Maldives Language

Maldives language refers to the language that is spoken and written in the Republic of Maldives. At present, the language of the country is Dhivehi. The language shows a significant influence of Sanskrit

The official language of Maldives is Dhivehi. It was derived from the Sanskrit word Daivehi, which stands for “Godly”. In spite of the evolution of Dhivehi and the similarity to Arabic alphabets, majority of its words are alike in terms of articulation and interpretation to Hindi language, the root of which is in the Sanskrit language.

Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language, mostly spoken by around 350,000 people living in the Republic of Maldives. Dhivehi is the national language of the country. It is the local language of approximately 10,000 people residing in the island of Minicoy (Maliku) in Union territory of Lakshadweep, India. Dhivehi language is denoted as Mahal by the Government of Lakhshadweep. One more spelling is Mahl.

Development of Dhivehi has been particularly dependent on a number of languages for a considerable period of time like Arabic and Sinhala. Other languages that have influenced Dhivehi include Persian, French, English, and Portuguese.

The English words doni (a boat for inter-atoll sailing) and atoll (a group of coral islands or reefs) are anglicized types of the Dhivehi words Dōni and Atolu.

Etymology of Dhivehi Language

The source of the word "Dhivehi" is Dhiv+vehi denoting Islanders’ whereas bas denotes language. Accordingly, Dhivehi-bas signifies Islanders’ language. One of the earliest transcribers of this language was H. C. P. Bell. He named the language as Divehi, which was compatible with Maldives, the nation’s name, for the -dives of Maldives and the word Divehi have similar origin, the Sanskrit word dvīpa, which means "island". A German linguist, Wilhelm Geiger, commenced researching on Dhivehi philology in the former part of the 20th century. Geiger named the language Divehi as well, not including an "h". In 1976, an "h" was inserted into the name of the language, when a semi-official Latin transcription was formulated for the Dhivehi language. At present, the spelling with the h is the normal practice and it is the formal spelling in the country.

The Lakhshadweep Government denotes Dhivehi language as Mahal. The root of this word, also spelled Mahl, is similar like the name Maldives (where -dives stands for island in Sanskrit). "Mahl" in Arabic language denotes location, place, and the Middle Age Arabic tourists described the Maldives as "al-Mahaldibiyya" (where -dibiyya stands for island in Sanskritic once more). At around circa 1343 Ibn Battuta mentioned that the islands were named as Dhibat-al-Mahal, comprised around 2000 islands, classified into areas or clusters. Some of the islands are well known. The word Mahal was used to refer to the islands, and also the mansion of the Sultans. The Arabic words al-Daulat al-Mahaldibiyya are there in the state symbol of the Republic of Maldives. Administrators in British India registered the name of the language as Mahal.

Origin of Maldives Language

Dhivehi is a type of Indo-Aryan language, which is strongly associated with the Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka. Dhivehi stands for the southernmost Indo-Aryan language. Along with Sinhala, the language embodies a unique subcategory within the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, which is known as Insular Indo-Aryan. Nevertheless, Divehi and Sinhala are not reciprocally understandable.

Dhivehi is originated from Maharashtri, a Prakrit of prehistoric and medieval India. The Prakrit languages, which include Maharashtri Prakrit, were actually descended from Vedic Sanskrit.

While previously it was assumed that Dhivehi was a successor of the Sinhalese language, M. W. S. de Silva, an eminent Sinhalese philologist, for the first time suggested in 1969 that Dhivehi and Sinhalese have stemmed from one mother language (a Prakrit). He stated that the first Indic element in Maldivian is not so much a consequence of splitting from Sinhalese because of a concurrent division with Sinhalese from the Indic languages of the mainland of India. Of late, S. Fritz has arrived at the same conclusion in an elaborate research of the language. M.W.S. De Silva talks about the Dravidian influences noticed in the Dhivehi language like in the names of old places. De Silva’s hypothesis is backed by the fable of Prince Vijaya as narrated in the Mahavamsa since if this fable is to be accepted as true, the relocation of Indo-Aryan settlers to Sri Lanka and the Laccadive-Maldives archipelago from the mainland of India must have occurred at the same time.

Geographic distribution of Maldives Language

Majority of speakers of Dhivehi language stay in the Maldives and it is the national language of the country. This language is also used in Minicoy Island in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India, though some have relocated to Kochi and other places in the state of Kerala, India.

• Official status: Dhivehi is the national language of Maldives and semi-official language in Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India.
   
• Vernaculars: Because of the extensive division of the islands, dissimilarities in accent and words have arisen throughout the centuries. The conventional structure of Dhivehi is named as Male Bas and is founded on the language spoken in the capital of the Maldives.
  
  You will find the most prominent vernaculars of the language in the southern atolls, specifically Fuvahmulah, Huvadhu, and Addu. Lesser variations are spoken in Minicoy (Maliku) and Haddummati, the former being named as Maliku Bas. This language has fewer dissimilarities with the common Dhivehi language than other languages. Among all the languages, Maliku Bas and Male' Bas are most similar. The other variations demonstrate much dissimilarity.
  
  Moloki Bas is a vernacular of Dhivehi, which is spoken by the inhabitants of Fuvahmulah Island. The vernacular has laamu sukun, which is not there in the other vernaculars of Dhivehi. This is a closing 'l' exclusive of vowel sound. One more feature of this variation of Dhivehi is the 'o' noise at the ending of words, rather than the last 'u' usually seen in all other types of Dhivehi. For example, 'fanno' rather than 'fannu'. Concerning articulation, the cacuminal 'ṣ', which has nearly a minor 'r' noise in conventional Dhivehi, becomes š in Moloki Bas, sounding similar to Arabic: ش‎ shīn.
  
  Huvadhu Bas, spoken by the residents of the big atoll of Huvadhu is one more special variety of Dhivehi. Due to the remoteness from the capital of Male and Northern Atolls, the regional vernacular Huvadhu Bas makes higher use of the retroflex 'Å¢' than other variations. Huvadhu Bas preserved old Sinhala words as well and on certain occasions, it is regarded to be lingually similar to Sinhala than the other vernaculars of Divehi.
  
  Addu Bas is also significantly different from the conventional structure of the Dhivehi language and has some similarities with Moloki Bas. Customarily, all well-read inhabitants of the three atolls of the south utilized the Addu Bas as their dialect. For instance, when an inhabitant of any of the Huvadhu islands interacts with someone from Fuvahmulah Island, they would utilize the Addu Bas to converse to each other. Addu Bas is the most common form of the vernacular of Dhivehi. The secessionist administration of the Suvadives (1959–1963) nevertheless, used the Male' Bas in its formal communications.
  
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