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45-430: Burunee ( Dhivehi : ބުރުނީ) is one of the inhabited islands of Thaa Atoll . The island is 184.29 km (115 mi; 100 nmi) south of the country's capital, Malé . This Maldives location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Dhivehi language Dhivehi or Divehi ( / d ɪ ˈ v eɪ h i / di- VAY -hee ; Dhivehi: ދިވެހި , IPA: [d̪iʋehi] ),

90-602: A vaavu ( ވ ). 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 numerals ). The Thaana alphabet ( hā, shaviyani, nūnu, rā, bā , ...) does not follow the ancient order of the other Indic scripts (like Tamil) or the order of the Arabic alphabet. Thaana, like Arabic, is written right to left . It indicates vowels with diacritic marks derived from Arabic. Each letter must carry either

135-520: A noonu at the end of a word, it indicates a velar nasal. 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 ("Dhivehi/Maldivian letters") which are written from left to right. Dhives Akuru were used in all of

180-436: A fact which was important because they had to be read in a different tone. The Thaana script was reinstated by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom shortly after he took power in 1978. sound reintroduced via Arabic without Maldivian equivalent Note: Some Arabic sounds were written as they are pronounced by Maldivians , and they are shown in curly brackets in this table. Being able to master and combine both Arabic and Thaana

225-581: A glottal stop. Gemination of nasals, however, is indicated by noonu + sukun preceding the nasal to be geminated. Maldivian is also written in " Malé Latin " (most commonly used, such as when romanising place names). IAST transliteration is also sometimes used, and also the Devanāgarī script (almost never used in Maldives, but used in Minicoy ) Towards the mid-1970s, during President Ibrahim Nasir 's tenure,

270-980: A slight variation in speech.Such as the huvadhu accent which from islands from thinadhoo to gadhoo have differences even though it's the same accent 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 consonants but no aspirates. Nouns in Maldivian inflect for definiteness , number and case. Definiteness may be one of definite, indefinite or unspecified. Number may be singular or plural. Case may be one of nominative , dative , ablative , genitive , locative , instrumental or emphatic . The nominal system of Maldivian comprises nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals as parts of speech. Maldivian uses two numeral systems. Both of them are identical up to 30. After 30, however, one system places

315-504: A subgroup within the modern Indo-Aryan languages, called Insular Indo-Aryan . However, they are not mutually intelligible. Maldivian and Sinhalese are descended from the Elu Prakrit of ancient and medieval Sri Lanka. These Prakrits were originally derived from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars related to Vedic Sanskrit . Whereas formerly Maldivian was thought to be a descendant of Sinhalese, in 1969 Sinhalese philologist M. W. S. de Silva for

360-447: A very small group of Maldivians belonging to the elite were familiar with written English in 1977. Anthropologist Clarence Maloney notes that the use of th and dh to represent unaspirated dental consonants but lh for retroflex l is confusing and misleading, as in IAST , the most common transcription method for Indic languages, the first two would be read as aspirated consonants and

405-549: A vowel or a sukun , which indicates "no vowel". The only exception to this rule is noonu which, when written without a diacritic, indicates prenasalisation of a following stop . The vowels are written with diacritical signs called fili . There are five fili for short vowels (a, i, u, e, o), with the first three being identical to the Arabic vowel signs ( fatha, kasra and damma ). Long vowels (aa, ee, oo, ey, oa) are denoted by doubled fili , except oa, which

450-541: Is a consistent script system that is well adapted to writing almost all languages of South Asia. However, this scheme lacks a few sounds used in Maldivian. ISO 15919 has been used by Xavier Romero-Frias to romanize Maldivian in his book The Maldive Islanders - A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom . The government reinstated the Thaana script shortly after President Maumoon took power in 1978. There

495-400: Is a mark to indicate an abrupt stop (vowel deletion) on the sound of the letter on which it is placed. However, if it is on a shaviyani or alif and comes within the word, the following consonant is geminated; if it comes on a shaviyani or alif at the end of a word, it signifies the glottal stop; if it comes on a thaa , the sound is replaced by a y off-glide; if it comes on

