Sylheti language

Sylheti or Syloti (সিলেটী Sileṭi or ছিলটী Silôṭi) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language variety, primarily spoken in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Barak Valley region of southern Assam. It was originally a form of Hindustani vernacular, but over the years it gravitated towards standard Bengali to be considered as a dialect of the Bengali language. Despite incomplete mutual intelligibility, it shares a high proportion of vocabulary with Standard Bengali: Chalmers (1996) reports at least 80% overlap.

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.