Eḷa , also Elu , Hela or Helu Prakrit , was a Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE, that was used in Sri Lanka . It was ancestral to the Sinhalese and Dhivehi languages.
70-488: Dhivehi or Divehi ( / d ɪ ˈ v eɪ h i / di- VAY -hee ; Dhivehi: ދިވެހި , IPA: [d̪iʋehi] ), 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
140-602: 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
210-525: A lexicostatistical study of the New Indo-Aryan languages based on a 100-word Swadesh list , using techniques developed by the glottochronologist and comparative linguist Sergei Starostin . That grouping system is notable for Kogan's exclusion of Dardic from Indo-Aryan on the basis of his previous studies showing low lexical similarity to Indo-Aryan (43.5%) and negligible difference with similarity to Iranian (39.3%). He also calculated Sinhala–Dhivehi to be
280-520: 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
350-783: 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 east of the Indus river in Bangladesh , North India , Eastern Pakistan , Sri Lanka , Maldives and Nepal . Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent , large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe , Western Asia , North America ,
420-580: 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,
490-980: 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
560-493: A standardised and Sanskritised register of Dehlavi , is the official language of the Government of India (along with English ). Together with Urdu , it is the third most-spoken language in the world. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Magadhan languages, are spoken throughout the eastern subcontinent, including Odisha and Bihar , alongside other regions surrounding the northwestern Himalayan corridor. Bengali
630-561: A still older, Sĕla, which brings us back to the Pali Sîhala. The Pali scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids refers to Eḷu as "the Prakrit of Ceylon". The Hela Havula are a modern Sri Lankan literary organization that advocate the use of Eḷu terms over Sanskritisms . Eḷu is often referred to by modern Sinhalese as amisra , Sanskrit and Sinhalese term for "unmixed". A feature of Eḷu is its preference for short vowels , loss of aspiration and
700-613: A subfamily of Indo-Aryan. The Dardic group as a genetic grouping (rather than areal) has been scrutinised and questioned to a degree by recent scholarship: Southworth, for example, says "the viability of Dardic as a genuine subgroup of Indo-Aryan is doubtful" and "the similarities among [Dardic languages] may result from subsequent convergence". The Dardic languages are thought to be transitional with Punjabi and Pahari (e.g. Zoller describes Kashmiri as "an interlink between Dardic and West Pahāṛī"), as well as non-Indo-Aryan Nuristani; and are renowned for their relatively conservative features in
770-503: 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
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#1732851573333840-549: 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
910-540: 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
980-400: 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
1050-413: 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
1120-539: 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
1190-466: 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
1260-586: Is dear" (Mayrhofer II 182), Priyamazda ( priiamazda ) as Priyamedha "whose wisdom is dear" (Mayrhofer II 189, II378), Citrarata as Citraratha "whose chariot is shining" (Mayrhofer I 553), Indaruda/Endaruta as Indrota "helped by Indra " (Mayrhofer I 134), Shativaza ( šattiṷaza ) as Sātivāja "winning the race price" (Mayrhofer II 540, 696), Šubandhu as Subandhu "having good relatives" (a name in Palestine , Mayrhofer II 209, 735), Tushratta ( tṷišeratta, tušratta , etc.) as *tṷaiašaratha, Vedic Tvastar "whose chariot
1330-410: 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
1400-650: Is in many cases somewhat arbitrary. The classification of the Indo-Aryan languages is controversial, with many transitional areas that are assigned to different branches depending on classification. There are concerns that a tree model is insufficient for explaining the development of New Indo-Aryan, with some scholars suggesting the wave model . The following table of proposals is expanded from Masica (1991) (from Hoernlé to Turner), and also includes subsequent classification proposals. The table lists only some modern Indo-Aryan languages. Anton I. Kogan , in 2016, conducted
1470-399: 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
