endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
Dhivehi or Divehi ( ; '' dv, links=no, ދިވެހި'', ), is an
Indo-Aryan language
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
spoken in the
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
n island country of
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
and on
Minicoy Island
Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on ''Maliku atoll'', the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian union territory o ...
,
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast.
The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...
, union territory of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
The Maldivian language has notable dialects. The standard dialect is that of the capital city,
Malé
Malé (, ; dv, މާލެ) is the capital and most populous city of the Maldives. With a population of 252,768 and an area of , it is also one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The city is geographically located at the southern ...
. The greatest dialectal variation is from the southern atolls Huvadu, Addu and
Fuvahmulah
Fuvahmulah (Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް) is an island (atoll) in the Maldives. It is under Maldives’ administrative divisions of Gnaviyani Atoll or Nyaviyani Atoll. The inhabitants speak a distinctive form of the Dhivehi language, known as ...
of Maldives. Each of those atolls has its own dialect closely related to each other but very different from the northern atolls. The southern atoll dialects are so distinct that those only speaking northern dialects cannot understand them.
The ethnic
endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
for the language, ''Divehi'', is occasionally found in English as ''Dhivehi'' (spelled according to the locally used
Malé Latin
Dhivehi Latin or Maldivian Latin, known colloquially as Malé Latin or Nasiri Latin, is a Latin Maldivian alphabet briefly mandated in the Maldives from 1976, but the country reverted to the native Thaana and Arabic alphabets in 1978. Maldivian Lat ...
for romanisation of the Maldivian language), which is the official spelling as well as the common usage in the Maldives. Dhivehi is written in
Thaana
Thaana, Taana or Tāna ( ) is the present writing system of the Maldivian language spoken in the Maldives. Thaana has characteristics of both an abugida (diacritic, vowel-killer strokes) and a true alphabet (all vowels are written), ...
script.
Dhivehi is a descendant of Elu Prakrit and is closely related to
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
, but not mutually intelligible with it. Many languages have influenced the development of Dhivehi through the ages. They include
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. The English words ''
atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...
'' (a ring of coral islands or reefs) and ''
dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...
'' (a vessel for inter-atoll navigation) are anglicised forms of the Maldivian words ' and '. Before the European expansion, it was the southernmost Indo-European language.
Etymology
The origin of the word "Divehi" is from older ''divu''+''vesi'', meaning "island dwelling". ''Vesi'' came from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
'' dvīpa'') later became the suffix -''dū,'' which is currently present in many names of Maldivian islands, such as Hanimādū, Mīdū, and Dāndū. (from Sanskrit '' bhāṣā'') means "language", so ' means "islanders' language".
Wilhelm Geiger
Wilhelm Ludwig Geiger (; ; 21 July 1856 – 2 September 1943) was a German Orientalist in the fields of Indo-Iranian languages and the history of Iran and Sri Lanka. He was known as a specialist in Pali, Sinhala language and the Dhivehi language o ...
, a German linguist who undertook the first research on Maldivian
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
in the early 20th century, also called the language ''Divehi''. An ''h'' was added to the name of the language— "Dhivehi"— in 1976, when the semi-official transliteration called
Malé Latin
Dhivehi Latin or Maldivian Latin, known colloquially as Malé Latin or Nasiri Latin, is a Latin Maldivian alphabet briefly mandated in the Maldives from 1976, but the country reverted to the native Thaana and Arabic alphabets in 1978. Maldivian Lat ...
was developed. Today the spelling with ''Dh'' has common and semi-official usage in the Maldives.
Origin
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
language of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. Maldivian represents the southernmost Indo-Aryan language. Maldivian and Sinhalese together constitute a subgroup within the modern Indo-Aryan languages, called
Insular Indo-Aryan
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
. However, they are not mutually intelligible.
Maldivian and Sinhalese are descended from the
Elu
Eḷu, also Hela or Helu, is a hypothesized language Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE. It is ancestral to the Sinhalese and Dhivehi languages.
R. C. Childers, in the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', states ...
Prakrit of ancient and medieval Sri Lanka. These
Prakrit
The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
s were originally derived from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars related to
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...
.
Whereas formerly Maldivian was thought to be a descendant of Sinhalese, in 1969 Sinhalese philologist M. W. S. de Silva for the first time proposed that Maldivian and Sinhalese had branched off from a common mother language.de Silva (1970)
History
The earliest official writings were on the ' (copper-plate
grants
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
*Castle Grant
United States
* Grant, Alabama
*Grant, Inyo County, C ...
