Thaana

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. (See Hindu-Arabic numerals.) The remaining letters for loanwords (z–ch) and Arabic transliteration are derived from phonetically similar native consonants by means of diacritics, with the exception of y, which is of unknown origin. 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 Ogham script of 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 (hā, shaviyani, nūnu, rā, bā, 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 (fadinta) 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.[1]

Thaana nearly disappeared for a brief period in recent history. Towards 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, but Thaana was deemed to be an obstacle because messages on the telex machines could only be written in the Latin script. Following this, a rough Latin 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. This was seen by many as the demise of the Thaana script.

This official Latin script (Maldivian Latin) made use of "h"s to mark dental consonants rather than aspiration, which inconsistent with the usual transliteration of Indic languages. It also used certain combinations of letters and apostrophes for some Arabic sounds which effectively ignored the Arabic transliterations accepted in academic circles worldwide. The long vowel spellings "oo", "ee", and "oa" were introduced from English, reminiscent of colonial transcriptions.

Clarence Maloney, the American anthropologist who was in the Maldives at the time of the change, lamented the crude inconsistencies of the Maldivian Latin and wondered why modern Standard Indic transliteration had not been considered.[2]

The Thaana script was reinstated by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom shortly after he took power in 1978, although the Latin transcription of 1976 continues to be widely used.

For a sample text, see the article on Qaumii 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 example އަބްދުﷲ‎ (Abdullah).

H. C. P. Bell, the first serious researcher of Maldivian documents, used the spelling Tāna, as the initial consonant is unaspirated. The spelling Thaana 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 the retroflex sound (see Gair & Cain in Daniels & Bright 1996:565).

Naviyani ޱ represents the retroflex "n" ([ɳ]) common to many languages of India. However 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 Nyaviyani (ޏ). The former position of Nyaviyani (ޏ) was 22nd. It is still seen in reprints of old books like the Bodu Tartheebu, and it is used by the people of Addu Atoll and Fuvahmulah when writing songs or poetry in their dialects as the sound is still present in their spoken language.

Thaana was added to the Unicode Standard in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0.

The Unicode block for Thaana is U+0780–U+07BF:

• Maldivian writing systems

• Bell, H. C. P. The Maldive islands: Monograph on the History, Archaeology and Epigraphy. Reprint 1940 edn. Malé 1986.
• Bell, H. C. P. The Maldive Islands: An account of the physical features, History, Inhabitants, Productions and Trade. Colombo, 1883, ISBN 81-206-1222-1
• Bell, H. C. P. Excerpta Maldiviana. Reprint 1922-1935 edition New Delhi 1998.
• Divehi Bahuge Qawaaaid. Vols 1 to 5. Ministry of Education. Malé 1978.
• Divehīnge Tarika. Divehīnge Bas. Divehibahāi Tārikhah Khidumaykurā Qaumī Majlis. Malé 2000.
• Gair, James W. & Cain, Bruce D. (1996), "Divehi Writing" in Peter T. Daniels & William Bright, ed., The World's Writing Systems, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 564–568. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.
• Romero-Frias, Xavier, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. ISBN 84-7254-801-5
• Geiger, Wilhelm. Maldivian Linguistic Studies. Reprint 1919 edn. Novelty Press. Malé 1986.
• Ager, Simon. "Thaana (Maldivian) script". Omniglot, writing systems & languages of the world. Retrieved 2006-09-12.

• http://www.omniglot.com/writing/thaana.htm
• A brief description of Thaana is available at this website
• The Unicode 5.0 Standard: 8.4 Thaana
• Unicode Character Code Charts: Thaana
• GNU FreeFont Unicode font family with Thaana range in its serif face.