Sylheti language

Sylheti
Silôṭi
The word "Silôṭi" in Sylheti Nagri script
Native to	Bangladesh India
Region	Sylhet Division and Barak Valley[1]
Native speakers	10 million (2017) L2 speakers: 1.5 million (2017)[2][3]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Bengali–Assamese Sylheti
Writing system	Sylheti Nagari script Eastern Nagari script (Bengali–Assamese script)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	syl
Linguist List	syl
Glottolog	sylh1242
Linguasphere	59-AAF-ui
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Sylheti (/sɪˈlɛti/) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by an estimated 11 million people, primarily in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, the Barak Valley and Hojai district of Assam, and North Tripura and Unakoti district of Tripura, India.^[4][2] Besides, there are substantial numbers of Sylheti speakers in the Indian states of Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland as well as diaspora communities in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Middle East.

It is variously perceived as either a dialect of Bengali or a language in its own right. While most linguists consider it an independent language,^[5][6] for many native speakers Sylheti forms the diglossic vernacular, with standard Bengali forming the codified lect.^[7] Some incorrectly consider it as a "corrupt" form of Bengali,^[8] and there is a reported language shift from Sylheti to Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, India and the diaspora;^[9] though Sylheti has more vitality than Standard Bengali in the United Kingdom.^[10]

Name[]

Sylheti is eponymously named after Sylhet, referring to the dialect or language spoken of that area.^[11] "Sylhet" is the anglicanised spelling of the historical name, Srihatta.^[12][13] According to Grierson (1903) the vernacular was called Sylhettia by the Europeans after the town of Sylhet.^[14] Though the speakers at that time referred to it as Jaintiapuri, Purba Srihattiya, or Ujania with the latter meaning "the language of the upper country".^[15]

Sylheti is also known as Sylhetti, Sylheti Bangla, Sileti, Siloti, Syloti, and Syloty.^[16]

History[]

Sylheti belongs to the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, that evolved from Magadhi Prakrit.^[18] The lowlands around Sylhet were originally inhabited by ancient Khasi people (Austroasiatic);^[19] and the earliest known Indo-Aryan settlements were made in the 6th century under Kamarupa king.^[20][21] Sylhet (Srihatta) then emerged as a center of regional territorialism after the 10th century.^[22] The 11th century Bhatera grants from the Srihatta kings Kesavadeva and Isanadeva were written in Sanskrit.^[23][24] Another notable copper plate inscription was found in the village of Paschimbhag in Rajnagar, Moulvibazar that was issued by King Srichandra during the 10th century.^[25]

The Muslim Conquest of Sylhet in 1303 CE extended the migratory movements of Muslim Persianate Turks and Arabs, who settled among the native population and greatly influenced the local language.^[26] Thus Sylheti derived a large number of words from Persian and Arabic,^[27] cultivating the Perso-Arabic influence on the vernacular.^[28] A script was developed in the region called Sylheti Nagri, which primarily focused on disseminating Sufi poetry, known as puthi.^[29] Its earliest known work had been written during the 1600s, called Bhedsar by Syed Shah Husayn Alam.^[30] The literature was transcribed in the standard form of late Middle Bengali, though its phonology and some of its vocabulary was strongly influenced by Sylheti.^[31][32] The script was read and taught culturally among households and was not institutionalised,^[31] as the Islamic dynasties who ruled over Bengal established Persian alongside Arabic as the official languages.^[33] Printed texts of the script reached its peak during the late 19th century, however its use became obsolete by around the middle of the 20th century.^[34]

The earliest appearance of a documentation of Sylheti vocabulary was in the Government Report on the History and Statistics of Sylhet District by T. Walton, B.C.S. in 1857, which contained a list of peculiar words used in Sylhet.^[35] Many terms that were listed here differ from modern Sylheti – highlighting its evolution. In 1868, another short glossary of local terms in various districts of the Dacca Division (which included Sylhet) were written up and compared to standard Bengali to allow ease in understanding local vernaculars.^[36] There was an influence of the Assamese language on Sylheti when Sylhet was separated from Bengal and became part of the Assam Province, British India in 1874.^[37] This however led to an opposition in Sylhet where demands to be reincorporated with the Bengal Province were not taken heed of by the British. Sylhetis not only felt a historical or cultural affinity with Bengal, but also linguistically.^[38] Bengali literature had some influence from Sylheti, popular songwriters or poets such as Hason Raja or Shah Abdul Karim, significantly contributed to the literature.^[39][40] Sylhet was reunited with Bengal following a referendum in 1947.^[41]

Status[]

According to Simard, Dopierala and Thaut, Sylheti is a "minoritised, politically unrecognised, and understudied language."^[42] It is currently not officially recognised as a language in either Bangladesh or India.^[43] Many native speakers too consider it to be an informal version of Standard Bengali and not an independent language;^[8] and there is a reported language shift to Standard Bengali and a decrease in the number of native speakers since parents are not teaching it to their children.^[9] In Bangladesh there is a diglossia where Sylheti is one among other low status regional dialects while Standard Bengali, the official language, has a high status.^[44]

In the Indian state of Assam where Assamese is the state language, Standard Bengali serves as an additional official language in its Barak Valley districts; which host a majority Sylheti-speaking population.^[45]

In the United Kingdom, British schools have begun enlisting Sylheti in their syllabi.^[46] BBC News has also broadcast online videos relating to COVID-19 in five major South Asian languages including Sylheti.^[47]

Classification[]

Grierson (1903) notes that the language of eastern Sylhet is not intelligible to Bengalis from the west, though he still classed it as Bengali,^[48] grouping it under "Eastern Bengali".^[37] Chatterji (1926) too calls it a dialect of Bengali and places it in the eastern Vangiya group of Magadhi Prakrit and notes that all Bengali dialects were independent of each other and did not emanate from the literary Bengali called "sadhu bhasha".^[49] Among the different dialect groups of the eastern dialects, to which Sylheti belonged, Sylheti and Chittagonian have phonetic and morphological properties that are alien to standard Bengali and other western dialects of Bengali,^[50] and these differences are such that Sylheti is more distant to standard Bengali than is Assamese.^[51] Recent scholarship notes that these morpho-phonological and mutual intelligibilty differences are significant enough that Sylheti could claim itself as a language on its own right.^[52] Ethnologue groups Sylheti in Bengali-Assamese languages;^[53] whereas Glotolog gives further subgrouping and places it in the "Eastern Bengali" group alongside Hajong, separately from the Vangiya dialect.^[54]

Language-dialect controversy[]

The classification of Sylheti is contentious—Chalmers (1996) suggested that it was generally identified as a dialect of Bengali though there were efforts to recognise it as a language.^[55][56] Anecdotal evidence suggests that Sylhetis, who could also speak in Standard Bengali, considered the two languages to be mutually intelligible.^[57][58] On the basis of the anecdotal evidence of mutual intelligibility, regionality and the fact that Sylheti is spoken by a predominantly rural community, Rasinger (2007) concludes that Sylheti could be considered a dialect of Bengali.^[59] Simard, Dopierala and Thaut have pointed out that the intelligibility could be an effect of prior exposure of Sylheti speakers to Standard Bengali,^[60] and that the academic consensus is that mutual intelligibility ranges from "unintelligible" to "hardly intelligible".^[61] On the basis of phonology and phonetics, lexicon, grammatical structure and a lack of mutual intelligibility, some recent linguists claim that Sylheti is not merely a dialectal variation of Bengali but a language in its own right.^[52][62][63]