) of the 12th and 13th centuries. Earlier inscriptions on coral stone have also been found. The oldest inscription found to date is an inscription on a coral stone, which is estimated to be from around the 6th-8th centuries.
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language of the Sinhalese-Maldivian subfamily. It developed in relative isolation from other languages until the 12th century. Since the 16th century, Maldivian has been written in a unique script called
Thaana
Thaana, Taana or Tāna ( ) is the present writing system of the Maldivian language spoken in the Maldives. Thaana has characteristics of both an abugida (diacritic, vowel-killer strokes) and a true alphabet (all vowels are written), ...
which is written from
right to left
In a script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, Kashmiri ...
, like those of
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
(with which it shares several common diacritics for vowel sounds).
The foundation of the historical linguistic analysis of both Maldivian and
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
was laid by
Wilhelm Geiger
Wilhelm Ludwig Geiger (; ; 21 July 1856 – 2 September 1943) was a German Orientalist in the fields of Indo-Iranian languages and the history of Iran and Sri Lanka. He was known as a specialist in Pali, Sinhala language and the Dhivehi language o ...
(1856–1943). In Geiger's comparative study of Maldivian and Sinhalese, he assumes that Maldivian is a dialectal offspring of Sinhalese and therefore is a "daughter language" of Sinhalese. However, the material he collected was not sufficient to judge the "degree of relationship" of Maldivian and Sinhalese.
Geiger concludes that Maldivian must have split from Sinhalese not earlier than the 10th century CE. However, there is nothing in the history of these islands or Sinhalese chronicles, even in legendary form, that alludes to a migration of Sinhalese people which would result in such a connection. Maldives is completely absent from the pre-12th century records of Sri Lanka.
A rare Maliku Thaana primer written in the Maliku dialect, published by Lakshadweep's administration during the time of
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...
's rule, was reprinted by Spanish researcher
Xavier Romero-Frias
Xavier or Xabier may refer to:
Place
* Xavier, Spain
People
* Xavier (surname)
* Xavier (given name)
* Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Catholic saint
** St. Francis Xavier (disambiguation)
* St. Xavier (disambiguation)
* Xavier (footballer, born ...
in 2003.
There is a holiday, the ''Dhivehi Language Day'', which is celebrated in the Maldives on 14 April, the birthday of the writer
Husain Salaahuddin
Husain Salahuddin (Dhivehi: ހުސެއިން ސަލާހުއްދީން; April 14, 1881 – September 20, 1948), was an influential Maldivian writer, poet, essayist and scholar.
Salahuddin was one of the most prolific writers of early modern Mald ...
.
Geographic distribution
Maldivian is spoken in the
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
and a variation of it in
Minicoy
Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on ''Maliku atoll'', the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian union territory of ...
.
Official status
Maldivian is the official language of the
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast.
The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...
, India.
Dialects
The Maldivian language has multiple dialects due to the wide distribution of the islands, causing differences in pronunciation and vocabulary to develop during the centuries. The most divergent dialects of the language are to be found in the southern atolls, namely
Huvadhu
Huvadhu, Suvadive, Suvaidu or Suvadiva is the atoll with most islands in the world. The atoll is located in the Indian Ocean. It is south of the Suvadiva Channel in the Republic of Maldives with a total area of 3152 km2, of which 38.5 ...
,
Fuvahmulah
Fuvahmulah (Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް) is an island (atoll) in the Maldives. It is under Maldives’ administrative divisions of Gnaviyani Atoll or Nyaviyani Atoll. The inhabitants speak a distinctive form of the Dhivehi language, known as ...
and Addu. The other variants show less difference to the official dialect, including the dialects spoken in a few islands in Kolhumadulu Atoll and the now obsolete dialect once spoken in
Giraavaru Giraavaru may refer to:
* The Giraavaru people
* Giraavaru (Kaafu Atoll)
:''See also Giraavaru people''
Giraavaru is an island of Malé Atoll (the administrative Kaafu Atoll) nowadays hosting a tourist resort. It is located on the southwestern ...
, which are hardly recognised and known.
*''Malé dialect'' is the mainstream Maldivian dialect () and is based on the dialect spoken in the capital of the Maldives, Malé.
*''Haddhunmathee dialect'' spoken in
Haddhunmathi
Haddhunmathi or Laamu Atoll (Dhivehi: ހައްދުންމަތި އަތޮޅު) is an administrative division of the Maldives. The administrative capital is Fonadhoo Island. It corresponds to the natural atoll of the same name.
