This page brings together basic information about the Thaana script and its use for the Maldivian language, Dhivehi. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Dhivehi using Unicode.
The Thaana script is used for writing the Maldivian language, also known as Dhivehi, spoken by about 370,000 people in the Maldives and in Maldivian communities in India.
ތާނަtə̄nətəːnəThaanaIt is thought that speakers of Dhivehi have written their language for over two thousand years, and that writing was developed by Maldivian Buddhist monks translating the Buddhist scriptures.
Over time, the script evolved, slanting the letters by 45 degrees and adding spaces between words. The earliest known sample of the Thaana script (rather than the Dhives Akuru alphabet) is inscribed on the main Friday mosque of the island and dates back to AD 1599.
Dhivehi is an alphabeticabjad. All vowels are written, but as diacritics above the consonants. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Dhivehi orthography using the Thaana script.
Thaana text is written horizontally, right to left, but unlike Arabic or N'Ko, the text is not cursive. Multi-digit numbers are displayed left-to-right. ❯ direction
Words are separated by spaces.
The script is monocameral.
Dhivehi has 24 basic consonant letters, but the repertoire also contains 14 extra consonants to represent the sounds of Arabic and English. ❯ consonants
Thaana is an alphabet, but post-consonant vowels are written using 10 combining marks (no letters). ❯ vowels
Diphthongs are written as a vowel diacritic over a consonant followed by a standalone vowel.
An diacritic is used to indicate consonant clusters, or the absence of a vowel after a consonant base.
Numbers use ASCII digits.
The visual forms of letters don't usually interact. Punctuation mixes ASCII and Arabic characters.
Character index
Letters
Show
Basic consonants
ޕ␣ބ␣ތ␣ދ␣ޗ␣ޖ␣ޓ␣ޑ␣ކ␣ގ␣ފ␣ވ␣ސ␣ޒ␣ށ␣ހ␣މ␣ނ␣ޏ␣ރ␣ލ␣ޅ␣ޔ␣އ
Extended consonants
ޠ␣ޟ␣ޤ␣ޘ␣ޛ␣ޞ␣ޡ␣ޝ␣ޜ␣ޚ␣ޣ␣ޙ␣ޢ␣ޥ
Other
ޕ
Not used for modern Dhivehi
ޱ
Combining marks
Show
Vowels
ި␣ީ␣ު␣ޫ␣ެ␣ޭ␣ަ␣ާ␣ޮ␣ޯ
Other
ް
Punctuation
Show،␣؛␣؟␣“␣”
ASCII
(␣)␣.␣:␣!
Other
Show
To be investigated
,␣/␣;␣[␣]␣⹁
Items to show in lists
Phonology
These are sounds for the Dhivehi language.
Click on the sound groups to see where else in the document each of the sounds are referred to.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source wp.
Vowel sounds
Consonant sounds
labial
dental
alveolar
post-
alveolar
retroflex
palatal
velar
uvular
pharyngeal
glottal
stops
pb
td
ʈɖ
kɡ
q
pre-nasalised
ᵐb
ⁿd
ᶯɖ
ᵑɡ
ejective
tˤdˤ
affricate
t͡ʃd͡ʒ
fricatives
f
θð
sz
ʃʒ
ʂ
ɕ
xɣ
ħʕ
h
ejective
sˤzˤ
nasal
m
n
ɳ
ɲ
ŋ
approximant
ʋw
l̪
l
ɭ
j
trill/flap
r
Tone
Dhivehi is not a tonal language.
Structure
Native Maldivian words do not allow initial consonant clusters. The syllable structure is (C)V(C), ie. one vowel with the option of a consonant in the onset and/or coda. This affects the introduction of loanwords, such as is.kuːl from English school.wp
All vowels are always written, but as diacritics above or below the consonant they follow.
ި␣ީ␣ު␣ޫ␣ެ␣ޭ␣ަ␣ާ␣ޮ␣ޯ
Diphthongs & glides
Diphthongs are written as a vowel diacritic over a consonant followed by a standalone vowel.
ވައި
މިއުޒިކް
ސައުވީސް
Standalone vowels
Thaana represents standalone vowels using
އ[U+0787 THAANA LETTER ALIFU]
as a base, to which vowel diacritics are attached.
އާއިލާ
އިރުގައި
Vowel length
tbd
Nasalisation
tbd
Tones
Dhivehi is not a tonal language.
Vowel sounds to characters
This section maps Dhivehi vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Thaana orthography. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.
For writing the languages of the Maldives there are 24 consonants in this block.
ޕ␣ބ␣ތ␣ދ␣ޓ␣ޑ␣ކ␣ގޗ␣ޖފ␣ވ␣ސ␣ޒ␣ށ␣ހމ␣ނ␣ޏރ␣ލ␣ޅ␣ޔ␣އ
އ [U+0787 THAANA LETTER ALIFU] has no sound of its own, and is used in a number of situations, including as a support for standalone vowels (see standalone), to indicate gemination (see gemination), and to produce a glottal stop at the end of a word (see glottal).
