Sylheti language
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
| Sylheti | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | India, Bangladesh |
| Region: | Asia |
| Total speakers: | 5,100,000 |
| Ranking: | See [1] |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | |
| Regulated by: | not regulated |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | inc |
| ISO 639-2(B) | |
| SIL | SYL |
The language of Sylhet, the North Eastern province of Bangladesh and a few southern districts of Assam. It is similar enough to Bengali for some to consider it a dialect, but is probably better seen as a separate language. Indeed it was formerly written in its own script, Sylheti Nagari, similar in style to Devanagari but significantly simpler. Now it is almost invariably written in Bengali script.
The difference between Sylhet is a tendency to slur aspirated sounds and a vocabulary that is far more given to Arabic and Persian words than standard Bengali found in West Bengal. Sylhet is spoken by about 10% of Bangladeshis, but has affected the course of standard Bangla in the rest of the state.