It is mostly rimmed ...
Atoll.
*''Maliku dialect'' (''Mahl'') spoken in Minicoy (Maliku) in union territory of
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast.
The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...
, India. The dialect spoken in Minicoy has fewer differences from the standard Maldivian than other dialects. It has some archaic forms of words and
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
loanwords.
*''Mulaku dialect'' is a dialect of Maldivian spoken by the people of
Fuvahmulah
Fuvahmulah (Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް) is an island (atoll) in the Maldives. It is under Maldives’ administrative divisions of Gnaviyani Atoll or Nyaviyani Atoll. The inhabitants speak a distinctive form of the Dhivehi language, known as ...
. ''Mulaku dialect'' has word-final 'l' ( ), which is absent from the other dialects of Maldivian. Another characteristic is the 'o' sound at the end of words, instead of the final 'u' common in all other forms of Maldivian; e.g. instead of . Regarding pronunciation, the retroflex 'ṣ' (IPA , has a ̊~ɽ̊r̥sound in the ''Mulaku dialect'' and was once pronounced that way in official Maldivian. One of the most unusual features of ''Mulaku dialect'' is that, unlike other dialects, it distinguishes gender. Also, there are many remarkable differences in the dialect in place of the ''
sukun
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
'' system as well as the vowel or diacritical system following a distinctive set of rules. The ''Mulaku'' dialect also has
nasal vowels
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
, which are unique only to this dialect.
*''Huvadhu dialect'', spoken by the inhabitants of the large atoll of Huvadhu Atoll, Huvadhu, is another distinctive form of Maldivian. Because of the isolation from the Northern Atolls, and the capital of Malé, ''Huvadhu dialect'' makes more use of the retroflex /ʈ/ than other variants. ''Huvadhu dialect'' also retains old
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
words and is sometimes considered to be linguistically closer to Sinhalese than the other dialects of Maldivian. The Huvadhu dialect can be separated into two subdialects, the eastern and western Huvadhu dialects.
*''Addu dialect'' is also quite different from the official form of Maldivian and has some affinities with ''Mulaku dialect''. In the past, Addu Atoll being a centre of education, the islanders from the three atolls of the south who acquired education there used ''Addu dialect'' as their lingua franca. Hence, when for example one of these islanders of any of the Huvadhu islands met with someone from Fuvahmulah, they would use ''Addu dialect'' to talk to each other. ''Addu dialect'' is the most widespread of the dialects of Maldivian. However, the secessionist government of the Suvadives (1959–1963) used ''Malé dialect'' in its official correspondence.
*''Madifushi dialect'' is the lesser known dialect in the Madifushi island of Kolhumadulu and has some similarities with ''Huvadhu dialect''. Word-final 'a' is often replaced with 'e' or 'o', and some final consonants also differ.
The letter Ṇaviyani (ޱ), which represented the retroflex ''n'' sound common to many Indic languages (
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, etc.), was abolished from official documents in by Muhammad Amin in 1950. Ṇaviyani's former position in the Thaana alphabet, between the letters Gaafu and Seenu, is today occupied by the palatal nasal Ñaviyani (ޏ). It is still seen in reprints of traditional old books like the and official documents like the . It is also used by people of southern atolls when writing songs or poetry in their language variant.
According to Sonja Fritz, "the dialects of Maldivian represent different diachronial stages in the development of the language. Especially in the field of morphology, the amount of archaic features steadily increase from the north to the south. Within the three southernmost atolls (of the Maldives), the dialect of the Addu islands which form the southern tip of the whole archipelago is characterized by the highest degree of archaicity".Fritz (2002)
However, the Huvadhu Atoll dialect is characterized by the highest degree of archaicity. From Huvadhu Atoll the archaic features decrease toward the south and north.
Fritz also adds that "the different classes of verb conjugation and nominal inflection are best preserved there, morphological simplifications and, as a consequence increasing from atoll to atoll towards north (in the Maldives)".
Spoken and literary varieties
Maldivian presents another aspect with which English speakers are not too familiar:
diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled " ...
, the distinction between what is spoken and what is written. Every language that has a written form has this distinction to a greater or lesser degree, but many Asian languages, including Maldivian exhibit major differences between the two varieties of language. Malé dialect and Maliku dialect are the only dialects commonly used in writing.
