Language Fact File: Sylheti

Sylheti is mainly spoken in: the Sylhet region of Bangladesh and the Barak Valley of India

Number of native speakers: Approximately 11 million

Learn some: If you are introduced to some Sylheti speakers, impress them by saying “afnar loge forisito oiya khushi oilam!” This means “nice to meet you”.

Fast facts:
Although it has 11 million speakers and is not fully mutually intelligible with Bengali, it is still considered by many to be a dialect. This has affected efforts to conserve and protect the language.

Sylheti has its own script and folklore tradition. This has been preserved through the centuries in the Sylheti script, Nagri. These stories often reflect Islamic, Hindu and Sufi influences.

Sylheti shares a lot of vocabulary with Fari and Arabic, because of historical trade and interactions between Persia and the nearby Arab countries.