Phonologically Sylheti is distinguished from Standard Bengali and other regional varieties by significant deaspiration and spirantisation,^[64] leading to major restructuring of the consonant inventory^[65] and the development of tones.^[66] Grierson had classified Sylheti as an Eastern Bengali dialect and had noted that it "possess all the peculiar characteristics of the extreme Eastern Bengali type."^[37]

As majority of the diaspora in the United Kingdom speak Sylheti, it created an environment that was somewhat uninfluenced by Standard Bengali, inevitably leading some to view Sylheti as a distinct language.^[67] During the 1980s there were unsuccessful attempts to recognise Sylheti as a language in its own right by a small group in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, which lacked support from the Sylheti community itself.^[68][69]

Geographical distribution[]

Sylheti is the primary language of northeast Bengal (also known as the Sylhet region) which today comprises the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and Karimganj district of Assam, India. Within the Sylhet Division, it is primarily spoken in the districts of Sylhet and Moulvibazar, as well as in certain upazilas of Sunamganj and Habiganj such as Jagannathpur and Chhatak among a few others. This is contrary to popular belief that Sylheti is spoken everywhere in the Sylhet Division.^[70] Anecdotal evidence claims that the people of Sylhet District, when visiting places like Habiganj, are often startled that the locals do not converse in Sylheti but rather in Habiganji, which is transitional to the dialects of Sylhet, Greater Mymensingh and Brahmanbaria.^[71]

It is also primarily spoken in the districts of Cachar and Hailakandi of Assam, which alongside Karimganj make up the Barak Valley,^[72] as well as in the northern parts of Tripura and the western edge of Manipur. There is also a significant population of Sylheti speakers in the Hojai district of Assam (since before Partition), Shillong in Meghalaya,^[73] and the state of Nagaland. A few numbers are also located in Kolkata, most of whom are migrants from Assam.

Outside the Indian subcontinent, the largest Sylheti diaspora communities reside in the United Kingdom and North America. In the UK, there are around 400,000 Sylheti speakers.^[74] The largest concentration live in east London boroughs, such as Tower Hamlets.^[75] In the United States, most are concentrated in New York City borough's such as the Bronx,^[76] and there are significant numbers in Hamtramck, Michigan where they constitute the majority of Bangladeshis in the city.^[77][78][79] There are also small numbers located in Toronto, Canada.^[80][81] Significant Sylheti-speaking communities reside in the Middle East of which most are migrant workers,^[82][83] and in many other countries throughout the world.

Writing system[]

Sylheti currently does not have a standardised writing system.^[74] Historically in the Sylhet region, the Sylheti Nagri script was used alongside the Bengali script.^[31] Sylheti Nagri was however mostly limited to writing religious poetry.^[37] This written form was identical to those written in the Dobhashi register due to both lacking the use of tatsama and using Perso-Arabic vocabulary as a replacement. As per Dobhashi custom, many Sylheti Nagri texts were paginated from right to left.^[84][85] The orthography of the script equates with Sylheti, it has fewer characters as compared with the Bengali script due to fewer phonemes found in Sylheti.^[86] An endangered script, it has since seen a revival mostly by academics and linguists.^[87]

Standard Bengali is the medium of instruction in Bangladesh,^[88] some may therefore write in Sylheti using the Bengali script, however it is viewed as more formal to write in Standard Bengali.^[74] Although books are rarely published in the Bengali script with Sylheti transcription, the New Testament in Sylheti was published in 2014.^[89]

Lexicon[]

Sylheti shares most linguistic properties with Standard Bengali,^{[90][better source needed]} with a lexical similarity of 70%.^{[91][better source needed]}

Phonology[]

The phoneme inventory of Sylheti differs from both the Standard Bengali as well the Bangladeshi Standard.^[92] It is characterised by a loss of breathiness and aspiration contrasts, leading to a significant reduction in its phoneme inventory and development of tones. In particular the following developments are seen:^[93]

• Both voiced and voiceless aspirated stops have become unaspirated (d̪ʱ → d̪; t̪ʰ → t̪)
• The voiceless labials have spirantised to homorganic fricatives (p → ɸ; pʰ → ɸ)
• The velar stops have become velar fricatives (k → x; kʰ → x)
• The post-alveolar affricates have spirantised to alveolar fricatives (tʃ → s; tʃʰ → s; dʒ → z; dʒʱ → z)
• Among the voiceless stops only the dental (t̪, d̪) and retroflex (ʈ, ɖ) stops have remained stops.

Vowels[93]   Front Central Back Close i ꠁ   u ꠃ Close-mid e ꠄ     Open-mid     ɔ ꠅ Open   a ꠀ

Consonants[93]   Labial Dental/ Alveolar Retroflex Palato- alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal m ꠝ n ꠘ     ŋ ꠋ   Plosive/ Affricate voiceless unaspirated t̪ ꠔ, ꠕ ʈ ꠐ, ꠑ   voiced unaspirated b ꠛ, ꠜ d̪ ꠖ, ꠗ ɖ ꠒ, ꠓ ɡ ꠉ, ꠊ   Fricative voiceless fricative ɸ~f ꠙ, ꠚ s ꠌ, ꠍ   ʃ ꠡ x ꠇ, ꠈ   voiced fricative   z ꠎ, ꠏ       ɦ ꠢ Flap   ɾ ꠞ       Approximant l ꠟ

Tone[]

Sylheti is a tonal language.^[94][95][96] This is rare among the Indo-Aryan languages. There are two types of tonal contrasts in Sylheti: the emergence of high tone in the vowels following the loss of aspiration, and a level tone elsewhere.

Word	Transliteration	Tone	Meaning
ꠀꠔ	at	level	'intestine'
‘ꠀꠔ	át	high	'hand'
ꠇꠣꠟꠤ	xali	level	'ink'
ꠈꠣꠟꠤ	xáli	high	'empty'
ꠉꠥꠠꠣ	guṛa	level	'powder'
ꠊꠥꠠꠣ	gúṛa	high	'horse'
ꠌꠥꠞꠤ	suri	level	'theft'
ꠍꠥꠞꠤ	súri	high	'knife'
ꠎꠣꠟ	zal	level	'net, web'
ꠏꠣꠟ	zál	high	'spicy/punjent'
ꠐꠤꠇ	ṭik	level	'tick'
ꠑꠤꠇ	ṭík	high	'correct'
ꠒꠣꠟ	ḍal	level	'branch'
ꠓꠣꠟ	ḍál	high	'shield'
ꠔꠣꠟ	tal	level	'palmyra, rhythm'
ꠕꠣꠟ	tál	high	'plate'
ꠖꠣꠘ	dan	level	'donation'
ꠗꠣꠘ	dán	high	'paddy'
ꠙꠥꠟ	ful	level	'bridge'
ꠚꠥꠟ	fúl	high	'flower'
ꠛꠣꠟꠣ	bala	level	'bangle'
ꠜꠣꠟꠣ	bála	high	'good, welfare'
ꠛꠣꠔ	bat	level	'arthritis'
ꠜꠣꠔ	bát	high	'rice'

Recent study shows that there is a three-way tonal system in Sylheti.^[97]

