Sylheti language

Sylheti
ছিলটী Silôṭi
Native to	Primarily spoken in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, and the Indian districts of: Barak Valley, Silchar, Hailakandi, Karimganj and Tripura
Native speakers	10.7 million  (2007)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Aryan Indo-Aryan Eastern Bengali–Assamese Sylheti
Writing system	Sylheti Nagari, Bengali script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	syl
Linguasphere	59-AAF-ui

Sylheti (Sylheti: ছিলটী/Bengali: সিলেটী) is an Indo-European language spoken in the Barak Valley region of northeast Bangladesh and southeast Assam (India). It has commonly been regarded as a dialect of Bengali, with which it shares a high proportion of vocabulary (Spratt and Spratt (1987) report 70% shared vocabulary, while Chalmers (1996) reports at least 80%). However, even words counted as the same (e.g. the Sylheti haf ("snake") and aiz ("today") vs. the corresponding Standard Bengali shap, aj) are pronounced differently as to make Sylhet not inherently intelligible with Bengali.

Up to the end of British rule and the Partition of India in 1947, the religious mix of the Sylhet region, then part of Assam, was approximately equally split between Hindus and Muslims, but since then the part of the Sylhet region remained in Bangladesh is now over 80% Muslim. Muslims speak a significantly different form of Sylheti to Hindus. Firstly, Muslims use a large proportion of words and phrases borrowed from Persian and Arabic, and secondly, pronunciation is often different such as the "k" which Muslims usually pronounce as a rough fricative but with Hindus is usually hard.

The Sylheti language is related to both Assamese and Bengali, but is distinct from both. Modern Sylheti appears to be identical to the language described by Grierson (1928) under the name "Bengali of Cachar" and listed as language number 548; Cachar was the name of the region of Assam bordering Sylhet District to the east, now referred to as the Barak Valley. Sylheti shares many features of rural East Bengali dialects generally, and retains many words and forms which in Standard Bengali are restricted to poetry or are obsolete.

Name of the language

Sylheti is now the commonest English spelling of the language name after the accepted British spelling of the Sylhet District, while the Roman transcription of the Standard Bengali spelling of the name is Sileti. In Assam, the language is still referred to as Srihattiya, the name used in ancient literature. Since Sylheti is considered a dialect of Bengali we have found that many Sylhetis, even those who do not understand Standard Bengali, call their language Bangla (i.e., Bengali) . When writing English, these latter people use a range of spellings such as Sylhetee, Sylety, Siloty, etc. The English spelling of the name of the script preferred by national writers and researchers is Syloti Nagri scripts.

History

In the 19th century, the British tea-planters in the area referred to the Sylheti language as Sylhettia. In Assam, the language is still referred to as Srihattiya, the name used in ancient literature. The Sylheti language was written in the Syloti Nagri script, which is not widely known.Sylhet has a rich heritage of literature in the Syloti Nagri Script, (or just नागरी, Nāgrī, the name of its parent writing system) going back at least 200 years. The script includes 5 independent vowels, 5 dependent vowels attached to a consonant letter and 27 consonants. The Syloti Nagri alphasyllabary differs from the Bengali alphabets as it is a form of Kaithi, a script (or family of scripts) which 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. In the 1860s, a Sylheti by the name of Moulvi Abdul Karim spent several years in Europe and learnt the printing trade. After returning home, he designed a woodblock type for the Syloti Nagri alphabet and founded the Islamia Press in Sylhet Town in about 1870. Other Sylheti presses were established in Sunamganj, Shillong and Calcutta. These presses fell out of use during the early 1970s. Since then the Syloti-Nagri alphabet has been used mainly by linguists and academics. During the 1971 Liberation War, when all Syloti Nagri printing presses were destroyed, the writing system came to a halt. After Bangladesh gained independence, the government of the newly formed Bangladesh mandated Bengali studies and the use of the Bengali alphabets as a curriculum to be taught at all levels of education. Efforts to establish Sylheti as a modern language were vigorously opposed by political and cultural forces allied to successive Bangladeshi governments.

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 a non-Sylheti, Nurul Islam, the classes were given in 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 organisation was the Bangladeshis' Educational Needs in Tower Hamlets (BENTH). However this organisation collapesed in 1985 and ended the pro-Sylheti campaign in the borough. Nonetheless Sylheti remained dominant and the domestic language within the hamlet. This fact is being recognised by Tower Hamlets Council in the provision of local services in the community.

Geographical distribution

Sylheti is the language of the Surma Valley region bordering what are today the nations of Bangladesh and India and spoken throughout Sylhet Division in Bangladesh (comprising the districts of Sylhet, Habiganj, Maulvi Bazar and Sunamganj). It is also spoken across the border in the Barak Valley region of Assam in India, in districts such as Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi all located to the east from Sylhet.