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#17328515733331540-577: Is suggested that "proto-Munda" languages may have once dominated the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain , and were then absorbed by Indo-Aryan languages at an early date as Indo-Aryan spread east. Marathi-Konkani languages are ultimately descended from Maharashtri Prakrit , whereas Insular Indo-Aryan languages are descended from Elu Prakrit and possess several characteristics that markedly distinguish them from most of their mainland Indo-Aryan counterparts. Insular Indo-Aryan languages (of Sri Lanka and Maldives ) started developing independently and diverging from
1610-422: Is the earliest stage of the Indo-Aryan branch, from which all known languages of the later stages Middle and New Indo-Aryan are derived, some documented Middle Indo-Aryan variants cannot fully be derived from the documented form of Old Indo-Aryan (on which Vedic and Classical Sanskrit are based), but betray features that must go back to other undocumented dialects of Old Indo-Aryan. Elu R. C. Childers, in
1680-604: Is the official language of Gujarat , and is spoken by over 50 million people. In Europe, various Romani languages are spoken by the Romani people , an itinerant community who historically migrated from India. The Western Indo-Aryan languages are thought to have diverged from their northwestern counterparts, although they have a common antecedent in Shauraseni Prakrit . Within India, Central Indo-Aryan languages are spoken primarily in
1750-562: Is the seventh most-spoken language in the world, and has a strong literary tradition; the national anthems of India and Bangladesh are written in Bengali. Assamese and Odia are the official languages of Assam and Odisha , respectively. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Magadhan Apabhraṃśa and ultimately from Magadhi Prakrit . Eastern Indo-Aryan languages display many morphosyntactic features similar to those of Munda languages , while western Indo-Aryan languages do not. It
1820-643: Is vehement" (Mayrhofer, Etym. Wb., I 686, I 736). The earliest evidence of the group is from Vedic Sanskrit , that is used in the ancient preserved texts of the Indian subcontinent , the foundational canon of the Hindu synthesis known as the Vedas . The Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni is of similar age to the language of the Rigveda , but the only evidence of it is a few proper names and specialized loanwords. While Old Indo-Aryan
1890-731: The Caribbean , Southeast Africa , Polynesia and Australia , along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe . There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Old Indo-Aryan languages such as early Vedic Sanskrit , through Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Prakrits ). The largest such languages in terms of first-speakers are Hindi–Urdu ( c. 330 million ), Bengali (242 million), Punjabi (about 150 million), Marathi (112 million), and Gujarati (60 million). A 2005 estimate placed
1960-616: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , states: [Elu] is the name by which is known an ancient form of the Sinhala language from which the modern vernacular of Ceylon is immediately received, and to which the latter bears is of the same relation that the English of today bears to Anglo-Saxon...The name Elu is no other than Sinhala much succeeded, standing for an older form, Hĕla or Hĕlu, which occurs in some ancient works, and this again for
2030-425: 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
2100-455: 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
2170-579: 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
Maldivian language - Misplaced Pages Continue
2240-512: 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
2310-718: The Mittani are either in Hurrian (which appears to have been the predominant language of their kingdom) or Akkadian (the main diplomatic language of the Late Bronze Age Near East), these apparently Indo-Aryan names suggest that an Indo-Aryan elite imposed itself over the Hurrians in the course of the Indo-Aryan expansion . If these traces are Indo-Aryan, they would be the earliest known direct evidence of Indo-Aryan, and would increase
2380-450: 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
2450-559: The above-mentioned deposit, the capital should be left unspent and from the interest received, the expenses for two and a half hakaḍas of boiled rice, atarakaja, dishes taken with atarakaja, curd, honey, sweets, sesame, butter (?), salt, green herbs, and turmeric should be given at the refectory of the monastery, . . . Meva [taka] veḍhavataka geṇa vanaya va[na]ya atovasahi Nikamaniya-cada puṇamasa doḷasa-paka-divasa [a]riyavasa karana maha-bikusagah⸗aṭa niyata koṭu Yahisapava[ta-na]-va-vaherakahi dini. [Lines 14–17] [The above] were granted to
2520-434: 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