No.	Word	IPA	Tone	Meaning	Word	IPA	Tone	Meaning	Word	IPA	Tone	Meaning
1	ꠙꠣꠑꠣ	ɸáʈá	High	'goat'	ꠚꠣꠐꠣ	ɸàʈà	Low	'torn'	ꠙꠣꠐꠣ	ɸāʈā	Mid	'grindstone'
2	ꠇꠥꠑꠣ	kúʈá	High	'room'	ꠈꠥꠐꠣ	kùʈà	Low	'taunting'	ꠇꠥꠐꠣ	kūʈā	Mid	'stick'
3	ꠙꠣꠈꠣ	ɸáxá	High	'fan'	ꠚꠣꠇꠣ	ɸàxà	Low	'empty'	ꠙꠣꠇꠣ	ɸāxā	Mid	'ripe'

It is considered that these tones arose when aspirated consonants lost their aspiration. Sylheti continues to have a long history of coexisting with tonal Tibeto-Burman languages such as various dialects of Kokborok, Reang^{[clarification needed]}. Even though there is no clear evidence of direct borrowing of lexical items from those languages into Sylheti, there is still a possibility that the emergence of Sylheti tones is due to external influence, as the indigenous speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages by and large use Sylheti as a common medium for interaction.

Grammar[]

Sylheti grammar is the study of the morphology and syntax of Sylheti.^[98]

Nouns[]

Case[]

When a definite article such as -gu/ţa (singular) or -guin/ţin (plural) is added, nouns are also inflected for number. Below are two tables which show the inflections of an animate noun, ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞ satrô ('student'), and an inanimate noun, ꠎꠥꠔꠣ zuta ('shoe').

Noun Inflection

	Animate		Inanimate
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠉꠥ/ satrô-gu/ ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠐꠣ satrô-ţa ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠉꠥ/ ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠐꠣ satrô-gu/ satrô-ţa the student	ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠢꠇꠟ satrô-hôxôl ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠢꠇꠟ satrô-hôxôl the students	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥ/ zuta-gu/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣ zuta-ţa ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣ zuta-gu/ zuta-ţa the shoe	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘ/ zuta-guin/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠤꠘ/ zuta-ţin/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣ‌ꠎꠥꠠꠣ zuta-zuŗa ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠤꠘ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣ‌ꠎꠥꠠꠣ zuta-guin/ zuta-ţin/ zuta-zuŗa the shoes
Objective	ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠉꠥꠞꠦ/ satrô-gu-re/ ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠐꠣꠞꠦ satrô-ţa-re ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠉꠥꠞꠦ/ ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠐꠣꠞꠦ satrô-gu-re/ satrô-ţa-re (to) the student	ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠢꠇꠟꠞꠦ satrô-hôxl-ôre ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠢꠇꠟꠞꠦ satrô-hôxl-ôre (to) the students	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠞꠦ/ zuta-gu-re/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣꠞꠦ zuta-ţa-re ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠞꠦ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣꠞꠦ zuta-gu-re/ zuta-ţa-re (to) the shoe	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞꠦ/ zuta-guint-ôre/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠤꠘꠔꠞꠦ zuta-ţint-ôre ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞꠦ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠤꠘꠔꠞꠦ zuta-guint-ôre/ zuta-ţint-ôre (to) the shoes
Genitive	ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠉꠥꠞ/ satrô-gu-r/ ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠐꠣꠞ satrô-ţa-r ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠉꠥꠞ/ ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠐꠣꠞ satrô-gu-r/ satrô-ţa-r the student's	ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠢꠇꠟꠞ satrô-hôxl-ôr ꠍꠣꠔ꠆ꠞꠢꠇꠟꠞ satrô-hôxl-ôr the students'	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠞ/ zuta-gu-r/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣꠞ zuta-ţa-r ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠞ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣꠞ zuta-gu-r/ zuta-ţa-r the shoe's	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞ zuta-guint-ôr ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞ zuta-guint-ôr the shoes'
Locative	–	–	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠔ/ zuta-gu-t/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣꠔ zuta-ţa-t ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠔ/ ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠐꠣꠔ zuta-gu-t/ zuta-ţa-t on/in the shoe	ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠧ zuta-guint-ô ꠎꠥꠔꠣꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠧ zuta-guint-ô on/ in the shoes

All of the inflected nouns above have an indefinite article preceding their case markers. There are some basic rules to keep in mind about the cases, apart from the "default" nominative.

For the genitive case, the ending may change, though never with a definite article attached. A noun (without an article) which ends in a consonant or the inherent vowel, ꠅ ô, is inflected by adding –ꠞ -ôr to the end of the word (and deleting the inherent vowel if applicable). An example of this would be the genitive of ꠉꠥꠍ gus 'meat' being ꠉꠥꠍꠔꠞ gustôr 'of meat' or '(the) meat's'. A noun which ends in any vowel apart from the inherent vowel will just have a -ꠞ -r following it, as in the genitive of ꠙꠥꠀ fua being ꠙꠥꠀꠞ fuar '(the) boy's'. The genitive ending is also applied to verbs (in their verbal noun forms), which is most commonly seen when using postpositions (for example: ꠢꠤꠇꠣꠞ ꠟꠣꠉꠤ hikar lagi, 'for learning').

For the locative case, the marker also changes in a similar fashion to the genitive case, with consonants and the inherent vowel having their own ending, -ꠧ -ô, and all other vowels having another ending, -ꠔ -t. For example, ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠧ silôţô 'in Sylhet', ꠑꠣꠇꠣꠔ dáxát 'in Dhaka', etc.

Measure words[]

When counted, nouns must also be accompanied by the appropriate measure word. The noun's measure word (MW) must be used in between the numeral and the noun. Most nouns take the generic measure word gu/ţa/xán, although there are many more specific measure words, such as zôn, which is only used to count humans.

Measure Words

Sylheti	Literal translation	Meaning
Nôy-ţa ghoŗi	Nine-MW clock	Nine clocks
Xôy-ţa balish	How many-MW pillow	How many pillows
Ônex-zôn manush	Many-MW person	Many people
Sair-fas-zôn mashţôr	Four-five-MW teacher	Four or five teachers

Measuring nouns in Sylheti without their corresponding measure words (e.g. aţ mekur instead of aţ-ţa mekur 'eight cats') would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, omitting the noun and preserving the measure word is grammatical and not uncommon to hear. For example, Xáli êx-zôn táxbô. (lit. 'Only one-MW will remain.') would be understood to mean 'Only one person will remain.', since zôn can only be used to count humans.

Pronouns[]

Personal pronouns[]

Sylheti personal pronouns are somewhat similar to English pronouns, having different words for first, second, and third person, and also for singular and plural (unlike for verbs, below). Sylheti pronouns, like their English counterparts, do differentiate for gender. Sylheti has different third-person pronouns for proximity. The first are used for someone who is nearby, and the second are for those who are a little further away. The third are usually for those who are not present. In addition, each of the second- and third-person pronouns have different forms for the familiar and polite forms; the second person also has a "very familiar" form (sometimes called "despective"). It may be noted that the "very familiar" form is used when addressing particularly close friends or family as well as for addressing subordinates, or in abusive language. In the following tables, the abbreviations used are as follows: VF=very familiar, F=familiar, and P=polite (honor); H=here, T=there, E=elsewhere (proximity), and I=inanimate.

