| Thaana ތާނަ | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | With no inherent vowel |
Time period | 17th century — present |
| Direction | Right-to-left script  |
| Languages | Maldivian language |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Thaa(170), Thaana |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Thaana |
| U+0780–U+07BF | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Thaana,Tãna,Taana orTāna ( ތާނަ ) is the present writing system of theMaldivian language spoken in theMaldives. Thaana has characteristics of both anabugida (diacritics,vowel-killer strokes) and a truealphabet (all vowels are written), with consonants derived from indigenous and Arabic numerals, and vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of theArabic abjad. Maldivian orthography in Thaana is largelyphonemic.
H. C. P. Bell, the first serious researcher of Maldivian documents,[citation needed] used the spellingTāna, as the initial consonant is unaspirated. The spellingThaana was adopted in the mid-1970s, when the government of the Maldives embarked on a short period of Romanization; /t/ was transcribed⟨th⟩, as⟨t⟩ was used for thevoiceless retroflex plosive[ʈ].[1]: 565
The Thaana script first appeared in a Maldivian inscription towards the beginning of the 17th century in a crude initial form known as Gabulhi ('incomplete') Thaana which was writtenscripta continua. This early script slowly developed, its characters becoming more graceful and oblique, and adding spaces between words. As time went by it gradually replaced the olderDhives Akurualphabet. The oldest written sample of the Thaana script is found in the island ofKanditheemu inNorthern Miladhunmadulu Atoll. It is inscribed on the door posts of the mainHukuru Miskiy (Friday mosque) of the island and dates back to 1008AH (AD 1599) and 1020 AH (AD 1611) when the roof of the building was built and then renewed during the reigns of Ibrahim Kalaafaan (Sultan Ibrahim III) and Hussain Faamuladeyri Kilege (Sultan Hussain II) respectively.[2]
The origins of Thaana are unique among the world's writing systems: The first nine letters (h ṣ n r b ḷ k ʔ v) are derived from the Arabic numerals, whereas the next nine (m f d t l g ṇ s ḍ) were the local Indic numerals. (SeeHindu–Arabic numerals.) The remaining letters for loanwords (z ṭ y p j c ñ) and Arabic transliteration (h̤ ḵ ž ʕ ġ w ẕ t̤ ẓ s̱ q s̤ ż ś) are derived from phonetically similar native consonants by means of diacritics (likenuqta), with the exception ofyaa, which is of unknown origin. This means that Thaana is one of the few writing systems not derived graphically from theoriginal Semitic alphabet—unless the Indic numerals were (seeBrahmi numerals). (TheOgham script used in 1st millennium AD Ireland is another example, which also has some relation to numbers, since most of its letters are differentiated from others in a way similar to tally marks.)
The order of the Thaana alphabet (ha, shaviyani, noonu, raa, baa, etc.) does not follow the order of other Indic scripts or of the Arabic script. There is no apparent logic to the order; this has been interpreted as suggesting that the script was scrambled to keep it secret from average islanders. The script was originally used primarily to write magical (fanḍita) incantations. These included Arabic quotations, written from right to left. Maldivian learned men, who were all well versed in sorcery, saw the advantages of writing in this simplified hidden script, and Thaana was gradually adopted for everyday use.[3]
Thaana nearly disappeared for a brief period in recent history. Towards the mid-1970s, during PresidentIbrahim Nasir's reign,Telex machines were introduced by the Maldivian government in the local administration. The new telex equipment was viewed as a great progress, but Thaana was deemed to be an obstacle because messages on thetelex machines could only be written in theLatin script. Following this, a roughLatin transliteration for Maldivian was officially approved by the Maldivian 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.
The Thaana script was reinstated by PresidentMaumoon Abdul Gayoom shortly after he took power in 1978, although the Latin transcription of 1976 continues to be widely used.
Thaana, like Arabic, is written right 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 isnūnu which, when written without a diacritic, indicatesprenasalization of a followingstop.
For a sample text, see the article onQaumee salaam, the Maldives' national anthem.
Even though it is not part of the alphabet, Arabic ligature Allah ﷲ is used for writing names in Thaana, for exampleއަބްދުﷲ (Abdullah). "Allah" is never written in thaana, with the ligature ﷲ used.
