The Maldivian language has four notable dialects. The standard dialect is that of the capital city ofMalé. The greatest dialectal variation exists in the southern atolls ofHuvadhu,Addu andFuvahmulah. 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.[8]
The ethnic endonym for the language,Divehi, is occasionally found in English asDhivehi (spelled according to the locally usedMalé Latin for theromanisation of the Maldivian language), which is the official spelling as well as the common usage in the Maldives. Dhivehi is written inThaana script.
Dhivehi is a descendant ofElu Prakrit and is closely related toSinhalese, but not mutually intelligible with it. Many languages have influenced the development of Dhivehi through the ages. They includeMalayalam,Arabic,Hindustani,Persian,Tamil,French,Portuguese, andEnglish. The English wordsatoll (a ring of coral islands or reefs) anddhoni (a vessel for inter-atoll navigation) are anglicised forms of the Maldivian wordsatoḷu anddōni. Before European colonization of the Southern Hemisphere, it was the southernmost Indo-European language.
The origin of the word "Divehi" is from olderdivu-vesi, meaning "island dwelling".Divu (fromSanskritद्वीपdvīpa, 'island') later becameދޫdū, which is currently present in many names of Maldivian islands, such asHanimādū,Mīdū, andDāndū.[9]Vesi came from the Sanskrit suffix-वासिन्-vāsin and later becameވެހިvehi.ބަސްbas (from Sanskritभाषाbhāṣā) means "language", soދިވެހިބަސްdhivehi bas means "islanders' language".
Wilhelm Geiger, a German linguist who undertook the first research on Maldivianlinguistics in the early 20th century, also called the languageDivehi. Anh was added to the name of the language— "Dhivehi"— in 1976, when the semi-official transliteration calledMalé Latin was developed. Today the spelling withDh has common and semi-official usage in the Maldives.
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to theSinhalese language ofSri Lanka. Maldivian represents the southernmost Indo-Aryan language, as well as the southernmostIndo-European language prior to European colonization. Maldivian and Sinhalese together constitute a subgroup within the modern Indo-Aryan languages, calledInsular Indo-Aryan. However, they are not mutually intelligible.[10]
Maldivian and Sinhalese are descended from theElu Prakrit of ancient and medieval Sri Lanka. ThesePrakrits were originally derived from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars related toVedic Sanskrit.
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.[11]
The following are some phonological features shared by Sinhala, or unique to Maldivian:[8]
Loss of aspiration in stop consonants (Sanskritkhasa → Maldivian and Sinhalakas, both "itch").
Fortition of initialy- →j- →d-, not shared by Sinhala (yaṣṭi → Maldiviandoṣi, Sinhalayæṭi, both "fishing rod").
Development ofprenasalized consonants from nasal and voiced stop clusters (ambā → Maldivian and Sinhalaam̆bi, both "wife").
Spirantization ofp →f (panca → Maldivianfas, Sinhalapaha, both "five").
Assibilation ofṭ →ṣ except when geminated (kaṇṭaka → Maldiviankaṣi, Sinhalakaṭuva, both "thorn").
Backing of vowelse andi intoo andu before retroflex consonants (older Dhivehiateḷu →atoḷu "atoll")
Loss of contrast betweenn andṇ (except in the Addu dialect, e.g.fani "juice" :faṇi "worm" is rendered homophonous elsewhere), but notl andḷ (ali "light" :aḷi "ash").
L-vocalisation occurred in Standard Dhivehi, Addu, and Minicoy (mal →mau →mā "flower",tel →teyo "oil").
12th-centurylōmāfānu, copper plates on which early Maldivian sultans wrote orders and grants
The earliest official writings were on thelōmāfānu (copper-plategrants) 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.[12] It developed in relative isolation from other languages until the 12th century. Since the 16th century, Maldivian has been written in a unique script calledThaana which is written fromright to left, likeArabic (with which it shares several common diacritics for vowel sounds).
The foundation of the historical linguistic analysis of both Maldivian andSinhalese was laid byWilhelm 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 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.[8]
A rare Maliku Thaana primer written in the Maliku dialect, published byLakshadweep's administration during the time ofRajiv Gandhi's rule, was reprinted by Spanish researcherXavier Romero Frías in 2003.[13]
There is a holiday, theDhivehi Language Day, which is celebrated in the Maldives on 14 April, the birthday of the writerHusain Salahuddin.[14]
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, namelyHuvadhu,Fuvahmulah andAddu. The other variants show less difference to the official dialect, including the dialects spoken in a few islands inKolhumadulu Atoll and the now obsolete dialect once spoken inGiraavaru, which are hardly recognised and known.