The nominative case is used for pronouns that are the subject of the sentence, such as "I already did that" or "Will you please stop making that noise?"

Personal pronouns (nominative case)

Subject	Proximity	Honor	Singular	Plural
1		VF	ꠝꠥꠁ (mui, I)	ꠝꠞꠣ (môra, we)
		F	ꠀꠝꠤ (ami, I)	ꠀꠝꠞꠣ (amra, we)
2		VF	ꠔꠥꠁ (tui, you)	ꠔꠥꠞꠣ (tura, you)
		F	ꠔꠥꠝꠤ (tumi, you)	ꠔꠥꠝꠞꠣ/ꠔꠥꠝꠤ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tumra/tumi-tain, you)
		P	ꠀꠙꠘꠦ (afne, you)	ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞꠣ (afnara, you)
3	H	F	ꠄ (e, he), ꠄꠁ (ei, she) / ꠁꠉꠥ (igu, he/she)	ꠄꠞꠣ (era, they)
		P	ꠄꠁꠘ (ein, he/she)	ꠄꠞꠣ/ꠄꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (era/ein-tain, they)
		I	ꠁꠉꠥ/ꠁꠇꠐꠣ (igu/ikţa, it)	ꠁꠉꠥꠁꠘ (iguin, these)
	T	F	ꠢꠦ (he, he), ꠔꠣꠁ (tai, she)	ꠔꠣꠞꠣ (tara, they)
		P	ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tain, he/she)	ꠔꠣꠞꠣ/ꠔꠣꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tara/tain-tain, they)
		I	ꠅꠉꠥ/ꠅꠇꠐꠣ (ôgu/ôxţa, it)	ꠅꠉꠥꠁꠘ (ôguin, those)
	E	F	ꠢꠦ (he, he), ꠔꠣꠁ (tai, she)	ꠔꠣꠞꠣ (tara, they)
		P	ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tain, he/she)	ꠔꠣꠞꠣ/ꠔꠣꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tara/tain-tain, they)
		I	ꠢꠉꠥ/ꠢꠇꠐꠣ (hôgu/hôxţa, it)	ꠢꠉꠥꠁꠘ (hôguin, those)

The objective case is used for pronouns serving as the direct or indirect objects, such as "I told him to wash the dishes" or "The teacher gave me the homework assignment". The inanimate pronouns remain the same in the objective case.

Personal pronouns (objective case)

Subject	Proximity	Honor	Singular	Plural
1		VF	ꠝꠞꠦ (môre, me)	ꠝꠞꠣꠞꠦ (môrare, us)
		F	ꠀꠝꠣꠞꠦ (amare, me)	ꠀꠝꠞꠣꠞꠦ (amrare, us)
2		VF	ꠔꠞꠦ (tôre, you)	ꠔꠥꠞꠣꠞꠦ (turare, you)
		F	ꠔꠥꠝꠣꠞꠦ (tumare, you)	ꠔꠥꠝꠞꠣꠞꠦ/ꠔꠥꠝꠣ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞꠦ (tumrare/tuma-tanre, you)
		P	ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞꠦ (afnare, you)	ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞꠣꠞꠦ/ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠁꠘꠔꠞꠦ (afnarare/afnaintôre, you)
3	H	F	ꠄꠞꠦ (ere, him), ꠄꠁꠞꠦ (eire, her)	ꠄꠞꠣꠞꠦ (erare, them)
		P	ꠄꠘꠞꠦ (enre, him/her)	ꠄꠞꠣꠞꠦ/ꠄꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞꠦ (erare/ein-tanre, them)
		I	ꠁꠉꠥꠞꠦ/ꠁꠇꠐꠣꠞꠦ (igure/ikţare, it)	ꠁꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞꠦ (iguintôre, these)
	T	F	ꠄꠞꠦ (ere, him), ꠄꠁꠞꠦ (eire, her)	ꠄꠞꠣꠞꠦ (erare, them)
		P	ꠄꠘꠞꠦ (enre, him/her)	ꠄꠞꠣꠞꠦ/ꠄꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞꠦ (erare/ein-tanre, them)
		I	ꠅꠉꠥꠞꠦ/ꠅꠇꠐꠣꠞꠦ (ôgure/ôxţare, it)	ꠅꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞꠦ (ôguintôre, those)
	E	F	ꠢꠦꠞꠦ/ꠔꠣꠞꠦ (here/tare, him), ꠔꠣꠁꠞꠦ (taire, her)	ꠔꠣꠞꠣꠞꠦ (tarare, them)
		P	ꠔꠣꠘꠞꠦ (tanre, him/her)	ꠔꠣꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞꠦ (tain-tanre, them)
		I	ꠢꠉꠥ/ꠢꠇꠐꠣ (hôgu/hôxţa, it)	ꠢꠉꠥꠁꠘ (hôguin, those)

The possessive case is used to show possession, such as "Where is your coat?" or "Let's go to our house". In addition, sentences such as "I have a book" (ꠀꠝꠣꠞ ꠄꠇꠐꠣ ꠛꠁ ꠀꠍꠦ) or "I need money" (ꠀꠝꠣꠞ ꠐꠦꠇꠣ ꠖꠞꠇꠣꠞ) also use the possessive (the literal translation of the Bengali versions of these sentences would be "There is my book" and "There is my need for money" respectively).

Personal pronouns (possessive case)

Subject	Proximity	Honor	Singular	Plural
1		VF	ꠝꠞ (môr, my)	ꠝꠞꠣꠞ (môrar, our)
		F	ꠀꠝꠣꠞ (amar, my)	ꠀꠝꠞꠣꠞ (amrar, our)
2		VF	ꠔꠞ (tôr, your)	ꠔꠥꠞꠣꠞ (turar, your)
		F	ꠔꠥꠝꠣꠞ (tomar, your)	ꠔꠥꠝꠞꠣꠞ/ꠔꠥꠝꠣ-ꠔꠣꠘ/ꠔꠥꠝꠣ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞ (tumar/tuma-tan/tuma-tanôr, your)
		P	ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞ (afnar, your)	ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞꠣꠞ/ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠁꠘꠔꠞ (afnarar/afnaintôr, your)
3	H	F	ꠄꠞ (er, his), ꠄꠁꠞ (eir, her)	ꠄꠞꠣꠞ (erar, their)
		P	ꠄꠘ/ꠄꠁꠘꠞ (en/einôr, his/her)	ꠄꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞ (ein-tanôr, their)
		I	ꠁꠉꠥꠞ/ꠁꠇꠐꠣꠞ (igur/ikţar, its)	ꠁꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞ (iguintôr, of these)
	T	F	ꠄꠞ (er, his), ꠄꠁꠞ (eir, her)	ꠄꠞꠣꠞ (erar, their)
		P	ꠄꠘ/ꠄꠁꠘꠞ (en/einôr, his/her)	ꠄꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞ (ein-tanôr, their)
		I	ꠅꠉꠥꠞ/ꠅꠇꠐꠣꠞ (ogur/oxţar, its)	ꠅꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞ (oguintôr, of those)
	E	F	ꠔꠣꠞ (tar, his/her)	ꠔꠣꠞꠣꠞ (tader, their)
		P	ꠔꠣꠘ/ꠔꠣꠘꠞ (tan/tanôr, his/her)	ꠔꠣꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞ (tain-tanôr, their)
		I	ꠢꠉꠥꠞ/ꠢꠇꠐꠣꠞ (hôgur/hôxţar, its)	ꠢꠉꠥꠁꠘꠔꠞ (hôguintôr, of those)

Indefinite and negative pronouns[]

Bengali has no negative pronouns (such as no one, nothing, none). These are typically represented by adding the negative particle ꠘꠣꠄ (nae) to indefinite pronouns, which are themselves derived from their corresponding question words. Common indefinite pronouns are listed below.