2590-696: The aforesaid two hakaḍas and ten amaṇas of paddy, the interest at the principal harvest (piṭadaḍa hasa), the interest at the secondary harvest and the interest at the intermediate harvest [amount to] twenty-five amaṇas of paddy. Of the aforesaid six amaṇas of udi, the interest is one amaṇas and two pekaḍas of udi. Of the aforesaid ten amaṇas of beans, the interest is two amaṇas and two pekaḍas of beans. Me vataka-vaṇahi gahe kiṇiya ciṭa-vaya veḍha geṇa tiṇaḍa hakaṭa dana-vaṭa ica atarakajaka-vaṭa ica atarakaja-(pari)kara-yapeni ica di miya-vaṭa peṇi tila ica bunatela ica loṇa ica palaha-vaṭa ica veṭayala ica vahera . . ga sara pa . . pacanahi miliya padiya ica [Lines 10–14] Of
2660-599: The context of Proto-Indo-Aryan . The Northern Indo-Aryan languages , also known as the Pahari ('hill') languages, are spoken throughout the Himalayan regions of the subcontinent. Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in the northwestern region of India and eastern region of Pakistan. Punjabi is spoken predominantly in the Punjab region and is the official language of the northern Indian state of Punjab , in addition to being
2730-463: The continental Indo-Aryan languages from around 5th century BCE. The following languages are otherwise unclassified within Indo-Aryan: Dates indicate only a rough time frame. Proto-Indo-Aryan (or sometimes Proto-Indic ) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is intended to reconstruct the language of the pre-Vedic Indo-Aryans . Proto-Indo-Aryan is meant to be
2800-556: 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
2870-522: 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
Maldivian language - Misplaced Pages Continue
2940-732: 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
3010-404: 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
3080-583: The following orders without a change in meaning: mashah to.me Indo-Aryan languages Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes simply Indic languages ) are
3150-441: 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 ,
3220-487: 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
3290-405: The horse race). The numeral aika "one" is of particular importance because it places the superstrate in the vicinity of Indo-Aryan proper as opposed to Indo-Iranian in general or early Iranian (which has aiva ). Another text has babru ( babhru , "brown"), parita ( palita , "grey"), and pinkara ( pingala , "red"). Their chief festival was the celebration of the solstice ( vishuva ) which
3360-455: 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
3430-509: 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
3500-670: The locally used Malé Latin for the romanisation of the Maldivian language), which is the official spelling as well as the common usage in 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
3570-502: The most divergent Indo-Aryan branch. Nevertheless, the modern consensus of Indo-Aryan linguists tends towards the inclusion of Dardic based on morphological and grammatical features. The Inner–Outer hypothesis argues for a core and periphery of Indo-Aryan languages, with Outer Indo-Aryan (generally including Eastern and Southern Indo-Aryan, and sometimes Northwestern Indo-Aryan, Dardic and Pahari ) representing an older stratum of Old Indo-Aryan that has been mixed to varying degrees with
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#17328515733333640-572: The most widely-spoken language in Pakistan. Sindhi and its variants are spoken natively in the Pakistani province of Sindh and neighbouring regions. Northwestern languages are ultimately thought to be descended from Shauraseni Prakrit , with influence from Persian and Arabic . Western Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in central and western India, in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan , in addition to contiguous regions in Pakistan. Gujarati
3710-537: 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
3780-536: The newer stratum that is Inner Indo-Aryan. It is a contentious proposal with a long history, with varying degrees of claimed phonological and morphological evidence. Since its proposal by Rudolf Hoernlé in 1880 and refinement by George Grierson it has undergone numerous revisions and a great deal of debate, with the most recent iteration by Franklin Southworth and Claus Peter Zoller based on robust linguistic evidence (particularly an Outer past tense in -l- ). Some of
3850-641: The precision in dating the split between the Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages (as the texts in which the apparent Indicisms occur can be dated with some accuracy). In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, the deities Mitra , Varuna , Indra , and the Ashvins ( Nasatya ) are invoked. Kikkuli 's horse training text includes technical terms such as aika (cf. Sanskrit eka , "one"), tera ( tri , "three"), panza ( panca , "five"), satta ( sapta , seven), na ( nava , "nine"), vartana ( vartana , "turn", round in