Malé dialect is the mainstream Maldivian dialect (bahuruva) and is based on the dialect spoken in the capital of the Maldives,Malé.
Maliku dialect (Mahl) spoken inMinicoy (Maliku) in union territory ofLakshadweep, India. The dialect spoken in Minicoy has fewer differences from the standard Maldivian than other dialects. It has some archaic forms of words andMalayalam loanwords.
Mulaku dialect is a dialect of Maldivian spoken by the people ofFuvahmulah.Mulaku dialect has word-final 'l' (laamu sukunލް), 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.fanno instead offannu. Regarding pronunciation, the retroflex 'ṣ' (IPA [ʂ]), has a [ɽ̊~ɽ̊r̥] sound in theMulaku dialect and was once pronounced that way in official Maldivian. One of the most unusual features ofMulaku dialect is that, unlike other dialects, it distinguishes gender. Also, there are many remarkable differences in the dialect in place of thesukun system as well as the vowel or diacritical system following a distinctive set of rules. TheMulaku dialect also hasnasal vowels, which are unique only to this dialect.
Huvadhu dialect, spoken by the inhabitants of the large atoll ofHuvadhu, is another distinctive form of Maldivian. Because of the isolation from the Northern Atolls, and the capital ofMalé,Huvadhu dialect makes more use of the retroflex /ʈ/ than other variants.Huvadhu dialect also retains oldSinhalese words and is sometimes considered to be linguistically closer to Sinhalese than the other dialects of Maldivian. TheHuvadhu 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 withMulaku dialect. In the past, Addu Atoll being a centre of education, the islanders from the three atolls of the south who acquired education there usedAddu 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 useAddu dialect to talk to each other.Addu dialect is the most widespread of the dialects of Maldivian. However, the secessionist government of theSuvadives (1959–1963) usedMalé dialect in its official correspondence.
Madifushi dialect is the lesser known dialect in theMadifushi island ofKolhumadulu and has some similarities withHuvadhu dialect. Word-final 'a' is often replaced with 'e' or 'o', and some final consonants also differ.
Kudahuvadhoo dialect is also a lesser known dialect spoken inKudahuvadhoo island. The dialect has less differences compared to other dialects, however some pronouns and words differ, and the suffix "ne" is replaced with "ɭe" (E.g. Nufennaane is pronounced as Nufennaaɭe). This dialect is also spoken inHirilandhoo and a few other islands ofKolhumadulu.
Kulhudhuffushi dialect is a dialect spoken inKulhudhuffushi city. The dialect has new words and is a lot more unique.
Naifaru dialect is spoken inNaifaru island ofLhaviyani Atoll. The dialect has a lot more differences, mainly with the sound "ai" being replaced with "ey". (E.g. "Sai" is "Sey", "Naifaru" is "Neyfaru".
Giraavaru dialect is now an almost extinct dialect one spoken on the island ofGiraavaru. The dialect is quite unusual for islands nearMalé. The with the Voiced retroflex lateral approximant (ɭ) is replaced by the voiced alveolar tap (r)
The letter Ṇaviyani (ޱ), which represented theretroflexn sound common to many Indic languages (Gujarati,Hindi, etc.), was abolished from official documents in by Muhammad Amin in 1950.[15] 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 theBoḍu Tarutību and official documents like theRādavaḷi. 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".[16]
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)".
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 theDhives Akuru ("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.[17]
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.[citation needed]
Maldivian uses mainly the Thaana script for writing. It is analphabet, with obligatory vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of theArabic abjad. It is a largelyphonemic 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. (SeeHindu–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 analifu (އ) and avaavu (ވ). This means that Thaana is one of the few alphabets not derived graphically from theoriginal Semitic alphabet – unless the Indic numerals were (seeBrahmi 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 writtenright to left. It indicates vowels with diacritic marks derived from Arabic. Each letter must carry either a vowel or asukun, which indicates "no vowel". The only exception to this rule isnoonu which, when written without a diacritic, indicatesprenasalisation of a followingstop.
Thevowels are written with diacritical signs calledfili. There are fivefili for short vowels (a, i, u, e, o), with the first three being identical to theArabic vowel signs (fatha, kasra anddamma). Long vowels (aa, ee, oo, ey, oa) are denoted by doubledfili, except oa, which is a modification of the shortobofili.
The letteralifu represents theglottal 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 adiphthong; when it carries asukun, it indicatesgemination of the following consonant; and ifalifu+sukun occurs at the end of a word, it indicates that the word ends in a glottal stop. Gemination of nasals, however, is indicated bynoonu+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 theDevanāgarī script (almost never used in Maldives, but used inMinicoy[18])
Towards the mid-1970s, during PresidentIbrahim Nasir's tenure, the Maldivian government introducedtelex machines in the local administration. However, local Thaana script was deemed to be an obstacle because messages on thetelex machines could only be written in theLatin 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. 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 modernStandard Indic transliteration had not been considered. Standard Indic is a consistent script system that is well adapted to writing almost all languages of South Asia.[19] However, this scheme lacks a few sounds used in Maldivian.ISO 15919 has been used byXavier Romero-Frias to romanize Maldivian in his bookThe Maldive Islanders - A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom.