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540-413: Is a modification of the short obofili . The letter alifu represents the glottal stop . It has three different purposes: It can act as a carrier for a vowel, that is, a word-initial vowel or the second part of a diphthong ; when it carries a sukun , it indicates gemination of the following consonant; and if alifu + sukun occurs at the end of a word, it indicates that the word ends in

585-559: Is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the South Asian island country of Maldives and on Minicoy Island , Lakshadweep , a union territory of India . The Maldivian language has four notable dialects. The standard dialect is that of the capital city of Malé . The greatest dialectal variation exists in the southern atolls of Huvadhu , Addu and Fuvahmulah . Each of these atolls has its own distinct dialect often thought to be interconnected with each other while being widely different from

630-540: 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 which is written from right to left , like Arabic (with which it shares several common diacritics for vowel sounds). The foundation of

675-466: Is characterised by a derivational relationship between active, causative and involitive/intransitive verb forms. The word order 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: mashah (to me) mas (fish) vikkaa (sell), which may be put in any of

720-411: 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

765-400: Is still the language used for the overall administration. Maldivian uses mainly the Thaana script for writing. It is an alphabet , with obligatory vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic abjad . It is a largely phonemic script: With a few minor exceptions, spelling can be predicted from pronunciation, and pronunciation from spelling. The origins of Thaana are unique among

810-536: The telex machines could be written only in the Latin script . Following this, a Latin transliteration not done by experts in linguistics was swiftly approved by the Maldive government in 1976 and 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 official Latin script has been criticized by several scholars because

855-425: The union territory of Lakshadweep , India. 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 , Fuvahmulah and Addu . The other variants show less difference to the official dialect, including

900-456: 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

945-527: The Maldives. Dhivehi is written in Thaana script. Dhivehi is a descendant of Elu Prakrit and is closely related to Sinhalese , but not mutually intelligible with it. Many languages have influenced the development of Dhivehi through the ages. They include Arabic , Hindi , Persian , Tamil , French , Portuguese , and English . The English words atoll (a ring of coral islands or reefs) and dhoni (a vessel for inter-atoll navigation) are anglicised forms of

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990-532: The Maldivian government introduced telex 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 . 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

1035-513: The Maldivian words atoḷu and dōni . Before European colonization of the Southern Hemisphere, it was the southernmost Indo-European language. The origin of the word "Divehi" is from older divu-vesi , meaning "island dwelling". Divu (from Sanskrit द्वीप dvīpa , 'island') later became ދޫ dū , which is currently present in many names of Maldivian islands, such as Hanimādū , Mīdū , and Dāndū . Vesi came from

1080-450: The Sanskrit suffix -वासिन् -vāsin and later became ވެހި vehi . ބަސް bas (from Sanskrit भाषा bhāṣā ) means "language", so ދިވެހިބަސް dhivehi bas means "islanders' language". Wilhelm Geiger , a German linguist who undertook the first research on Maldivian linguistics in the early 20th century, also called the language Divehi . An h was added to

1125-434: The addition of ve , which is never used to end a sentence in spoken Maldivian. In using ve 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 ’ on the letters alif and shaviyani . Sukun in general

1170-557: 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". However, the Huvadhu Atoll dialect is characterized by

1215-408: The dialect spoken in the northern atolls. The southern dialects are so distinct that those only speaking northern dialects cannot understand them. The ethnic endonym for the language, Divehi , is occasionally found in English as Dhivehi (spelled according to the locally used Malé Latin for the romanisation of the Maldivian language), which is the official spelling as well as the common usage in

1260-523: The dialects spoken in a few islands in Kolhumadulu Atoll and the now obsolete dialect once spoken in Giraavaru , which are hardly recognised and known. The letter Ṇaviyani (ޱ), which represented the retroflex n sound common to many Indic languages ( Gujarati , Hindi , etc.), was abolished from official documents in by Muhammad Amin in 1950. Ṇaviyani's former position in the Thaana alphabet, between