Spoken Maldivian, for instance, has twenty-seven consonants. In contrast, written or literary Maldivian includes some Arabic sounds as well. Though these sounds are also used in speaking, their phonetics are not strictly observed. This results in pronunciation as close as possible to spoken Maldivian.
Regarding syntax, it may be said that every sentence in written Maldivian ends with the addition of , which is never used to end a sentence in spoken Maldivian. In using a strict word order also has to be maintained, but in spoken Maldivian word order is not considered to be very rigid.
One of the very important things one has to take into account in written Maldivian which is not so important in spoken Maldivian is the ‘
sukun
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
’ on the letters and . in general is a mark to indicate an abrupt stop on the sound of the letter on which it is placed. However, if it comes within the word, the following consonant is geminated; if it comes on a or at the end of a word, it signifies the glottal stop; if it comes on a , the sound is replaced by a y off-glide.
Writing system
The Maldivian language has had its own script since very ancient times, most likely over two millennia, when Maldivian Buddhist monks translated and copied the Buddhist scriptures.
It used to be written in the earlier form (Evēla) of the
Dhives Akuru
Dhives Akuru, later called Dhivehi Akuru (meaning "letters" letters) is a script formerly used for the Maldivian language. The name can be alternatively spelled Dives Akuru or Divehi Akuru, as the "d" is unaspirated.
History
Dhives Akuru d ...
("Dhivehi/Maldivian letters") which are written from left to right. Dhives Akuru were used in all of the islands between the conversion to Islam and until the 18th century. These ancient Maldivian letters were also used in official correspondence with Addu Atoll until the early 20th century. Perhaps they were used in some isolated islands and rural communities until the 1960s, but the last remaining native user died in the 1990s. Today Maldivians rarely learn the Dhives Akuru alphabet, for Arabic is favoured as the second script.
Maldivian is now written using a different script, called Taana or Thaana, written from right to left. This script is relatively recent.
The literacy rate of the Maldives is very high (98%) compared to other South Asian countries. Since the 1960s English has become the medium of education in most schools although they still have Maldivian language classes, but Maldivian is still the language used for the overall administration.
Maldivian uses mainly the Thaana script for writing. It is an
alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...
, with obligatory vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic abjad. It is a largely
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
script: With a few minor exceptions, spelling can be predicted from pronunciation, and pronunciation from spelling.
The origins of Thaana are unique among the world's alphabets: The first nine letters (h–v) are derived from the Arabic numerals, whereas the next nine (m–d) were the local Indic numerals. (See Hindu–Arabic numerals.) The remaining letters for loanwords (t–z) and Arabic transliteration are derived from phonetically similar native consonants by means of diacritics, with the exception of y (), which is derived from combining an () and a (). This means that Thaana is one of the few alphabets not derived graphically from the original Semitic alphabet – unless the Indic numerals were (see
Brahmi numeral
The Brahmi numerals are a numeral system attested from the 3rd century BCE (somewhat later in the case of most of the tens). They are a non positional decimal system. They are the direct graphic ancestors of the modern Hindu–Arabic numeral s ...
s). The Thaana alphabet (, ...) does not follow the ancient order of the other Indic scripts (like or Tamil) or the order of the Arabic alphabet.
Thaana, like Arabic, is written
right to left
In a script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, Kashmiri ...
. It indicates vowels with diacritic marks derived from Arabic. Each letter must carry either a vowel or a ''
sukun
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
'', which indicates "no vowel". The only exception to this rule is which, when written without a diacritic, indicates prenasalisation of a following
stop
Stop may refer to:
Places
* Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
.
The
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s are written with diacritical signs called . There are five for short vowels (a, i, u, e, o), with the first three being identical to the Arabic vowel signs ( and ). Long vowels (aa, ee, oo, ey, oa) are denoted by doubled , except oa, which is a modification of the short .
The letter represents the
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
. It has three different purposes:
It can act as a carrier for a vowe
, that is, a word-initial vowel or the second part of a
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
; when it carries a , it indicates
gemination
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
of the following consonant; and if + occurs at the end of a word, it indicates that the word ends in a glottal stop. Gemination of nasals, however, is indicated by + preceding the nasal to be geminated.
Maldivian is also written in "
Malé Latin
Dhivehi Latin or Maldivian Latin, known colloquially as Malé Latin or Nasiri Latin, is a Latin Maldivian alphabet briefly mandated in the Maldives from 1976, but the country reverted to the native Thaana and Arabic alphabets in 1978. Maldivian Lat ...
