Type Abugida Direction Left-to-right Unicode alias Syloti Nagri | Time period 1303 CE ISO 15924 Sylo, 316 | |
Languages Sylheti language, Bengali language | ||
Sylheti Nagari (Silôṭi Nagôri) (ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ ꠘꠣꠉꠞꠤ) is an extinct script used for writing the Sylheti language in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Outside of Sylhet the script has been known to be used in Bangladesh's Mymensingh, Netrokona, Kishoreganj and in India's Assam. Developed from Bengali, Arabic, Kaithi and Devanagari scripts, Sylheti Nagari shows a fusion of Arabic and Persian symbols. The script was used for writing Sylheti, now a dialect of Bengali, rather than pure Bengali or Sanskrit languages.
Contents
The traditional belief of Hinduism that the Brahmi script was delivered from Brahma led the Muslims of Sylhet to not use it in their writings and a need to create a script based on the Arabic and Persian scripts. This led to the birth of Sylheti Nagari.
Etymology
The script has also been known as Jalalabad Nagari, Fūl (flower) Nagari, Muslim Nagari, Muhammad Nagari. All of its names are suffixed with Nagari, which implies the script's connection to the Nāgarī script.
Origin
The specific origin of Sylheti Nagari is debated. The general hypothesis is the Muslims of Sylhet were the ones to invent it. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, however, is of the opinion that Shah Jalal brought the script with him when he arrived in the area in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The bulk of text written in Sylheti Nagari being influenced by Sufism seems to support this hypothesis. On the other hand, according to Ahmad Hasan Dani it was the Afghans living in Sylhet during the Afghan rule who invented the script, since some of Sylheti Nagari's letters resemble the symbols on Afghan coins, and there were a large number of Afghans living in Sylhet at that time. Other less-supported hypotheses are:
But scholars now validate the three hypotheses: By the followers of Shah Jalal, by Afghans or that the script is indigenous to Sylhet.
Sylheti Nagari is characterized by its simplistic glyph, with fewer letters than Bengali. In addition, Sylheti Nagari didn't have any ligatures. The total number of letters is 32, if ending "ŋ" is regarded as "০" the number is 33; there are 5 vowels and 28 consonants.
Vowels
The widely accepted number of vowels is 5, although some texts show additional vowels. For example, the diphthong oi has sometimes been regarded as an additional vowel. It is to be noted that the vowels don't follow the sequence of Bengali alphabet.
Consonants
There are 27 consonants, with various symbols.
Spread
As noted before, Sylheti Nagari has been used outside of Sylhet. The script spread to such extents as Calcutta, and Shillong. It has been asserted from scholarly writings that the script was used in Bankura. But from various sources it has been seen that the script was in use in areas apart from the region of Sylhet such as Barisal, Chittagong, Noakhali etc. From the description of Shreepadmanath Debsharma:
The script is thought to have spread to Chittagong and Barisal via river. Also a large number of immigrants in the United Kingdom from Sylhet have recently introduced the script there.
Usage
Born out of a religious need, Sylheti Nagari has also been used in the daily lives of the inhabitants of Sylhet apart from using in religious literature. Letters, receipts, and even official records has been written using this script. Apart from renowned literary works such as Haltunnobi, Jongonama, Mhobbotnama, Noor Noshihot, Talib Huson etc., it has been used to write medicine and magical manuscripts, as well as Poems of the Second World War. The script, never having been a part of any formal education, reached the common people with seeming ease.
Literature
The simplistic nature of the script inspired a lot of poets, and the bulk of Nagari literature was born. The then Srihatta's Islamia Press, Sarada Press and Calcutta's General Printing Press used to print in Sylheti Nagari. The manuscripts were of prosaic quality, but poetry was also abundant.
Computer font
The "New Surma" is a proprietary font. Noto fonts provides an open source font for Sylheti Nagari.
Unicode
Sylheti Nagari was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2005 with the release of version 4.1.
The Unicode block for Sylheti Nagari is U+A800–U+A82F: