Contrary to popular opinion, Sylheti speakers do not speak a broken-down dialect or a corrupt form of shudda Bangla, nor it is an accent.
Shudda means pure/correct which then implies and helps physical conditioning that speaking Sylheti is incorrect or wrong.
“To give more context, dialect is a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.”
Sylheti language has its own independent alphabetic and numeric systems. Sylheti does not follow the language structure of Bengali. It has a different writing system, fewer letters, and different sounds, and was way before Bengali, as mentioned earlier.
Bengali started having an influence when it was being taught in schools and those who attended and studied in the city began speaking certain words that were not original Sylheti words. As a result of this, the mentality that Sylheti is a dialect of Bengali was slowly established.
It is believed by many Sylheti that Bengali is their mother tongue but in reality, their mother never spoke Bengali.
Due to the education system from primary schools and the Bengali language revelation in 1952, some people blindly started believing that Bengali is their mother tongue as some are simply in fear of getting accused of unwanted traitor category.
If we consider some standard available facts, some Sylheti speakers, especially those in Sylhet Town who are exposed to more Bangla, have their Sylheti sound more like Bangla. They’re victims of oppression, and it can be tricky when the oppressed themselves perpetuate the oppression like an internalised inferiority.
Bangla speakers don’t need to mock Sylheti speakers when Sylheti speakers amongst themselves mock the non-Banglafied ‘accents’.
Compared to Sylheti, Bengali won’t be extinct as it has ample resources, international recognition, and literature distributed worldwide.
“After all, language inclusion for all is an issue of human rights (As per the relatable standard article 2, 21.2, 22, etc. from the UN side).”
We can’t change how Sylheti and its speakers have been treated in the past but we can change how it is treated now and how we want it to be in the future.
With each passing day that we fail to make a change, the Sylheti language becomes more endangered and closer to losing its little recognition, relevance, and identity.
Now is the time to raise awareness and recognition and stamp the Sylheti authority so that people should be proud of speaking Sylheti and being Sylheti.

You can support this movement by heading over to the petition page as petition.sylhetilanguage.net and signing the petition!!