Sylheti language
| Sylheti | |
|---|---|
| Syloti | |
| ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ, Silôṭi | |
| Native to | Bangladesh (Sylhet Division) and India (Barak Valley and Hojai in Assam and Tripura) |
|
Native speakers
|
11 million (2007) |
| Sylheti Nagari, Eastern Nagari and Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | sylh1242 |
| Linguasphere | 59-AAF-ui |
Sylheti or Syloti (ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ or ছিলটী Silôṭi) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, primarily spoken in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Barak Valley region of southern Assam, India. This language is considered a dialect of the Bengali language by the government of Bangladesh. Though there is an incomplete mutual intelligibility, it shares a high proportion of vocabulary with Standard Bengali: Chalmers (1996) reports at least 80% overlap.
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.
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, United Kingdom, 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.
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Wikipedia