Question word	Indefinite pronoun	Indefinite negative pronoun
ꠇꠦ/ xe/ ꠇꠦꠉꠥ/ xegu/ ꠇꠤꠉꠥ kigu ꠇꠦ/ ꠇꠦꠉꠥ/ ꠇꠤꠉꠥ xe/ xegu/ kigu who	ꠇꠦꠃ xeu ꠇꠦꠃ xeu someone	ꠇꠦꠃ xeu ꠘꠣꠄ nae ꠇꠦꠃ ꠘꠣꠄ xeu nae no one
ꠇꠣꠞ/ xar/ ꠇꠦꠉꠥꠞ/ xegur/ ꠇꠤꠉꠞꠥ kigur ꠇꠣꠞ/ ꠇꠦꠉꠥꠞ/ ꠇꠤꠉꠞꠥ xar/ xegur/ kigur whose	ꠇꠦꠃꠞ/ xeur/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞ xeurôr ꠇꠦꠃꠞ/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞ xeur/ xeurôr someone's	ꠇꠦꠃꠞ/ xeur/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞ xeurôr ꠘꠣꠄ nae ꠇꠦꠃꠞ/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞ ꠘꠣꠄ xeur/ xeurôr nae no one's
ꠇꠣꠞꠦ kare ꠇꠣꠞꠦ kare to whom	ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠦ/ xeure/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞꠦ xeurôre ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠦ/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞꠦ xeure/ xeurôre to someone	ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠦ/ xeure/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞ xeurôre ꠘꠣꠄ nae ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠦ/ ꠇꠦꠃꠞꠞ ꠘꠣꠄ xeure/ xeurôre nae to someone
ꠇꠥꠘ kun ꠇꠥꠘ kun which	ꠇꠥꠘꠥ/ kunu/ ꠇꠥꠘꠅ kunô ꠇꠥꠘꠥ/ ꠇꠥꠘꠅ kunu/ kunô any	ꠇꠥꠘꠥꠉꠥ kunugu ꠘꠣꠄ nae ꠇꠥꠘꠥꠉꠥ ꠘꠣꠄ kunugu nae none
ꠇꠤꠔꠣ kita ꠇꠤꠔꠣ kita what	ꠇꠤꠍꠥ/ kisu/ ꠇꠥꠘꠔꠣ kunta ꠇꠤꠍꠥ/ ꠇꠥꠘꠔꠣ kisu/ kunta some/ something	ꠇꠤꠌ꠆ꠍꠥ/ kichchu/ ꠇꠥꠘꠔꠣ kunta ꠘꠣꠄ nae ꠇꠤꠌ꠆ꠍꠥ/ ꠇꠥꠘꠔꠣ ꠘꠣꠄ kichchu/ kunta nae nothing

Relative pronouns[]

The relative pronoun ꠎꠦ (ze) and its different variants, as shown below, are commonly employed in complex sentences. The relative pronouns for animate objects change for number and honour, but those for inanimate objects stay the same.

Animate relative pronouns

	Nominative (who)	Genitive (whose)	Objective (to whom)
Singular (VF/F)	ꠎꠦ	ꠎꠣꠞ	ꠎꠣꠞꠦ
Singular (P)	ꠎꠦꠁꠘ	ꠎꠦꠘ	ꠎꠦꠘꠞꠦ
Plural (VF/F)	ꠎꠣꠞꠣ	ꠎꠣꠞꠣꠞ	ꠎꠣꠞꠣꠞꠦ
Plural (P)	ꠎꠦꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ	ꠎꠦꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘ	ꠎꠦꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠘꠞꠦ

Inanimate relative pronouns

Nominative/Objective (which)	Genitive (of which)	Locative (in which)
ꠎꠦꠔꠣ	ꠎꠦꠔꠣꠞ	ꠎꠦꠔꠣꠔ

Adjectives[]

Adjectives do not inflect for case, gender, or number in Sylheti and are placed before the noun they modify.

Some adjectives form their opposites by prefixing ꠅ- (before consonants) or ꠅꠘ- (before vowels) or ꠘꠤ-, for example, the opposite of ꠡꠝ꠆ꠜꠛ (shômbôb, 'possible') is ꠅꠡꠝ꠆ꠜꠛ (ôshômbôb, 'impossible'), the opposite of ꠝꠣꠔꠞꠣ (matra, 'speaker') is ꠘꠤꠝꠣꠔꠞꠣ (nimatra, 'quite').

Demonstrative adjectives – this and that – correspond to ꠁ and ꠅꠃ respectively, with the definite article attached to the following noun. Thus, this book would translate to ꠁ ꠛꠁꠐꠣ, while those books would translate to ꠅꠃ ꠛꠁꠐꠣ.

Comparatives and superlatives[]

Sylheti adjectives form their comparative forms with ꠀꠞꠅ (arô, 'more'), and their superlative forms with ꠡꠛ ꠕꠣꠇꠤ (shôb táki, 'than all'). Comparisons are formed by using genitive form of the object of comparison, followed by the postposition ꠕꠣꠇꠤ/ꠕꠘꠦ/ꠌꠦ (táki/tóne/se, 'than') or the postposition ꠟꠣꠇꠣꠘ (laxan, 'like') and then by ꠀꠞꠅ (arô, 'more') or ꠇꠝ (xôm, 'less'). The word for more is optional, but the word for less is required, so in its absence more is inferred. Adjectives can be additionally modified by using ꠛꠣꠇ꠆ꠇꠣ/ꠛꠃꠔ/ꠅꠘꠦꠇ (bakka/bout/ônex, 'much') or ꠅꠘꠦꠇ ꠛꠦꠡꠤ (ônex beshi, 'much more'), which are especially useful for comparing quantities.

