Sylheti Nagari

Sylheti Nagari
The word Silôṭi ('Sylheti') in Sylheti Nagari.
Type	Abugida
Languages	Sylheti language
Time period	1825 CE
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Sylo, 316
Unicode alias	Syloti Nagri
Unicode range	U+A800–U+A82F

Sylheti Nagari (Sylheti: ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ ꠘꠣꠉꠞꠤ Silôṭi Nagri) is an endangered script used for writing Sylheti. It is closely related to Kaithi, and has some Eastern Nagari influences. Although it has in recent times lost much ground to Bengali, the script is beginning to be reintroduced.^[1]

Etymology

The script has also been known as Jalalabad Nagari, Fūl (flower) Nagari,^[2] Muslim Nagari, Muhammad Nagari. All of its names are suffixed with Nagari, which implies the script's connection to the Nāgarī script.

Origin

This recently built structure namely "Nagari chattar" (Nagari Square) near Surma river in the city of Sylhet, Bangladesh consists of alphabets of this script.

The specific origin of Sylheti Nagari is debated. The general hypothesis is the Muslims of Sylhet were the ones to invent it. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, however, is of the opinion that Shah Jalal brought the script with him when he arrived in the area in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The bulk of text written in Sylheti Nagari being influenced by Sufism seems to support this hypothesis. On the other hand, according to Ahmad Hasan Dani it was the Afghans living in Sylhet during the Afghan rule who invented the script, since some of Sylheti Nagari's letters resemble the symbols on Afghan coins, and there were a large number of Afghans living in Sylhet at that time. Other less-supported hypotheses are:^[3]

• Since the people of Sylhet were familiar with the Devanagari script, they fashioned Sylheti Nagari after it;
• The script was invented by immigrant Bhikkhus from neighboring countries such as Nepal;
• The script could have been invented in the seventeenth—eighteenth century to facilitate the Muslim sepoys coming from the joint state of Bihar and immigrant Muslims;^[4]
• A folk belief is that a Muslim invented the script from Bengali writing system for the purpose of mass education^[5]

But scholars now validate the three hypotheses: By the followers of Shah Jalal, by Afghans or that the script is indigenous to Sylhet.^[3]

Sylheti symbols

Sylheti Nagari is characterized by its simplistic glyph, with fewer letters than Bengali. In addition, Sylheti Nagari didn't have any ligatures.^[4] The total number of letters is 32; there are 5 vowels and 28 consonants.

Spread

As noted before, Sylheti Nagari has been used outside of Sylhet. The script spread to such extents as Calcutta, and Shillong. It has been asserted from scholarly writings that the script was used in Bankura. But from various sources it has been seen that the script was in use in areas apart from the region of Sylhet such as Barisal, Chittagong, Noakhali etc.^[3] From the description of Shreepadmanath Debsharma:

The script is thought to have spread to Chittagong and Barisal via river. Also a large number of immigrants in the United Kingdom from Sylhet have recently introduced the script there.^[3]

Usage

Born out of a religious need, Sylheti Nagari has also been used in the daily lives of the inhabitants of Sylhet apart from using in religious literature. Letters, receipts, and even official records has been written using this script. Apart from renowned literary works such as Haltunnobi, Jongonama, Mhobbotnama, Noor Noshihot, Talib Huson etc., it has been used to write medicine and magical manuscripts, as well as Poems of the Second World War. The script, never having been a part of any formal education, reached the common people with seeming ease.^[3]

Literature

Cover of 19th century Haltunnobi by Sadek Ali

The simplistic nature of the script inspired a lot of poets, and the bulk of Nagari literature was born. The then Srihatta's Islamia Press, Sarada Press and Calcutta's General Printing Press used to print in Sylheti Nagari. The manuscripts were of prosaic quality,^[4] but poetry was also abundant.

Computer font & Android Keyboard

The "New Surma" is a proprietary font. Noto fonts provides an open source font for Sylheti Nagari.

There is an android keyboard on google play store. Syloti Nagri Keyboard is the first android keyboard on Nagri letter. Developed by Sabbir Ahmed and Md Nurul Islam. They are from Metropolitan University, Sylhet.

Sample texts

The following is a sample text in Sylheti, of the Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations:

Sylheti in Sylheti Nagari script

ꠗꠣꠞꠣ ১: ꠢꠇꠟ ꠝꠣꠘꠥꠡ ꠡꠣꠗꠤꠘꠜꠣꠛꠦ ꠢꠝꠣꠘ ꠁꠎ꠆ꠎꠔ ꠀꠞ ꠢꠇ ꠟꠁꠀ ꠙꠄꠖꠣ ‘ꠅꠄ। ꠔꠣꠞꠣꠞ ꠛꠤꠛꠦꠇ ꠀꠞ ꠀꠇꠟ ꠀꠍꠦ। ꠅꠔꠣꠞ ꠟꠣꠉꠤ ꠢꠇꠟꠞ ꠄꠇꠎꠘꠦ ꠀꠞꠇꠎꠘꠞ ꠟꠉꠦ ꠛꠤꠞꠣꠖꠞꠤꠞ ꠝꠘ ꠟꠁꠀ ꠀꠌꠞꠘ ꠇꠞꠣ ꠃꠌꠤꠔ।

Sylheti in phonetic Romanization

Dara ex: Hôxôl manuš šadinbabe hôman ijjôt ar hôx lôia fôeda ôe. Tarar bibex ar axôl ase. Ôtar lagi hôxlôr exzône arôxzônôr lôge biradôrir môn lôia asôrôn xôra usit.

Sylheti in IPA

/d̪aɾa ex | ɦɔxɔl manuʃ ʃad̪ínbábe ɦɔman id͡ʒːɔt̪ aɾ ɦɔx lɔia fɔe̯d̪a ɔ́e̯ ‖ t̪aɾaɾ bibex aɾ axɔl asé ‖ ɔt̪aɾ lagi ɦɔxlɔɾ exzɔne arɔxzɔnɔɾ lɔge birad̪ɔɾiɾ mɔn lɔia asɔɾɔn xɔɾa usit̪ ‖/

Gloss

Clause 1: All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken birth-take do. Their reason and intelligence exist; therefore everyone-indeed one another's towards brotherhood-ly attitude taken conduct do should.

Translation

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience. Therefore, they should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Unicode

Sylheti Nagari was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2005 with the release of version 4.1.

The Unicode block for Sylheti Nagari is U+A800–U+A82F:

References

External links

• A full archive
• Omniglot