Sylhet Sadar ( Bengali : সিলেট সদর ) is an upazila of Sylhet District in the Division of Sylhet , Bangladesh .
101-443: Sylhet Sadar is located at 24°53′30″N 91°53′00″E / 24.8917°N 91.8833°E / 24.8917; 91.8833 . It has 158,233 households and a total area of 301.80 km. The city of Sylhet is located within central of Sylhet Sadar. According to the 2011 Census of Bangladesh , Sylhet Sadar Upazila had 158,233 households and a population of 829,103. 185,388 (22.36%) were under 10 years of age. Sylhet Sadar had
202-641: A relay station headquartered in the Kazitula neighborhood. From 2000 to 2002, privately owned Ekushey Television broadcast terrestrially on VHF channel 11 in Sylhet. Cricket is the most popular sport in Sylhet. The Bangladesh Premier League franchise Sylhet Strikers are based in Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (M.A.G. Osmani Stadium), which was built in 2007 and has a capacity of 18,500 spectators. The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium
303-492: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
404-590: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
505-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
606-511: A few large depressions known locally as " beels ," which are frequently oxbow lakes caused by tectonic subsidence during the earthquake of 1762 . Geologically, the region is complex and diverse; higher-elevation regions date partly to the Plio- Miocene age. Available limestone deposits in different parts of the region suggest that the whole area was under the ocean in the Oligo-Miocene. In
707-672: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
808-530: A literacy rate (age 7 and over) of 61.29%, compared to the national average of 51.8%, and a sex ratio of 899 females per 1000 males. 526,412 (63.49%) lived in urban areas. Ethnic population was 6,205 (0.75%), of which Manipuri were 2,447. At the 1991 Bangladesh census , Sylhet Sadar had a population of 554,412, of whom 287,304 were aged 18 or older. Males constituted 52.51% of the population, and females 47.49%. Sylhet Sadar had an average literacy rate of 87.6%, among them male 49.0%, female 51.0% (7+ years), and with
909-712: A literacy rate of 67.8%. The majority of the population are Bengali Muslims , while significant minority population groups include the Bengali Hindus , Bishnupriya Manipuri and others. Sylheti is spoken by the vast majority of the people, while Standard Bengali is the official language used by the state government and officials. Ethnic minorities are 2,424 (0.45%), of which 2,040 are Manipuri . The majority of people in Sylhet are Muslims (86.5%), while other religious groups include Hindus (13.3%) and less than 0.2% of other religions, mainly Buddhists and Christians . The majority of Muslims in Sylhet are Sunnis who follow
1010-660: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
1111-477: A modern and European model new town was built on the wreckage. From the beginning of the 20th century, the importance of Sylhet increased with the establishment of the tea industry. In 1947, following a referendum and the partition of British India , Sylhet became part of East Pakistan. In 1995, the Government of Bangladesh declared Sylhet as the sixth divisional headquarters of the country. Sylhet has played
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#17330863398111212-404: A population of 532,839. 15.93% of the population was under 10 years of age. Sylhet had a literacy rate of 84.57% for those 7 years and older and a sex ratio of 107.51 males per 100 females. As of the 2011 Bangladesh census , Sylhet has a population of 485,138. The population growth rate of the city is 1.73%, a decrease from 1.93% in 1991. Sylhet has a sex ratio of 861 females to 1000 males and
1313-462: A result. Sylhet also relies on religious tourism , with thousands of devotees visiting its Sufi shrines annually, as well as ecotourism in its broader natural hinterland. Nature resorts have been built in the city's outskirts. Several important Bangladeshi companies are based in Sylhet, including Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution, Sylhet Gas Fields and Alim Industries . Biman Bangladesh Airlines operates several flights from Sylhet to
1414-562: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
1515-767: A significant portion of the Bangladeshi diaspora , particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. According to The Daily Star , about 95% of Bangladeshi population in the UK comes from the Sylhet district. Sylhet has diverse transport infrastructure, with a modern airport, railway station, and bus terminals that connect it to other parts of the country. The city also has several educational institutions, including Sylhet Agricultural University , Shahjalal University of Science and Technology , and Sylhet Cadet College . Sylhet
1616-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
1717-575: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
1818-640: A vital role in the Economy of Bangladesh . Several of Bangladesh's finance ministers have been members of parliament from the city of Sylhet. Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran was a longtime mayor of Sylhet. Humayun Rashid Choudhury , a diplomat from Sylhet, served as President of the UN General Assembly and Speaker of the Bangladesh National Parliament . In 2001, the municipality was upgraded to
1919-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
2020-525: A ward basis under Sections 29 and 30 of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009. Currently, the City Corporation consists of 42 wards and covers an area of 79.5 square kilometers. At present, Sylhet is the district-headquarters as well as the divisional headquarters of the districts of Sunamganj , Habiganj , Moulvibazar and Sylhet District . The Sylhet City Corporation is responsible for
2121-1374: Is 87.6%; male 57.2%, female 44.0%. It is a place of high educational institutions of Sylhet Division . One of the first science and technology universities established in Bangladesh is Shahjalal University of Science and Technology , situated here. One of the advanced agricultural universities established in Bangladesh is Sylhet Agricultural University . There are also other colleges such as Sylhet Government College , Sylhet Engineering College , Murari Chand College , and Osmani Medical College , Institute of Health Technology, Sylhet Sylhet Polytechnic Institute . Other notable educational institutions are Sylhet Cadet College , Sylhet Agricultural University , Madan Mohan College , State College, Sylhet Government Women's College Sylhet and Sylhet Law College. There are also four private universities in Sylhet Sadar, namely Leading University , Sylhet International University , Metropolitan University, and North East University. There are also three private medical colleges in Sylhet Sadar Upazila, namely Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College and Hospital , Sylhet Women's Medical College and Parkview Medical College. Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College
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#17330863398112222-441: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
2323-589: Is Sylhet's first college in Bandarbazar area established by Rai Bahadur Raja Girish Chandra Roy named it after his maternal grandfather Murari Chand Roy. Sylhet is twinned with: As of 2009, Sylhet has friendly relations with: The friendship link with St Albans was established in 1988, when the St Albans' district council supported a housing project in Sylhet as part of the International Year of Shelter for
2424-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
2525-516: Is a metropolitan city located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh . It is the administrative center of Sylhet Division and is situated on the banks of the Surma River . Sylhet is the fifth-largest city in Bangladesh, with a population of around 530,000 people in 2022. Sylhet is known for its tea plantations and natural beauty. The city has a history dating back to the 14th century and has been ruled by various dynasties and empires, including
2626-562: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
2727-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
2828-691: Is based at Jalalabad Cantonment in Sylhet. The cantonment is also home of the School of Infantry and Tactics (SI&T) and the 1st Para-commando Battalion , an elite commando unit of the Bangladesh Army. Sylhet is also home to many hospitals such as the Shahid Shamsuddin Hospital District Hospital, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College , Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College , North East Medical College , and Sylhet Women's Medical College . In 2018, Sylhet Medical University
2929-668: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
3030-699: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
3131-488: Is generally hot and humid with heavy showers and thunderstorms almost every day. The shorter dry season runs from November to February, with very warm and fairly clear weather. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 4,200 millimetres (170 in) occurs between May and September. The city is located within a topographically distinctive region of Bangladesh characterized by dramatic hills and basins. The physiography of Sylhet consists mainly of hill soils and encompasses
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3232-443: Is home to several multinational companies and industries, including the tea industry, which generates a significant amount of revenue for the city. The city has a diverse population, with native Sylhetis , Bengalis , Manipur & Tripuris , and other ethnic groups. The official language of Sylhet is Standard Bengali , and Sylheti is the most spoken language. English is widely spoken and understood because people from Sylhet form
3333-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
3434-408: Is known for its distinct flavors and aromatic dishes. Popular delicacies in the city include pitha (rice cakes), shorshe ilish (hilsa fish in mustard sauce), shatkora beef, and doi chira (flattened rice with yogurt). The region's love for tea is evident in its numerous tea gardens and the consumption of "seven-layer tea," a unique layered beverage. State-owned Bangladesh Television operates
3535-477: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
3636-551: Is the anglicisation of শিলহট ( Śilhôṭ ), one of the archaic native names for the city. The local name is generally thought to be directly derived from শ্রীহট্ট ( Śrīhaṭṭa ), the Sanskrit name of the city. The city of Śrīhaṭṭa takes its name from Śrīhaṭṭanātha , the tutelary deity of the Nātha dynasty who promoted the early settlement of Nāthas in the Surma and Barak valleys between
3737-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It
3838-655: Is the largest; established in 1995, founded by philanthropist Ragib Ali and his wife Rabeya Khatun. Few famous schools around here is: Govt. Agragami Girls High School and College, Sylhet , Sylhet Govt. Pilot High School etc. There are cantonment public schools and colleges, such as Jalalabad Cantonment Public School and College and Sylhet Cantonment Public School and College, under Bangladesh Army control. According to Banglapedia, Hazrat Shah Jajal (R) High School and Hazrat Shah Paran (R) High School are notable secondary schools. Sylhet Sylhet ( Bengali : সিলেট IPA: [sileʈ] ; Sylheti : ꠍꠤꠟꠐ )
3939-672: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
4040-403: Is the place of the mausoleum of Shah Jalal . There are also many historical and cultural sites situated in this upazila. Sylhet Sadar Upazila is divided into eight union parishads : Hatkhola, Jalalabad, Kandigaon, Khadimnagar, Khadimpara, Mogalgaon, Tuker Bazar, and Tultikar. The union parishads are subdivided into 86 mauzas and 353 villages. The average literacy rate of Sylhet Sadar Upazila
4141-500: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
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4242-606: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
4343-468: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
4444-586: The East India Company . Sylhet became a key source of lascars in the British Empire due in part to its ancient seafaring tradition. The Sylhet municipal board was established in 1867. Originally part of the Bengal Presidency and later Eastern Bengal and Assam , the town became part of Colonial Assam in 1874. A devastating earthquake demolished almost the entire town on 12 June 1897 following which
4545-657: The Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Significant numbers of people also follow Sufi ideals, particularly the teachings of Abdul Latif Fultali . The Sylhet Metropolitan Area is one of Bangladesh's main business centres. Sylhet's economy is closely linked with the Bangladeshi diaspora , especially the British Bangladeshi community. The city receives a significant portion of the country's annual remittances , which have driven growth in real estate and construction. A number of shopping centres, restaurants and hotels have opened as
4646-515: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
4747-701: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
4848-570: The Mughals , British , and the Nawabs of Bengal . The city is also home to several important landmarks, such as the Shah Jalal Dargah , which is one of the holiest Islamic sites in Bangladesh and attracts thousands of Muslim pilgrims every year. Sylhet is one of the most economically important cities in Bangladesh after Dhaka and Chittagong . Sylhet is a major commercial and financial center, and it
4949-520: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
5050-573: The Sylhet City Corporation . Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali
5151-522: The Sylhet City Corporation . It was made a metropolitan city in 2009. Sylhet is located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh within the Sylhet Division, the Sylhet District, and Sylhet Sadar Upazila. Sylhet has a typical Bangladeshi tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen Am ) bordering on a humid subtropical climate ( Cwa ) at higher elevations. The rainy season runs from April to October, and
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#17330863398115252-590: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
5353-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
5454-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
5555-608: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
5656-637: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
5757-576: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
5858-621: The Awami League. The present foreign affairs minister DR. A K Abdul Momen , who is the younger brother of Abdul Muhith, currently represents the Sylhet-1 seat in parliament. Sylhet has high rates of electricity and water shortages. According to the Power Development Board, as of 2009, Sylhet was only receiving 50 MW , half of the required demand of 100 MW. The city corporation was also supplying only 22,500 gallons of water, far less than
5959-451: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
6060-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
6161-511: The Homeless. Sylhet was chosen because it is the home region for a large ethnic minority population in St Albans. In March 2009 the Mayor of Sylhet, Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form another friendship link between Sylhet and Rochdale, home to around 10,000 people with Sylheti heritage. The Mayor of Sylhet signed it alongside the Mayor of Rochdale, Cllr Keith Swift, at
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#17330863398116262-553: The United Kingdom and the Middle East. Roads connect Sylhet with the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam. Sylhet's hinterland plays a vital role in the economy of Bangladesh . It is home to the country's largest natural gas fields, sole crude oil field, largest tea plantations, rubber, palm oil , cane , agarwood and citrus farms. Rice production in the region is one of the country's highest. Heavy industries include power plants , fertilizer plants, cement plants and liquefied petroleum gas plants. Other major industries in
6363-444: The United Kingdom and the United States. The most prevalent airlines at the airport are Biman Bangladesh Airlines , US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair . Osmani International Airport received its first international arrival on 3 November 2002, with a Biman plane arriving from Kuwait via Abu Dhabi en route to Dhaka. Sylhet's first direct international flight arrived on 15 March 2017 when a Flydubai direct flight from Dubai landed at
6464-526: The airport. Work began in 2006 to upgrade the airport to international standards, including a new terminal building, a jetway, a taxiway, and expansion of the runway to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft. In May 2007, Biman announced direct Hajj flights originating from the airport later that year. As of 2020, Biman Bangladesh operates direct flight to London from Sylhet. All Bangladeshi airlines operate regular domestic flights to Dhaka and Biman operates regular domestic flights to Cox's Bazar . In response to
6565-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
6666-410: The city is administered by the Sylhet City Corporation . On August 31, 2021, a gazette notification was issued to expand the area of Sylhet City Corporation. According to the gazette, several mouzas from four unions of Sylhet Sadar Upazila and three unions of Dakshin Surma Upazila were included in the City Corporation. Subsequently, the expanded areas were reorganized and boundaries were defined on
6767-452: The city with Bangladesh's capital and largest city, Dhaka, as well as with many other parts of the country. The N2 highway is also part of the Asian Highway Network 's two longest routes, AH1 and AH2 . Sylhet is served by Osmani International Airport , located at the north of the city. It is Bangladesh's third busiest airport, and it became an international airport due to demand driven by expatriate Bangladeshis and their families living in
6868-500: The city, but only 15% maintain sanitary facilities and 85% have unhygienic conditions that are unsafe for the public. The cultural identity of Sylhet has been shaped by a blend of indigenous practices, Sufi influences, and the assimilation of diverse communities. Sylhet is also known for its music scene, and it is home to several renowned musicians and artists. The city has a rich literary tradition, producing several notable writers and poets including Syed Mujtaba Ali . Sylheti cuisine
6969-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
7070-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
7171-486: The demand of about 65,000. The major sources of water to the city are the tube wells and the Surma River . Tests of tube wells in Sylhet District by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1997 found that about 27.6% contained more arsenic than the acceptable limit set by Bangladesh of 50 micrograms per liter, and 49.2% contained more arsenic than the World Health Organization standard of 10 micrograms per liter. There are about 331 registered restaurants in
7272-587: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
7373-672: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
7474-549: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
7575-500: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
7676-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
7777-863: The following. There are two public universities in Sylhet: Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Sylhet Agricultural University . There are some prominent colleges and schools in Sylhet such as Jalalabad Cantonment Public School and College ,Jalalabad Ragib Rabeya Medical college, Pathantula Parkview Medical College, MAG Osmani Medical College, Sylhet , Sylhet Women's Medical College , North East Medical College , Sylhet Engineering College , Sylhet Cadet College , Murari Chand College , Institute of Health Technology, Sylhet , Border Guard Public School And College , Scholarshome, Blue Bird High School and College , Sylhet Science And Technology College , Sylhet Polytechnic Institute , and Sylhet Government Women's College . Murari Chand College
7878-714: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
7979-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
8080-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
8181-566: The hills and hidden behind forests and jungles." Exactly 100 years after his tenure, in 1878, Sylhet was upgraded into a municipality with an approximate area of about 1.75 square kilometers. The civic body of Sylhet was formed according to the Sylhet City Corporation Act, 2001, which came into effect on April 10, 2001. On July 28, 2002, Sylhet Municipality board was upgraded to a City Corporation, which covering an area of 26.50 square kilometers and divided into 27 wards, and currently