Sylheti	Literal Translation	Meaning
ꠇꠞꠤꠝ ꠞꠢꠤꠝ ꠕꠘꠦ ꠟꠣꠝ꠆ꠛꠣ	Karim of Rahim than tall	Karim is taller than Rahim
ꠇꠞꠤꠝ ꠞꠢꠤꠝ ꠕꠣꠇꠤ ꠀꠞꠅ ꠟꠣꠝ꠆ꠛꠣ	Karim of Rahim than more tall	Karim is taller than Rahim
ꠇꠞꠤꠝ ꠞꠢꠤꠝ ꠕꠘꠦ ꠇꠝ ꠟꠣꠝ꠆ꠛꠣ	Karim of Rahim than less tall	Karim is shorter than Rahim
ꠇꠞꠤꠝ ꠞꠢꠤꠝꠞ ꠟꠣꠇꠣꠘ ꠟꠣꠝ꠆ꠛꠣ	Karim of Rahim like tall	Karim is as tall as Rahim
ꠇꠞꠤꠝ ꠞꠢꠤꠝ ꠕꠣꠇꠤ ꠛꠃꠔ ꠟꠣꠝ꠆ꠛꠣ	Karim of Rahim than much tall	Karim is much taller than Rahim

Verbs[]

Sylheti verbs are highly inflected and are regular with only few exceptions. They consist of a stem and an ending; they are traditionally listed in Sylheti dictionaries in their "verbal noun" form, which is usually formed by adding -a to the stem: for instance, ꠇꠞꠣ (xôra, to do) is formed from the stem ꠇꠞ. The stem can end in either a vowel or a consonant. Verbs are conjugated for tense and person by changing the endings, which are largely the same for all verbs. However, the stem vowel can often change as part of the phenomenon known as vowel harmony, whereby one vowel can be influenced by other vowels in the word to sound more harmonious. An example would be the verb to write, with stem lex-: ꠟꠦꠈꠧ (lexô, 'you all write') but also ꠟꠦꠈꠤ (lekí, 'we write'). If verbs are classified by stem vowel and if the stem ends in a consonant or vowel, there are nine basic classes in which most verbs can be placed; all verbs in a class will follow the same pattern. A prototype verb from each of these classes will be used to demonstrate conjugation for that class; bold will be used to indicate mutation of the stem vowel. Additionally, there are irregular verbs, such as ꠎꠣꠅꠀ (zaoa, to go) that change the first consonant in their stem in certain conjugations.

Like many other Indo-Aryan languages (such as Standard Bengali or Assamese), nouns can be turned into verbs by combining them with select auxiliary verbs. In Sylheti, the most common such auxiliary verb is ꠇꠞꠣ (xôra, 'to do'); thus, verbs such as joke are formed by combining the noun form of joke (ꠓꠋ) with to do (ꠇꠞꠣ) to create ꠓꠋ ꠇꠞꠣ. When conjugating such verbs the noun part of such a verb is left untouched, so in the previous example, only ꠇꠞꠣ would be inflected or conjugated (e.g.: I will make a joke becomes ꠀꠝꠤ ꠓꠋ ꠇꠞꠝꠥ; see more on tenses below). Other auxiliary verbs include ꠖꠦꠅꠀ and ꠘꠦꠅꠀ, but the verb ꠇꠞꠣ enjoys significant usage because it can be combined with foreign verbs to form a native version of the verb, even if a direct translation exists. Most often this is done with English verbs: for example, to vote is often referred to as ꠜꠥꠐ ꠖꠦꠅꠀ (búţ deoa, where búţ is the transliteration of vote).

Copula[]

Sylheti is considered a zero copula language in some aspects.

• In the simple present tense there is no verb connecting the subject to the predicative (the "zero verb" copula). There is one notable exception, however, which is when the predicative takes on the existential, locative, or possessive aspects; for such purposes, the incomplete verb ꠀꠍ- (as) is used, which is conjugated according to the rules given below.
• In the past tense, the incomplete verb ꠀꠍ- is always used as the copula, regardless of the nature of the predicative.
• For the future tense and non-finite structures, the copula is supplied by the verb ‘ꠅꠅꠀ (ówa), with the only exception being the possessive predicative for which the verb ꠕꠣꠇꠣ (táxa, 'to remain') is utilised.

The following table demonstrates the rules above with some examples.

English	Sylheti	Notes
I am happy	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠈꠥꠡꠤ	No verb used to denote the copula
There is time	ꠡꠝꠄ ꠀꠍꠦ	ꠀꠍ- used to connect to an existential predicative
I am at home	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠛꠣꠠꠤꠔ ꠀꠍꠤ	ꠀꠍ- used to connect to a locative predicative
We were happy	ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠛꠦꠎꠣꠞ ꠀꠍꠟꠣꠝ	In the past tense, ꠀꠍ- is used as the copula
I will be at home	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠛꠣꠠꠤꠔ ꠕꠣꠇꠝꠥ	In the future tense, ꠕꠣꠇꠣ is used as the copula
He will have a car	ꠔꠣꠞ ꠄꠈꠣꠘ ꠉꠣꠠꠤ ꠕꠣꠇꠛ	In the future tense, ꠕꠣꠇꠣ is used to connect to a possessive predicative

Negation[]

There are three sentence negators employed in Sylheti:

• The zero verb copula is negated using the incomplete negator ꠘ-, which is conjugated as ꠘꠣꠄ (1), ꠘꠣꠁ (2), ꠘꠣ (3).
• Existential sentences that use the verb ꠀꠍ- are negated with ꠘꠣꠁ (nai), which does not need to be conjugated.
• All other verbs (with the exceptions of the ones listed above) are negated using the universal negative particle ꠘꠣꠄ (nae). ꠘꠣꠄ is typically placed after the finite verb (see examples below), but can also be placed at the end of the sentence, which negates the whole sentence. ꠘꠣꠄ can be used in all tenses except two: the present perfect and the past perfect.
• Verbs in the present perfect and the past perfect tenses are negated using the suffix -ꠘꠣ (na) which can also refer to "no" in yes-no questions.

Negating verbs

English	Sylheti	Notes
I am not happy	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠈꠥꠡꠤ ꠘꠣꠄ	Incomplete negator ꠘ- conjugated for first-person
We don't have a car	ꠀꠝꠞꠣꠞ ꠉꠣꠠꠤ ꠘꠣꠁ	ꠘꠣꠁ used to negate ꠀꠍ-, which is completely replaced
I don't work	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠇꠣꠝ ꠇꠞꠤ ꠘꠣ	ꠘꠣ is used to negate all other finite verbs
I didn't help him	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠔꠣꠞꠦ ꠡꠣꠁꠎ꠆ꠏ ꠇꠞꠍꠤꠟꠣꠝ ꠘꠣ

Person[]

Verbs are inflected for person and honour, but not for number. There are five forms: first person, second person (very familiar), second person (familiar), third person (familiar), and second/third person (polite). The same sample subject pronouns will be used for all the example conjugation paradigms: mui (ꠝꠥꠁ), ami (ꠀꠝꠤ), tui (ꠔꠥꠁ), tumi (ꠔꠥꠝꠤ), he (ꠢꠦ), tai (ꠔꠣꠁ) and afne (ꠀꠙꠘꠦ). These have the following plurals respectively: môra (ꠝꠞꠣ), amra (ꠀꠝꠞꠣ), tura (ꠔꠥꠞꠣ), tumra (ꠔꠥꠝꠞꠣ)/tumi-tain (ꠔꠥꠝꠤ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ), tara (ꠔꠣꠞꠣ)/tain-tain (ꠔꠣꠁꠘ-ꠔꠣꠁꠘ) and afnara (ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞꠣ).

Comparison[]

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A notable characteristic of spoken Sylheti is the correspondence of the /x/ and /ɦ/, pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative to the /k/ or /kʰ/ of Bengali and voiceless glottal fricative to the /x/ of Assamese respectively.