Number of speakers

There are four major languages spoken in Sylhet and they are (i)Suddho Bangla(High Bengali), which is the administrative language and thus mainly spoken in academia and offices; (ii)Chalti Bengali(Standard), which is the language spoken by majority in Bangladesh; (iii) English, which is held in high esteem and is spoken by educated elite; and (iv)Sylheti, is spoken by almost all the peoples of Greater Sylhet (Surma Valley and Barak Valley). A proper linguistic survey has not been carried out, at least in recent times. Published figures are at best guesswork. The figures of 5 million given by Spratt and Spratt (1987) and 7 million by Chalmers (1996) refer to Sylhetis in Bangladesh only. Our own (STAR) rough estimate is 10 million, based partly on information from a number of Sylheti community leaders and writers:

• Sylhet Division of Bangladesh recorded 6.7 million in the 1991 census. Assuming a 2% per annum growth since then brings the population to 8.0 million in 2000, of whom, say, 7 million are Sylheti speakers.
• Assam, particularly the Barak Valley region around Karimganj and Silchar, may have another 2 million Sylheti speakers. Prior to 1947, Sylhet District then in the State of Assam consisted of five administrative sub-districts of which four make up the present-day Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, and the fifth, Karimganj, now falls inside Assam in India. The Barak Valley region experienced heavy immigration from Sylhet during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
• The ‘diaspora’ has at least another 1 million people: over 300,000 in the UK, possibly 500,000; USA/Canada, 150,000; Middle East, 300,000; Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Rome and Berlin, 150,000; cities of India, especially Calcutta, at least 150,000.

Sylheti grammar

False friends

In Syloti: "Ekh deshor gaali arokh deshor bulli" means "a phrase in one language mislead a phrase to another language". Or in Bengal accent: "Ek desher gaali arek desher bulli". For example:

"mucchi" in Bengali means I've wiped

• "mutchi" in Syloti means I've pissed
• In Syloti I've wiped is pronounced fuschi.

"bhũk" in Bengali means starving

• "bhũk" in Syloti means hungry
• In Syloti starving is ufash
• In Bengali hungry is khida.

"ey" in Bengali means excuse me (for getting attention)

• "ei" in Syloti is an expression most informal (considered rude if no personal relation exists between the users)
• In Syloti excuse me (for getting attention) is pronounced e-re or o-go or o-ba.

"moho maya" in Bengali means love illusion

• "moho maea" in Syloti means love affection

"megh" in Bengali means cloud

• "megh" in Syloti means rain
• In Sanskrit megh means both rain and cloud.
• In Syloti cloud is called badol or ashmani haz (decor of the sky).
• anar or ḍalim in Bengali means pomegranate fruit.
• anar in Syloti refers to the legendary slave girl named anar-koli meaning pomegranate-blossom.

"naṛa" in Bengali means to stir or to move

• "naṛa" in Syloti means to cheer:
  1. Hip hip - Hooray!
  2. Narae Takbeer - Allahu Akbar!
  3. Joy Bangla!
  
• A waist drawstring acting as a belt is also called a nara.

"torkari" in Bengali means curry.

• "torkari" in Syloti means vegetables.

"hē" in Bengali (pronounced as "heh") is an informal yes.

• "he? (pronounces as hē? or heh?) (rising tone) in Syloti means "what? err!" which is an extremely rude phrase.

"hēshē" in Bengali (pronounced as "heh-sheh") means laughter.

• "xēshē" (pronounced as heh-sheh) in Syloti means later.
• laughter is called "hashi" (pronounced as ah-shi) in Syloti.
• later in Bengali is called pore.

Below, are the grammar similarities or differences between the two languages; Bengali and Sylheti:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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.

Sylheti translation of the Universal Declaration...:

Hoxol mainshor zonmo oe azad ar izzot o odikhar loia. Tarar hush ar gian-buddhi taxae zanu ex zon arox zonor loge ruhani bhaīitta bebohar taxe. (in Transcription, faithful to pronunciation, with x representing the Voiceless velar fricative often written as "kh")

• (Syloti word to word gloss) All humans' born happen free and dignity plus rights with. Their conscious and judgement-intelligence have ensure a person another person's with spiritual brotherhood conduct stay.

Bengali translation of the Universal Declaration...:

Shômosto manush shadhinbhabe shôman môrjada ebong odhikar nie jônmogrohon kôre. Tãder bibek ebong buddhi ache; shutorang shôkoleri êke ôporer proti bhrattrittoshulôbh mônobhab nie acorôn kôra ucit. (in Transcription, faithful to pronunciation)

• (Bengali word-to-word gloss) All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken birth-take do. Their reason and intelligence is; therefore everyone-indeed one another's towards brotherhood-ly attitude taken conduct do should.

