônmôgrôhôn kôre. Tãder bibek ebông buddhi achhe; shutôrang shôkôleri êke ôpôrer prôti bhratrittôsulôbh mônobhab niye achôrôn kôra uchit.

Below are the grammar similarities and differences appearing in a word to word comparison:

• Sylheti word-to-word gloss:
  All humans' born happen free and dignity plus rights with. Their conscious, intelligent and judgement-clever staying bearing a-person another-person's with spiritual brotherhood conduct stays.
• Bengali word-to-word gloss:
  All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken birth-take do. Their reason and intelligence exist; therefore everyone-indeed one another's towards brotherhood-ly attitude taken conduct do should.

English: 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.

Phonology

Sylheti is distinguished by a wide range of fricative consonants corresponding to aspirated consonants in closely related languages and dialects such as Bengali; a lack of the breathy voiced stops; word-final stress; and a relatively large set of loanwords from Arabic, Persian and Assamese, Standard Bengali and other Bengali dialects. Sylheti has affected the course of Standard Bengali in the rest of the state.

A notable characteristic of spoken Sylheti is the correspondence of the /ʜ/ (from hereby transliterated as x), pronounced as an Voiceless epiglottal fricative to the [ʃ], or "sh", of Bengali, e.g.

References

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sylheti phrasebook.

Sylheti phrasebook travel guide from Wikivoyage

• UK-Based Group that collects and republishes Sylheti literature