" (most commonly used, such as when romanising place names).
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
transliteration is also sometimes used, and also the
Devanāgarī
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...
script (almost never used in Maldives, but used in
Minicoy
Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on ''Maliku atoll'', the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian union territory of ...
telex
The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...
machines in the local administration. This was viewed as great progress, but the local Thaana script was deemed to be an obstacle because messages on the telex machines could only be written in the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
.
Following this, in 1976 the government approved a new official Latin transliteration, Dhivehi Latin, which was quickly implemented by the administration. Booklets were printed and dispatched to all Atoll and Island Offices, as well as schools and merchant liners. This was seen by many as the effective demise of the Thaana script. Clarence Maloney, an American anthropologist who was in the Maldives at the time of the change, lamented the inconsistencies of the "Dhivehi Latin" which ignored all previous linguistic research on the Maldivian language done by H.C.P. Bell and Wilhelm Geiger. He wondered why the modern Standard Indic transliteration had not been considered. Standard Indic is a consistent script system that is well adapted to writing practically all languages of South Asia.Clarence Maloney. ''People of the Maldive Islands''
The government reinstated the Thaana script shortly after President Maumoon took power in 1978. There was widespread relief in certain places, especially rural areas, where the introduction of Latin had been regarded with suspicion. However, the Latin transcription of 1976 continues to be widely used.
Dictionary
The 412-page hard-back English–Maldivian dictionary, ''A Maldivian Dictionary'', written by
Christopher Hanby Baillie Reynolds Christopher Hanby Baillie Reynolds (29 July 19223 April 2015) was the first British academic to study the Maldivian language.
He wrote the first ''English-Maldivian dictionary'': this complied with the Maldive Government's 1970's then Roman-transl ...
, was published on 22 July 2003 by
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
and contains about 5000 individual entries.
Phonology
The sound system of Maldivian is similar to that of Dravidian languages. Like other modern Indo-Aryan languages the Maldivian phonemic inventory shows an opposition of long and short vowels, of dental and retroflex consonants, and of single and
geminate
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
consonants.
# is the vowel sign denoting "a".
# is the vowel sign denoting "i".
# is the vowel sign denoting "u".
# is the signdenoting absence of a vowel.
* has developed as an independent phoneme from the diphthong .
* The short open back vowel is phonetically central .
Grammar
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns in Maldivian inflect for
definiteness
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
, number and case. Definiteness may be one of ''definite'', ''indefinite'' or ''unspecified''. Number may be ''singular'' or ''plural''. Case may be one of ''
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
'', ''
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
'', ''
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...
'', ''
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
'', ''
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
'', ''
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
The nominal system of Maldivian comprises nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals as parts of speech.
Numerals
Maldivian uses two numeral systems. Both of them are identical up to 30. After 30, however, one system places the unit numeral stem before the decade, for example, '31' ( "one and thirty") while the other combines the stem of the decade with the unit numeral, for example, '31' ("thirty + one"). The latter system also has numerals multiplied by ten for decades 70, 80 and 90. The decade '60' ("five twelves"), comes from a much older
duodecimal
The duodecimal system (also known as base 12, dozenal, or, rarely, uncial) is a positional notation numeral system using twelve as its base. The number twelve (that is, the number written as "12" in the decimal numerical system) is instead wri ...
, or dozen-based, system which has nearly disappeared.
Verbal morphology
The Maldivian verbal system is characterised by a derivational relationship between active, causative and involitive/intransitive verb forms.
Word order
The
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
in Maldivian is not as rigid as in English, though changes in the order of words in a sentence may convey subtle differences in meaning. To ask for some fish in a market, one uses the following words: (to me) (fish) (sell), which may be put in any of the following orders without a change in meaning:
: .
:to me fish sell
: .
:fish to me sell
: .
:fish sell to me
The word (to me) may be dropped wherever the context makes it obvious.
Loan words
Speakers of Maldivian use a great many loan words from many languages in their everyday conversation (see §
Vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
). The extent to which loan words are used varies between speakers, depending on their contacts with that language. Thus, those who have had an English education will tend to use a larger number of English words, while an average speaker with little or no contact with English will tend to use just a few. Some of these adopted words have now become so much part of the Maldivian language that there seem to be no other words that could replace them.
There are different ways by which loan words are naturalised in Maldivian. This depends on whether the loan word refers to a person, a thing, or some kind of action.