The letteralifu (އ) is used for three different purposes other than acting as a normal consonant: it can act as a carrier for a vowel in the second part of adiphthong (if there is a preceding consonant with a vowel); when it carries asukun, it indicatesgemination (lengthening) of the following consonant (even if the consonant is at the beginning of another word); and ifalifu+sukun occurs at the end of a word, it indicates that the word ends in aglottal stop. Gemination ofnasal consonants, however, is indicated bynoonu+sukun preceding the nasal to be geminated. Originally, each letter had the name "consonant+a+viyani". The suffix -viyani originated from the wordviyana which came fromSanskritव्यञ्जनvyáñjana. For example,haa was originally calledhaviyani.[4] The names of consonants which had equivalent sounds inArabic were changed to the Arabic names for the sounds (exceptinggaafu, which is aPersian name).[5]
| Derived from Eastern Arabic digits 1-9 | haa ހ h IPA:[h] | ށ ṣ IPA:[ʂ] | noonu ނ n IPA:[n] | raa ރ r IPA:[ɾ] | baa ބ b IPA:[b] | lhaviyani ޅ ḷ IPA:[ɭ] | kaafu ކ k IPA:[k] | alifu އ IPA:[ʔ] | vaavu ވ v IPA:[ʋ] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derived from Dhives akuru digits 1-9 | meemu މ m IPA:[m] | faafu ފ f IPA:[f] | dhaalu ދ d IPA:[d̪] | thaa ތ t IPA:[t̪] | laamu ލ l IPA:[l] | gaafu ގ g IPA:[ɡ] | ṇaviyani ޱ ṇ IPA:[ɳ] | seenu ސ s IPA:[s̺] | daviyani ޑ ḍ IPA:[ɖ] |
| Derived from other Thaana letters | zaviyani ޒ z IPA:[z̺] fromރ | taviyani ޓ ṭ IPA:[ʈ] fromބ | yaa ޔ y IPA:[j] possibly fromށ | paviyani ޕ p IPA:[p] fromފ | javiyani ޖ j IPA:[dʒ] fromދ | chaviyani ޗ c IPA:[tʃ] fromތ | gnaviyani ޏ ñ IPA:[ɲ] |
Naviyani (ޱ) represents thevoiced retroflex nasal "ṇ" ([ɳ]) common to manyIndic languages. This letter was abolished from Maldivian official documents around 1953.
The letter's former position in the Maldivian alphabet was the sixteenth, between Gaafu and Seenu, instead of Gnaviyani (ޏ). The former position of Gnaviyani (ޏ) was 22nd. It is still seen in reprints of old books like theBodu Tarutheebu, and it is used by the people ofAddu Atoll andFuvahmulah when writing songs or poetry in their dialects as the sound is still present in their spoken dialects
These additional letters (thikijehi thaana) were added to the Thaana alphabet by adding anukuthaa (dot) to existing letters, to allow for transliteration of Arabic loanwords (except for ޜ že), as previously Arabic loanwords were written using the Arabic script. Their usage is inconsistent, and becoming less frequent as the spelling changes to reflect pronunciation by Maldivians, rather than the original Arabic pronunciation, as the words get absorbed into the Maldivian language.
h̤ā,ح ޙ IPA:[ħ] | k͟hā,خ ޚ IPA:[x] | že,ژ ޜ IPA:[ʒ] | ‘ainu,ع ޢ IPA:[ʕ] | ġainu,غ ޣ IPA:[ɣ] | wāvu,و ޥ IPA:[w] | ẕālu,ذ ޛ IPA:[ð] |
t̤ā,ط ޠ IPA:[tˤ] | ẓā,ظ ޡ IPA:[ðˤ] | s̱ā,ث ޘ IPA:[θ] | qāfu,ق ޤ IPA:[q] | s̤ādu,ص ޞ IPA:[sˤ] | żādu,ض ޟ IPA:[dˤ] | śīnu,ش ޝ IPA:[ʃ] |
There are five vowel strokes or diacritical signs (Dhivehi:ފިލި,romanized: fili) for short vowels (a, i, u, e, o). The first three are derived from the Arabicvowel signs,fatḥah, kasrah andḍammah. Theebefili looks similar to and is most likely modelled on the Urdubaṛī ye. Long vowels (aa, ee, oo, ey and oa) are denoted by doublefili, with the exception of oa, which is a modification of the shortobofili.
abafili އަ a IPA:[a] | ābāfili އާ ā IPA:[aː] | ibifili އި i IPA:[i] | ībīfili އީ ī IPA:[iː] | ubufili އު u IPA:[u] | ūbūfili އޫ ū IPA:[uː] | ebefili އެ e IPA:[e] | ēbēfili އޭ ē IPA:[eː] | obofili އޮ o IPA:[o] | ōbōfili އޯ ō IPA:[oː] | sukun އް |
Thaana was added to theUnicode Standard in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0.
The Unicode block for Thaana is U+0780–U+07BF:
| Thaana[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+078x | ހ | ށ | ނ | ރ | ބ | ޅ | ކ | އ | ވ | މ | ފ | ދ | ތ | ލ | ގ | ޏ |
| U+079x | ސ | ޑ | ޒ | ޓ | ޔ | ޕ | ޖ | ޗ | ޘ | ޙ | ޚ | ޛ | ޜ | ޝ | ޞ | ޟ |
| U+07Ax | ޠ | ޡ | ޢ | ޣ | ޤ | ޥ | ަ | ާ | ި | ީ | ު | ޫ | ެ | ޭ | ޮ | ޯ |
| U+07Bx | ް | ޱ | ||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||