Sylheti language

Name of the language

Sylheti is the common English spelling of the language name after the accepted British spelling of the Sylhet District, while the usual transliteration of the Standard Bengali spelling of the name is Silheti.

History

In ancient literature, Sylhet was referred as Shilahat and Shilahatta. In the 19th century, the British tea-planters in the area referred to the vernacular spoken in Surma and Barak Valleys as Sylheti language. 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. Since then the Sylotinagri alphabet has been used mainly by linguists and academics. It gradually became very unpopular.

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. The writing system's main use was to record religious poetry, described as a rich language and easy to learn.

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.

Vocabulary look

A phrase in:

Sylheti: এক দেশর গালি আরক দেশর বুলি ex deshôr gali arôk deshôr buli

Standard Bengali: এক দেশের গালি আরেক দেশের বুলি ek 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 megh in Syloti means rain

In Pali মেঘ megh means both rain and cloud.

In Sylheti cloud is called বাদল badol, সাজ haz or আসমানী সাজ 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'

কম্বল kombol in Standard Bengali means blanket

In Sylheti, blanket is called রাজাই razai.In Sylheti, *কম্বল khombol means buttocks.

Grammar comparisons

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

In Sylheti:
Eastern Nagari: সব মানুষ স্বাধীনভাবে জন্ম হয় ইজ্জত আর অধিকার লইয়া। তারার হুশ আর আকল বুদ্ধি আছে আর তারা একজন আরকজনর লগে রুহানি ভাইট্টা ব্যবহার তাকত।
Sylheti Nagari: ꠡꠛ ꠝꠣꠁꠘꠡꠞ ꠀꠎꠣꠖꠤ ꠎꠘꠝ ꠅꠄ ꠁꠎꠎꠔ ꠀꠞ ꠢꠇ ꠟꠂꠀ। ꠔꠣꠞꠣꠞ ꠢꠥꠡ ꠀꠞ ꠀꠇꠟ-ꠛꠥꠖꠗꠤ ꠀꠍꠦ ꠀꠞ ꠔꠣꠞꠣ ꠄꠇꠎꠘ ꠀꠞꠇꠎꠘꠞ ꠟꠉꠦ ꠞꠥꠢꠣꠘꠤ ꠜꠣꠁꠐ꠆ꠐꠣ ꠛꠦꠛꠢꠣꠞ ꠕꠣꠇꠔ।

Transliteration Shob mainshor azadi zonmo (h)oi izzot ar hok loiya. Tarar hush ar akhol-buddhi aase ar tara ekhzon arokhzonor loge ruhani bhaitta bebohar takhto.

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 Shab manush sbadhinbhabe sôman môrzada ebông ôdhikar niye jônmôgrôhôn kôre. Tãder bibek ebông buddhi achhe; sutôrang sôkôleri êke ôpôrer prôti bhratritbôsulôbh 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 people freely born is dignity and rights with. Their conscious and intelligence have and they someone another one with spirit brotherhood demeanor must have.

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. 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.