Repertoire extension
A further 14 dotted versions of the normal consonants are available for transcribing Arabic sounds and the English sound ʒ (ޜ).
ޠ␣ޟ␣ޤ␣ޘ␣ޛ␣ޞ␣ޡ␣ޝ␣ޜ␣ޚ␣ޣ␣ޙ␣ޢ␣ޥ
Glottal stop
Several combinations of characters at the end of a word indicate a glottal stop.
Dhivehi, like Sinhala, has prenasalised stops that contrast with sequences of nasal plus stop.
These are not always written, but when they are the stop is preceded by
ނ [U+0782 THAANA LETTER NOONU].
No sukun is used (in fact, this is the only situation where a consonant character isn't followed by a diacritic).
ކަނޑު
ކަޑު
Obsolete consonant
ޱ[U+07B1 THAANA LETTER NAA]
was abolished from Maldivian official documents around 1953, but it is still seen in reprints of old books like the Bodu Tartheebu, and is used by the people of Addu Atoll and Fuvahmulah.
ޱ
Vowel absence
ް
The diacritic ◌ް[U+07B0 THAANA SUKUN] indicates that there is no vowel following the consonant it sits on. This is always used, with one exception: when ށ[U+0781 THAANA LETTER SHAVIYANI] is written with no diacritic, this indicates prenasalization of a following stop, eg. ކަނޑު It is the only case where a letter can appear without a diacritic.
Onset consonants
tbd
Final consonants
tbd
Consonant clusters
The diacritic ◌ް[U+07B0 THAANA SUKUN] attached to a consonant signifies that it is not followed by a vowel.
This section maps Dhivehi consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Thaana orthography. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, Sanskrit, etc.
Either european digits or arabic-indic digits are used.
Text direction
Thaana script is written horizontally and right-to-left in the main, but as with most RTL scripts, numbers and embedded LTR script text are written left-to-right (producing 'bidirectional' text).
The section number in this example is read LTR, ie 7.2.2, but the Thaana word following is RTL.
This section brings together information about the following topics:
writing styles;
cursive text;
context-based shaping;
context-based positioning;
baselines, line height, etc.;
font styles;
case & other character transforms.
The Thaana script is not cursive, and involves no significant context-based shaping or positioning.
The script is unicameral and needs no transforms to convert between code points.
Font styling & weight
tbd
Graphemes
Dhivehi graphemes are straightforward, and can be mapped to Unicode grapheme clusters.
Grapheme clusters
Base Combining_mark?
Nearly all base letters in Dhivehi are accompanied by a combining mark to indicate a vowel (or absence of a vowel). There is only one mark per base. All such sequences conform to Unicode grapheme clusters.
Click on the text version of this word to see more detail about the composition.
The words 'left' and 'right' in the Unicode names for parentheses, brackets, and other paired characters should be ignored. LEFT should be read as if it said START, and RIGHT as END. The direction in which the glyphs point will be automatically determined according to the base direction of the text.
Both of these lines use > [U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN], but the direction it faces depends on the base direction at the point of display.
The number of characters that are mirrored in this way is around 550, most of which are mathematical symbols. Some are single characters, rather than pairs. The following are some of the more common ones.
(␣)␣<␣>␣[␣]␣{␣}
Quotations & citations
”␣“
start
end
initial
201D
201C
The default quote marks are 201D at the start, and 201C at the end. Unlike the parentheses, these characters are not mirrored during display. This means that LEFT means use on the left, and RIGHT means use on the right, producing a sequential order that is the opposite of the English usage.
Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.
The primary break-point for line-wrapping is the inter-word space.
Line-edge rules
As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line. The Unicode line-break properties help applications decide whether a character should appear at the start or end of a line.
The following list gives examples of typical behaviours for some of the characters used in modern Dhivehi. Context may affect the behaviour of some of these and other characters.
Click/tap on the characters to show what they are.
Justification of Dhivehi text appears to be common, and a common approach involves stretching inter-word spacing.
Text spacing
tbd
This section looks at ways in which spacing is applied between characters over and above that which is introduced during justification.
Baselines, line height, etc.
Dhivehi uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
Dhivehi places vowel marks above and below base characters but there is only ever one.
To give an approximate idea, fig_baselines compares Latin and Dhivehi glyphs from a Noto font. The basic height of Dhivehi letters is typically below the Latin x-height, however extenders for some characters push below the baseline, and the combining marks can reach beyond the Latin ascenders and descenders, creating a need for slightly larger line spacing.
Font metrics for Latin text compared with Dhivehi glyphs in the Noto Serif Thaana font.
This section is for any features that are specific to Thaana and that relate to the following topics:
general page layout & progression;
grids & tables;
notes, footnotes, etc;
forms & user interaction;
page numbering, running headers, etc.