The government reinstated the Thaana script shortly after PresidentMaumoon took power in 1978. However, the Latin transcription of 1976 continues to be widely used.
The sound system of Maldivian is similar to that ofDravidian 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 andgeminate consonants but no aspirates.
^The status of /ɲ/ as a phoneme is unclear. Except for two words, /ɲamɲam/cynometra cauliflora (a kind of fruit) and /ɲaʋijani/ 'Gnaviyani' (alphabet letter), the /ɲ/ only occurs as the result of the fusion of /n/ and /i/: /du:ni/ 'bird', /du:ɲɲeʔ/ 'a bird'.
^/ʋ/ can occasionally be heard as a fricative[v], it has a[w] allophone occurring between vowel sounds/a/ and/u/.
Theword 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 the following orders without a change in meaning:
1)
mashah
to.me
mas
fish
vikkaa
sell
mashah mas vikkaa
to.me fish sell
Sell me fish.
2)
mas
fish
mashah
to.me
vikkaa
sell
mas mashah vikkaa
fish to.me sell
Sell me fish.
3)
mas
fish
vikkaa
sell
mashah
to.me
mas vikkaa mashah
fish sell to.me
Sell me fish.
4)
mashah
to.me
vikka
sell
mas
fish
mashah vikka mas
to.me sell fish
sell me fish
5)
vikka
sell
mas
fish
mashah
to.me
vikka mas mashah
sell fish to.me
sell me fish
6)
vikka
sell
mashah
to.me
mas
fish
vikka mashah mas
sell to.me fish
sell me fish
The wordmashah (to me) may be dropped wherever the context makes it obvious.
Inherent in the Maldivian language is a form of elaborate class distinction expressed through three levels: The highest level, themaaiy bas, formerly used to address members of the royal family, is now commonly used to show respect. People use the second levelreethi bas and third levelaadhaige bas in everyday life.[citation needed]
After the arrival ofIslam in South Asia, 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:
There is a small amount of Portuguese and English loanwords too, owing to colonialism and limited Western exposure. Ibrahim Ufaamanu was the first person to publish a Portuguese-Dhivehi-English dictionary in 1977.
Article 1 – All human-beings also are born, ranking and rights' in freedom and equality acquired people like. Them to good thinking and good brain's endowment acquired is. And they one another to communicate do should 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.
Founded in 1984, the Mahal Unit Press atMinicoy prints texts in Maldivian, among other languages. The press also publishes theLakshadweep Times in three languages on a regular basis: Maldivian, English andMalayalam. 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.
^abGnanadesikan, Amalia E. (2017).Dhivehi: The Language of the Maldives. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–25.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
De Silva, M W S (1970). "Some Observations on the History of Dhivehi".Transactions of the Philological Society, London..
Fritz, Sonja (2002),The Divehi Language: A Descriptive and Historical Grammar of the Maldivian and its Dialects, Heidelberg{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
Vitharana, V (1987),Sri Lanka – Maldivian Cultural Affinities, Academy of Sri Lankan Culture.
Cain, Bruce D (2000),Divehi (Maldivian): A Synchronic and Diachronic study, PhD thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at Cornell University.
Crystal, David (2000),Language Death, Cambridge University Press.
Geiger, Wilhem (2001). "Maldivian Linguistic Studies".Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Colombo..
Manik, Hassan Ahmed (2000),A Concise Etymological Vocabulary of Dhivehi Language, The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, p. xxiv, 261.
Muhammad, Naseema (1999),Dhivehi Writing Systems, National Centre for Linguistic and Historical Research, Malé.
Reynolds, Christopher Hanby Baillie (1974). "Buddhism and the Maldivian Language".Buddhist Studies in Honour of I. B. Horner, Dordrecht..
Reynolds, Christopher Hanby Baillie (2003),A Maldivian Dictionary,Routledge, London, p. 412,ISBN9780415298087.
Romero-Frias, Xavier (1999),The Maldive Islanders: A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom, Nova Ethnographia Indica,ISBN84-7254-801-5.
Romero-Frias, Xavier (2012),Folk Tales of the Maldives, NIAS Press,ISBN978-87-7694-105-5.
Wijesundera; et al. (1988),Historical and Linguistic Survey of the Dhivehi Language, Final Report. University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
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