1305-732: 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

1350-406: The first time proposed that Maldivian and Sinhalese had branched off from a common mother language. The following are some phonological features shared by Sinhala, or unique to Maldivian: The earliest official writings were on the lōmāfānu (copper-plate grants ) of the 12th and 13th centuries. Earlier inscriptions on coral stone have also been found. The oldest inscription found to date

1395-582: The following orders without a change in meaning: mashah to.me Mal%C3%A9 Latin Maldivians traditionally used two alphabets simultaneously, the Tāna script for Maldivian and the Arabic script for Arabic. All learned Maldivians were well versed in the Quran and Arabic was the first script they learned in childhood. This was followed by their local script, Thaana, in which there were not many books printed, but that

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1440-441: 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)". Maldivian presents another aspect with which English speakers are not too familiar: diglossia ,

1485-487: The historical linguistic analysis of both Maldivian and Sinhalese was laid by Wilhelm Geiger (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

1530-455: 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

1575-489: The latter, which is instead a retroflex, as an aspirated "l". The new romanization also used aberrant combinations of letters and apostrophes for some Arabic sounds, effectively ignoring the Arabic transliterations accepted in academic circles worldwide. Maldivian officials were used to read Arabic since childhood, as the religious education had precedence over the secular one. In documents which contained only one script, it became harder to identify religious Arabic quotations,

1620-509: 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 Boḍu Tarutību and official documents like the Rādavaḷi . 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

1665-537: The name of the language— "Dhivehi"— in 1976, when the semi-official transliteration called Malé Latin was developed. Today the spelling with Dh has common and semi-official usage in the Maldives. Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka . Maldivian represents the southernmost Indo-Aryan language, as well as the southernmost Indo-European language prior to European colonization. Maldivian and Sinhalese together constitute

1710-579: The time of Rajiv Gandhi 's rule, was reprinted by Spanish researcher Xavier Romero Frías 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 Salahuddin . Maldivian is spoken in the Maldives and a variation of it in Minicoy . Maldivian is the official language of the Maldives and a semi-official language in

1755-513: The transliteration of vowels did not follow the consistency of the Thaana alphabet and was more difficult to master for Maldivian learners. In the Maldivian alphabet there is one single diacritical sign (fili) for 'a' 'e' 'i' and 'u', and this single sign is repeated when the sound is lengthened. In the new romanization only one of the short vowels is consistent with the way of the traditional script " aa ", but most long vowels " oo ", " ee ", " ey " and " oa " are pronounced as in English. However, only

1800-480: The unit numeral stem before the decade, for example, eh-thirees '31' ( lit. "one and thirty") while the other combines the stem of the decade with the unit numeral, for example, thirees-ekeh '31' ("thirty + one"). The latter system also has numerals multiplied by ten for decades 70, 80 and 90. The decade fas dholhas '60' ("five twelves"), comes from a much older duodecimal , or dozen-based, system which has nearly disappeared. The Maldivian verbal system

1845-435: 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 ( ޔ ), which is derived from combining an alifu ( އ ) and

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1890-526: Was a prerequisite to be a Katību , Mudimu or Atoll chief. The weekly Khutubā or Friday prayer sermon , was sent by the government to every inhabited island, and it was written in both scripts, because it contained texts both in Arabic and Maldivian languages. Even other documents of the time, like private letters, astrological writings or storybooks contained texts, in which both scripts were present, because not only quotations from Islamic religious texts, but also certain loanwords of Arabic origin (for example

1935-463: Was important for official use. Therefore, the primary knowledge of the letters was called Arabitāna . Toward the mid-1970s, during President Ibrahim Nasir 's tenure, telex machines were introduced by the Maldivian Government in the local administration. The new telex equipment was viewed as a great progress, however the local Thaana script was deemed to be an obstacle because messages on

1980-423: 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

2025-508: 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. The 412-page hard-back English–Maldivian dictionary, A Maldivian Dictionary , written by Christopher Hanby Baillie Reynolds , was published on 22 July 2003 by Routledge and contains about 5000 individual entries. Different islands due to distance have

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