Phonology

Sylheti is distinguished by a wide range of fricative sounds, which correspond to aspirated stops in closely related languages such as Bengali; a lack of the breathy voiced stops seen in many other Indic languages; word-final stress; and a relatively large set of loanwords from Arabic, Persian, Bengali and Assamese. Sylheti is spoken by about 10 percent of Bangladeshis, but has affected the course of standard Bengali in the rest of the state.

A notable characteristic of spoken Sylheti is the correspondence of the /x/, pronounced between [k] and [h] from [x] like the "ch" in Scottish "Loch" or the "j" in Latin American Spanish "Jalapeño", to the [ʃ], or "sh", of Bengali, e.g.

Bengali	Sylheti	Sylheti Transliteration	Meaning
Coroṇ sporsho	Xodom boci	Khodom bosi	Touch the feet (A welcome/farewell ritual)
Dhaka	Dhaxa	Dhakha	Dacca; Dhaka
Dhaka nogor-bhashī	Dhaxaia	Dhakhaia	People of Dhaka region
Ek lōk	Ex manux	Ekh manush	A person
Ek jon	Ex zon	Ekh zon	Someone
Ek Puruṣh	Ex Beṭa	Ekh Beṭa	A man
Kiser: kīser	Xixor	Kihor	What (implying in no respect)
Konya; meye	Xonia; Zi	Khonia; Zi	Daughter
Manob Jatiyo	Manxor zat	Manshor zat	Human-kind
Osomīya	Axomia	Ahomia	People of Assam (Assamese)
Onguli; ongul	Anguil	Anguil	Finger; toe
Onguri	Anguti; angti	Angti	Finger-ring
Ognipokko	Agniphura	Agnifura	Baked; grilled
Osidharī	Axaidri	Ahaidri	Swordsman
Osur; Osuro	Axura; Axuria	Ahura; Ahuria	People of Assyria (Assyrian)
Pakira	Phaixia	Faikia	Plural of bird; All kinds of Bird species
Paki	Phaxi	Faki	A (singular) bird
Prīti	Phiriti	Firiti	Love
Por	Phore; bade	Fore; bade	Later
Sokol; somosto	Xoxol	Hokhol	All
Sara (kon)	Xara (buil)	Hara (buil)	Every (time)
Sato Beel	Xat Bila	Hat Bila	Seven wetlands
Sat Kora	Xat Xora	Hat Khora	Citrus macroptera fruit
Sat bar	Xat-bar	Hat-bar	Seven-times (Sylheti term for lots of time)
Sileṭī (স)	Ciloṭia (ছ)	Siloṭia	People of Sylhet
Su bhagyo	Allahr Hāola	Allaar Aaola	Good luck (Sylheti: God's Authority)
Su tripti; bhalo ruchi	Taza bhux; Bhalaṭike xawka	Taza bhukh; Bhalaṭike khawka	Bon appétit
Strī	Bow	Bow	Wife
Svamī	Zamai; beṭa	Zamai; beṭa	Husband
Shvoshur	Xoxur	Hohur	Father-in-law
Shashuṛī	Xoṛi	Hoṛi	Mother-in-law
Shala	Xala	Hala	Brother-in-law
Shalī	Xali	Hali	Sister-in-law
Shikśa kora	Xixia newa	Hikia newa	Learn
Shoriṣha	Xoirox	Hoiroh	Mustard
Shīẏal	Xial	Hial	Jackal
Shun̐ṭki	Xuṭki; xukṭi	Huṭki: hukṭi	Sundried Fish
Apnar nam ki?	Aphnar nam xita?	Afnar nam Kita?	What's your name?
Daktar asar purbe rugi mara gelo	Daxtor awar ageu bemari mori gece	Dakhtor awar ageu bemari mori gese	Before the doctor came, the patient had died
Bohu din dekhi ni	Oto buile na dexlam	Oto buile na dekhlam	Long time no see
Kemon achho?	Bhala acoen ni?	Bala asoin ni?	How are you?
Mangser torokariṭa ami bes bhalopeyechi	Ami ghustor calonṭa bhalaphaici	Ami gustor salonṭa balafaisi	I loved the meat curry
Mangser torokariṭa amar bhalō legeche	Ghustor calonṭa amar bhala lagce	Gustor salonṭa amar bala lagse	I liked the meat curry
Shilchor kon dike pore?	Xilcor xun baidi phorce?	Hilsor khun baidi forse?	Which way to Silchar?
Shōwchagar kōthay?	Xocailoe (ba leftin) xun xano?	Hosailoe ba liftin khun khano?	Where is the toilet?
Eiṭa ki?	Oxṭa xita?	Okṭa kita?	What is this?
Oṭa ki?	Outa xita?	Outa kita?	What are they?

Internal link

• Sylheti phrasebook

External links

• UK-Based Group that collects and republishes Sylheti literature
• Ethnologue entry