Standard Bengali	Typical East Bengali	Assamese	Sylheti	IPA	Meaning
ঢাকা Dhaka	ঢাহা Ḍáha	ঢাকা Dhaka	ꠓꠣꠇꠣ Daxa	/ɖáxa/	Dhaka
একজন মানুষ Êkjôn manush	একজন মানুষ Êkzôn manush	এজন লোক Ezôn lük	ꠄꠇꠎꠘ ꠝꠣꠘꠥꠡ Êxzôn manush	/exzɔn manuʃ/	A person
একজন পুরুষ Êkjôn purush	একজন বেডা Êkzôn bêḍa	এজন মানুহ Ezôn manuh	‌ꠄꠇꠎꠘ ꠛꠦꠐꠣ Êxzôn beṭa	/exʈa beʈa/	A man
কীসের Kisher	কীয়ের Kiyer	কিহৰ Kihôr	ꠇꠤꠅꠞ Kior	/kiɔ́ɾ/	Informal of Whereof
কন্যা, ঝি, মেয়ে, পুত্রী Kônna, Jhi, Meye, Putri	কইন্যা, ঝি, মাইয়া, পুড়ি Kôinna, Zí, Maiya, Puri	জী, ছোৱালী Zi, Süali	ꠇꠁꠘ꠆ꠘꠣ, ꠎꠤ, ꠙꠥꠠꠤ Xôinna, Zí, Furi	/xɔinna/, /zí/, /ɸuɽi/	Daughter
মানবজাতি Manôbjati	মাইনষের জাত Mainsher zat	মানৱজাতি, মানুহৰ জাতি Manôwzati, Manuhôr zati	ꠝꠣꠁꠘꠡꠞ ꠎꠣꠔ Mainshôr zat	/mainʃɔɾ zat̪/	Mankind
অসমীয়া, অহমীয়া Ôshômiya, Ôhômiya	অহমীয়া Ôhômiya	অসমীয়া Ôxômiya	ꠅꠢꠝꠤꠀ Ôhômia	/ɔɦɔmia/	Assamese people
আঙুল Angul	আঙ্গুল Angul	আঙুলি Anguli	ꠀꠋꠉꠥꠁꠟ Anguil	/aŋguil/	Finger, toe
আংটি Angṭi	আঙ্গুইট Anguiṭ	আঙুঠি Anguṭhi	ꠀꠋꠐꠤ Angṭí	/aŋʈi/	Ring
আগুনপোড়া Agunpora	আগুনপুড়া Agunpura	জুইত পোৰা, জুইত সেকা Zuit püra, Zuit xeka	ꠀꠉꠥꠁꠘꠙꠥꠠꠣ Aguinfura	/aguinfuɽa/	Baked, grilled
পাখি, চিড়িয়া Pakhi, Chiriya	পাহি, পাইখ্যা Pahi, Paikka	চৰাই, পখী Sorai, Pokhi	ꠙꠣꠈꠤꠀ, ꠙꠞꠤꠘ꠆ꠖꠣ Fakya, Forinda	/ɸakia/, /ɸɔrinda/	Bird
পরে, বাদে Pôre, Bade	পরে, বাদে Pôre, Bade	পিছত, পৰত Pisot, Porot	ꠙꠞꠦ, ꠛꠣꠖꠦ Fôre, Bade	/ɸɔɾe/, /bad̪e/	Later
সকল, সমস্ত, সব, তামাম Shôkôl, Shômôsto, Shômôsto, Shôb, Tamam	হগল, হক্কল, সব, তামাম, ব্যাক Hôgôl, Hôkkôl, Shômôsto, Shôb, Tamam, Bêk	সকলো, সব, চব Xôkôlü; Xôb; Sôb	ꠢꠇꠟ, ꠢꠇ꠆ꠇꠟ, ꠡꠛ, ꠔꠣꠝꠣꠝ Hôxôl, Hôkkôl, Shôb, Tamam	/ɦɔxɔl/, /ɦɔkkɔl/, /ʃɔb/	All
সারা, পুরা, গোটা, আস্ত Shara, Pura, Goṭa, Astô	হারা, পুরা, গোডা, আস্তা Hara, Pura, Güḍa, Asta	গোটেই Güṭei	ꠀꠍ꠆ꠔꠣ, ꠙꠥꠞꠣ, ꠉꠥꠐꠣ Asta, Fura, Guṭa	/ast̪a/, /ɸura/, /guʈa/	Whole
সাত বিল Shat bil	সাত বিল, হাত বিল Shat bil, Hat bil	সাত বিল Xat bil	ꠢꠣꠔ ꠛꠤꠟ Hat bil	/ɦat̪ bil/	Seven wetlands
সাতকড়া Shatkôra	সাতকড়া, হাতকড়া Shatkôra, Hatkôra	সাতকৰা Xatkôra	ꠢꠣꠔꠇꠠꠣ Hatxôra	/ɦat̪xɔɽa/	Citrus macroptera fruit
সিলেটি Sileṭi	সিলডি, সিলেইট্যা Silôḍi, Sileiṭṭa	ছিলঠীয়া Silôṭhiya	ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ Silôṭi	/silɔʈi/	Sylheti
ভালো করে খান। Bhalo kôre khan.	ভালা কইরা খাইন। Bála kôira khain.	ভালকৈ খাওক। Bhalkoi khaük.	ꠜꠣꠟꠣ ꠇꠞꠤ/ꠑꠤꠇꠦ ꠈꠣꠃꠇ꠆ꠇꠣ। Bala xôri/tike xaukka.	/bála xɔɾi xaukka/, /bála ʈike xaukka/	Bon appetit
স্ত্রী, পত্নী, বউ Stri, Pôtni, Bôu	বউ Bôu	স্ত্রী, ঘৈণী, পত্নী Stri, Ghôini, Pôtni	ꠛꠃ Bôu	/bɔu/	Wife
স্বামী, বর, জামাই Shami, Bôr, Jamai	হাঁই, হাইন, জামাই Hai, Hain, Zamai	গিৰিয়েক, পতি, স্বামী Giriyêk, Pôti, Swami	ꠢꠣꠁ, ꠎꠣꠝꠣꠁ Hai, Zamai	/zamai/	Husband
জামাই, দামাদ Jamai, Damad	জামাই, দামান্দ Zamai, Daman(d)	জোঁৱাই Züai	ꠖꠣꠝꠣꠘ꠆ꠖ Damand	/damand/	Son-in-law
শ্বশুর Shôshur	হউর Hôur	শহুৰ Xôhur	ꠢꠃꠞ Hôur	/ɦɔúɾ/	Father-in-law
শাশুড়ি Shashuṛi	হউরী Hôuri	শাহু Xahu	ꠢꠠꠣ Hoṛi	/ɦɔɽi/	Mother-in-law
শালা Shala	হালা Hala	খুলশালা Khulxala	ꠢꠣꠟꠣ Hala	/ɦala/	Brother-in-law
শালী Shali	হালী Hali	খুলশালী Khulxali	ꠢꠣꠟꠤ Hali	/ɦali/	Sister-in-law
শেখা, শিখা Shekha, Shikha	শিহা, হিহা, হিয়া Shiha, Hiha, Hiya	শিকা Xika	ꠢꠤꠇꠣ Hika	/ɦika/	Learn
সরিষা Shôrisha	হ���রা, হউরা Hôira, Hôura	সৰিয়হ Xôriôh	ꠢꠁꠞꠢ, ꠟꠣꠁ Hôirô, Lai	/ɦɔiɾɔ/, /lai/	Mustard
শিয়াল Shiyal	হিয়াল Hial	শিয়াল Xiyal	ꠢꠤꠀꠟ Hial	/ɦial/	Fox, Jackal
বিড়াল Biṛal	বিলাই, মেহুর Bilai, Mehur	মেকুৰী, বিৰালী Mekuri, Birali	ꠝꠦꠇꠥꠞ, ꠛꠤꠟꠣꠁ Mekur, Bilai	/mekuɾ/, /bilai/	Cat
শুঁটকি Shuṭki	হুটকি, হুনি Huṭki, Huni	শুকটি, শুকান মাছ Xukôti, Xukan mas	ꠢꠥꠐꠇꠤ, ꠢꠥꠇꠂꠘ Huṭki, Hukôin	/ɦuʈki/, /ɦukoin/	Sundried Fish
আপনার নাম কী? Apnar nam ki?	আপনের নাম কী(তা)? Apner nam ki(ta)?	আপোনাৰ নাম কি? Apünar nam ki?	ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞ ꠘꠣꠝ ꠇꠤꠔꠣ? Afnar nam kita?	/aɸnaɾ nam kit̪a/	What's your name?
ডাক্তার আসার আগেও রোগী মারা গেল। Daktar ashar ageo rogi mara gelô	ডাক্তর আওয়ার আগে রোগী মইরা গেল। Daktôr awar age rügi môira gelô	ডাক্তৰ অহাৰ আগতেই ৰোগী মৰি গ’ল। Daktor ohar agotei rügi mori gól	ꠒꠣꠇ꠆ꠔꠞ ꠀꠅꠀꠞ ꠀꠉꠦꠅ ꠛꠦꠝꠣꠞꠤ ꠝꠞꠤ ꠉꠦꠟ। Daxtôr awar ageu bemari môri gelô.	/ɖaxt̪ɔɾ awaɾ age bemaɾi mɔɾi gelo/	Before the doctor came, the patient had died.
বহুদিন দেখিনি। Bôhudin dekhini.	ব'উত দিন দেখছি না/দেহি নাই। Bôút din dekhsi na/dehi nai.	বহুদিন দেখা নাই। Bôhudin dekha nai.	ꠛꠣꠇ꠆ꠇꠣ ꠖꠤꠘ ꠖꠦꠈꠍꠤ ꠘꠣ। Bakka din dexsi na.	/bakka d̪in d̪exsi na/	Long time, no see.
আপনি কি ভালো আছেন? Apni ki bhalo achhen?	আপনে ভালা আছইন/আছেন নি? Apne bála asôin/asen ni?	আপুনি ভালে আছেনে? Apuni bhale asênê?	ꠀꠙꠘꠦ ꠜꠣꠟꠣ ꠀꠍꠁꠘ ꠘꠤ? Afne bala asôin ni?	/aɸne bála asoin ni/	Are you fine/good?
আমি তোমাকে ভালোবাসি। Ami tomake bhalobashi.	আমি তুমারে ভালোবাসি। Ami tumare bálobashi.	মই তোমাক ভাল পাওঁ। Moi tümak bhal paü.	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠔꠥꠝꠣꠞꠦ ꠜꠣꠟꠣ ꠙꠣꠁ। Ami tumare bala fai.	/ami t̪umare bála ɸai/	I love you.
আমি ভুলে গিয়েছি। Ami bhule giyechhi.	আমি ভুইল্যা গেছি। আমি পাউরি গেছি। Ami búilla gesi. Ami pauri gesi.	মই পাহৰি গৈছোঁ। Môi pahôri goisü.	ꠀꠝꠤ ꠙꠣꠅꠞꠤ ꠟꠤꠍꠤ। Ami faûri lisi.	/ami ɸaʊɾi lisi/	I have forgotten.
আলু গোশতের ঝোলটা আমার ভালো লাগলো। Alu goshter jholṭa amar bhalo laglo.	আলু গুস্তের ছালনডা আমার ভালা লাগলো। Alu guster salônḍa amar bála laglo.	‍মাংসৰ তৰকাৰীখন মোৰ খুব ভাল লাগিছে। Mangxôr tôrkarikhôn mür khub bhal lagise.	ꠀꠟꠥ ꠉꠥꠍ꠆ꠔꠞ ꠍꠣꠟꠘꠐꠣ ꠀꠝꠣꠞ ꠜꠣꠟꠣ ꠟꠣꠉꠟ​ Alu gustôr salônṭa amar bala laglo.	/gust̪ɔɾ salɔnʈa amaɾ bakka bála lagse/	I liked the potato meat curry.
শিলচর কোনদিকে? Shilcôr kondike?	শিলচর কোনদিগে/কোন ফাইল/কোন মুহি? Shilcôr kündige/kün phail/kün muhi?	শিলচৰ কোনফালে? Xilsôr künphale?	ꠢꠤꠟꠌꠞ ꠇꠥꠘꠛꠣꠄ/ꠇꠥꠘꠛꠣꠁꠖꠤ/ꠇ���ꠘꠝꠥꠈꠣ? Hilcôr kunbae/kunbaidi/kunmuka?	/ɦil͡tʃɔɾ kunbae, kunbaed̪i, kunmuká/	Which way to Silchar?
এটা কী? Eṭa ki?	এইডা কী(তা)? (E)iḍa ki(ta)?	এইটো কি? Eitü ki?	ꠁꠉꠥ/ꠁꠇꠐꠣ/ꠁꠐꠣ ꠇꠤꠔꠣ? Igu/Ikṭa/Iṭa kita?	/igu, ikʈa, iʈa kit̪a/	What is this?
সেটা কী? Sheṭa ki?	হেইডা কী(তা)? H(e)iḍa ki(ta)?	সেইটো কি? Xeitü ki?	ꠢꠤꠉꠥ/ꠢꠤꠇꠐꠣ/ꠢꠤꠐꠣ ꠇꠤꠔꠣ? Higu/Hikṭa/Hiṭa kita?	/ɦigu, ɦikʈa, ɦiʈa kit̪a/	What is that?
শেষ, খতম Shesh, Khotom	হেষ Hêsh	শেষ Xex	ꠢꠦꠡ Hesh	/ɦeʃ/	End, finish