8282-460: The increase in passenger and cargo demand at the airport, work began in 2020 on a new 34,919 square metres (375,860 sq ft) international passenger terminal building, as well as a cargo building, a control tower, parking areas, and a taxiway. The Sylhet railway station is the main railway station providing trains on national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway . Some train routes originating or terminating in Sylhet include
8383-483: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
8484-535: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
8585-561: The last 150 years, three major earthquakes have hit the city with magnitude of at least 7.5 on the Richter Scale , most recently in 1918. Robert Lindsay , who served as the District Collector of Sylhet from 1778 to 1790. In his autobiography, Oriental Miscellanies: Anecdotes of Indian Life , he mentioned to Sylhet as 'a small bazaar (market)'. He wrote, "The town was then merely a small market. The inhabitants’ houses were situated on
8686-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
8787-562: The national average being 32.4% literate. Major religions are Muslim 81.26%, Hindu 17.43%, Buddhist , Christian and others 0.31%. The rich culture of Sylhet Sadar Upazila includes such major national festivals as Bangladesh Independence Day, Victory Day, Language Movement Day, Pohela Baishakh are widely celebrate in the upazila. Traditional and religious festivals like Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azha, Raspurnima, Jhulan Jatra and Roth Jatra, Christmas and other religious festivals are peacefully and widely celebrated by people of different religions. It
8888-585: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
8989-514: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
9090-536: The region include ceramics , machinery and equipment, ready-made garments and pharmaceuticals. Most of the tea production in Bangladesh is based around Sylhet, much of which is eventually exported internationally. Two Bangladeshi finance ministers from the city have been elected to the Jatiyo Sangshad for Sylhet: Saifur Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party; and Abul Maal Abdul Muhith of
9191-535: The services that are provided within the city which includes traffic, roads, garbage collection, water supply, registrations and many others. The corporation consists of the Mayor and 22 other commissioners, and focuses on the development of the city. Sylhet is divided into 6 metropolitan thanas (police stations), 42 wards, and 1224 mahallas. Sylhet is strategically important for the Bangladesh Armed Forces . The Bangladesh Army 's 17th Infantry Division
9292-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
9393-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
9494-635: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
9595-601: The twelfth and thirteenth centuries, founding the Śrīhaṭṭa janapada and establishing Śrīhaṭṭanātha idols across the region. The later Hindu monarchs of Sylhet, such as Gour Govinda , continued to pay tribute to the deity as Hāṭkeśvara or Haṭṭanātha as evident from the Devipurana and copper-plate inscriptions. In 1303, the Sultan of Lakhnauti Shamsuddin Firoz Shah conquered Sylhet by defeating Gour Govinda . Sylhet
9696-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
9797-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
9898-629: Was a realm of the Bengal Sultanate . In the 16th century, Sylhet was controlled by the Baro-Bhuyan zamindars and later became a sarkar (district) of the Mughal Empire . Sylhet emerged after 1612 as the Mughals' most significant imperial outpost in Bengal east of Dhaka, and its importance remained as such throughout the seventeenth century. British rule began in the 18th century under the administration of
9999-559: Was awarded the FIDE Women's International Master (WIM) title in 1985, while her son Kaiser Hamid was the captain of the Bangladesh national football team in the early 90s. The main transport systems used in Sylhet are cycle rickshaws , auto rickshaws (mainly known as baby-taxis or CNGs), buses, mini-buses and cars. About 80,000 rickshaws run each day within the city. Bus service prices have increased up to 30% higher, and as of 2008 prices range from Tk 4 to 15.95. The N2 connects
10100-490: Was established in the city, following the Prime Minister's order to found a medical university in each division with the goal of maintaining medical standards in colleges. According to the order, Chittagong and Rajshahi Medical University have already been established, and Sylhet Medical University is the fourth Medical University of the directive. As of 2022 census results, Sylhet City Corporation had 116,711 households and
10201-668: Was renovated in 2013 specifically to host matches for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 . It is situated near lush green tea gardens on the city fringe. In the National Cricket League , Sylhet Division has not won any titles but did win in the One-Day Cricket League during the 2001–02 season . Notable players from Sylhet who have played for the Bangladesh national cricket team include Rajin Saleh , Enamul Haque Jr , Tapash Baisya , and Alok Kapali . Chess player Rani Hamid
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