3920-567: The predecessor of Old Indo-Aryan (1500–300 BCE), which is directly attested as Vedic and Mitanni-Aryan . Despite the great archaicity of Vedic, however, the other Indo-Aryan languages preserve a small number of conservative features lost in Vedic . Some theonyms, proper names, and other terminology of the Late Bronze Age Mitanni civilization of Upper Mesopotamia exhibit an Indo-Aryan superstrate. While what few written records left by
3990-477: The prevalence of these transformations, it is not always possible to tell whether a given Eḷu word is a part of the old Prakrit lexicon, or a transformed borrowing from Sanskrit. At the beginning of a word only a single consonant can remain In the middle of a word no group may exceed one consonant Si! Puviya Mahasena-maharajaha puta Sarimekavaṇa-Aba-maha-rajaha cata legi-taka tiṇavanaka-vasahi. [Lines 1–2] Hail! In
4060-428: The reduction of compound consonants found frequently in other Prakrits such as Pali . Being a Prakrit, Eḷu is closely related to other Prakrits such as Pali. Indeed, a very large proportion of Eḷu word-stems are identical in form to Pali. The connections were sufficiently well known that technical terms from Pali and Sanskrit were easily converted into Eḷu by a set of conventional phonological transformations. Because of
4130-458: 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 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
4200-688: The stipulation that the capital should] neither be spent nor decreased, by Devaya the son of Sivaya, a member of the Council of Ministers, residing at the village of Kaḍubala, with the assembly of the merchants’ guild at Kaḷahumana [situated] in the northern quarter of the city; and were granted for the purpose of conducting the holy vassa in the new monastery of Yahisapavaya. Me de hakaḍa dasa a-maṇaka vi piṭadaḍa-hasahi veḍa akala-hasahi veḍha ma-de-hasahi veḍha pacavisiya amaṇaka vi ica me sa amaṇaka udihi veḍha eka amaṇa de pekaḍaka udi ica dasa amaṇaka bayalihi veḍha de a-maṇa de pekaḍaka bayali ica. [Lines 6–10] Of
4270-541: The theory's skeptics include Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Colin P. Masica . The below classification follows Masica (1991) , and Kausen (2006) . Percentage of Indo-Aryan speakers by native language: The Dardic languages (also Dardu or Pisaca) are a group of Indo-Aryan languages largely spoken in the northwestern extremities of the Indian subcontinent. Dardic was first formulated by George Abraham Grierson in his Linguistic Survey of India but he did not consider it to be
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#17328515733334340-576: 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
4410-523: The time of the third year after the raising of the umbrella by the great king Sirimekavaṇa Aba son of the great king Mahasena. Nakarahi utarapasahi Kaḷahumanaka-niya-matanahi siya aviya⸗kiṇiyeni nikata Kaḍubalagamakehi vasanaka - Ameti-paheja-Sivaya-ha puta-Devayaha Yahisapavaya-nava-vaherakehi dina ariyavasa vaṭavi de hakaḍa dasa amaṇaka vi ica sa amaṇaka udi ica bayali dasa amaṇa ica. [Lines 2–6] Two hakaḍas (cartloads) and ten amaṇas of paddy, six amaṇas of udi and ten amaṇas of beans were deposited [with
4480-402: The total number of native speakers of the Indo-Aryan languages at nearly 900 million people. Other estimates are higher suggesting a figure of 1.5 billion speakers of Indo-Aryan languages. The Indo-Aryan family as a whole is thought to represent a dialect continuum , where languages are often transitional towards neighboring varieties. Because of this, the division into languages vs. dialects
4550-480: 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
4620-546: The western Gangetic plains , including Delhi and parts of the Central Highlands , where they are often transitional with neighbouring lects. Many of these languages, including Braj and Awadhi , have rich literary and poetic traditions. Urdu , a Persianised derivative of Dehlavi descended from Shauraseni Prakrit , is the official language of Pakistan and also has strong historical connections to India , where it also has been designated with official status. Hindi ,
4690-435: 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
4760-582: Was common in most cultures in the ancient world. The Mitanni warriors were called marya , the term for "warrior" in Sanskrit as well; note mišta-nnu (= miẓḍha , ≈ Sanskrit mīḍha ) "payment (for catching a fugitive)" (M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen , Heidelberg, 1986–2000; Vol. II:358). Sanskritic interpretations of Mitanni royal names render Artashumara ( artaššumara ) as Ṛtasmara "who thinks of Ṛta " (Mayrhofer II 780), Biridashva ( biridašṷa, biriiašṷ a) as Prītāśva "whose horse
4830-423: 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
4900-508: 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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