Words referring to persons
If the loan word refers to a person, the following suffixes can be used:
* or no suffix:
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
singular
* : indefinite
* : plural
: waiter () + u = the waiter ()
: waiter () + eh = a waiter ()
: waiter () + un = waiters ()
Among some of the most common words of this kind are the following:
actor (),
agent (),
ambassador (),
architect (),
bodyguard (),
cashier (),
director (),
doctor (),
driver (),
guard (),
inspector (),
manager (),
minister (),
operator (),
producer (),
sergeant (),
servant ()
Words referring to things
If the loan word refers to a thing, the suffixes are
* :
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
singular
* : indefinite singular
* : plural
: car () + = the car ()
: car () + = a car ()
: car () + = cars ()
Some of the most commonly used words of this kind are the following:
bicycle (),
bill (),
cable (),
cake (),
coat (),
counter (),
parcel (),
ticket ()
Words referring to actions
If the loan word refers to some kind of action, the Maldivian word (present), (present continuous), (present perfect), (past) or (future) is added after it, if it is done intentionally, and (present), (present continuous), (present perfect), (past) and (future) is added after it, if it happens to be unintentional or passive. For example, using "cancel":
: + = cancel (as an order)
: + = canceling
: + = has been cancelled/cancelled
: + = cancelled
: + = will cancel
: + = canceling (on its own) i.e. getting cancelled
: + = cancelled (on its own) i.e. got cancelled
: + = will cancel (on its own) i.e. will get cancelled
Some examples:
: book () = booking
Levels of speech
Inherent in the Maldivian language is a form of elaborate class distinction expressed through three levels: The highest level, the , formerly used to address members of the royal family, is now commonly used to show respect. People use the second level and third level in everyday life.
Vocabulary
Maldivian contains many
loan word
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
s from other languages.
Word origins
After the arrival of
Islam in South Asia
Islam is the second-largest religion in South Asia, with more than 600 million Muslims living there, forming about one-third of the region's population. History of Islam in South Asia started along the coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent a ...
, Persian and Arabic made a significant impact on Maldivian. It borrowed extensively from both languages, especially terms related to Islam and the judiciary. Some examples follow:
* ' – "prayer" (from Persian ')
* ' – "fasting" (from Persian ')
* ' – "table" (from Persian ')
* ' – "non-believer" (from Arabic ')
* ' – "date" or "history" (from Arabic ')
* ' – "giraffe" (from Arabic ')
French origin
* – "tickle tickle"
Portuguese influence in the language can be seen from the period of Portuguese colonial power in the region:
* ' – "hunting spear" (from Portuguese ')
Maldivian has also borrowed words from
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms).
English words are also commonly used in the spoken language, for example "phone", "note", "radio", and ' ("shorts").
Some common phrases
Sample
The following is a sample text in Maldivian, Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...
(by the United Nations):
Transliteration ( Male Latin):
: ''
Gloss (word-for-word):
:Article 1 – ''All'' human-beings also born, ranking and rights' in freedom and equality acquired people like is. Them to reason and conscience's endowment acquired is. And they one another to behaviour to do brotherhood's spirit with.
Translation (grammatical):
:Article 1 – All human beings are born free and equal in ranking and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Information technology
Typography
Founded in 1984, the Mahal Unit Press at
Minicoy
Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on ''Maliku atoll'', the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian union territory of ...
prints texts in Maldivian, among other languages. The press also publishes the ''Lakshadweep Times'' in three languages on a regular basis: Maldivian, English and
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
. This unit is based in the main building, constructed in 1998. For the first time in the history of Lakshadweep, Maldivian was brought into the field of typography.
Activities:
* Production of note books for the department of Education and Jawahar Navodaya School at Minicoy.
* Printing Maldivian textbooks for Standards I to IV.
* Undertaking printing work from the public on a payment basis.
Fonts
Freely downloadable
open-source Unicode typefaces
There are Unicode typefaces which are open-source and designed to contain glyphs of all Unicode characters, or at least a broad selection of Unicode scripts. There are also numerous projects aimed at providing only a certain script, such as the A ...
featuring Thaana letters include
FreeSerif
GNU FreeFont (also known as Free UCS Outline Fonts) is a family of free OpenType, TrueType and WOFF vector fonts, implementing as much of the Universal Character Set (UCS) as possible, aside from the very large CJK Asian character set. The pr ...
and MPH 2B Damase.
Text editors
A variety of word processors are used to write Maldivian. Among them, the most popular is
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms includin ...