Comparison with Standard Bengali[]

A phrase in:

• Standard Bengali: এক দেশের গালি আরেক দেশের বুলি æk desher gali arek desher buli.
• Sylheti: ꠄꠇ ꠖꠦꠡꠞ ꠉꠣꠁꠟ ꠀꠣꠞꠇ ꠖꠦꠡꠞ ꠝꠣꠔ/এখ দেশর গাইল, আরখ দেশর মাত ex deshôr gail arôx deshôr mát.

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.

Another example:

• মেঘ megh in Standard Bengali means 'cloud'.
• মেঘ mêg(h) in Eastern Bengali means 'rain' or 'cloud'.
• ꠝꠦꠊ/মেঘ megh in Sylheti means 'rain'.
• In Pali, मेघ megha means both 'rain' and 'cloud'.

See also[]

• Bengali–Assamese languages
• Languages of India
• Languages of Bangladesh
• Tibeto-Burman languages
• Barman language
• Meitei language

References[]

Bibliography[]

Notes[]

Hamid, Shahela (June 2005). A Study of Language Maintenance and Shift in the Sylheti Community in Leeds (PDF) (PhD). University of York. p. 307. Retrieved 17 July 2021.

External links[]

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sylheti phrasebook.

Sylheti phrasebook travel guide from Wikivoyage