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. Words are separated by spaces. The script is monocameral. The visual forms of letters don't usually interact.
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
Vowels
Vowel summary table
This table summarises basic vowel to character assignments.
Post-consonant vowels are written using 10 combining marks (no letters). Diphthongs are written as a vowel diacritic over a consonant followed by a standalone vowel.
Vowel diacritics
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 as a base, to which vowel diacritics are attached.
އާއިލާ
އިރުގައި
Vowel absence
ް
The diacritic 07B0 indicates that there is no vowel following the consonant it sits on. This is always used, with one exception: when ށ 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.
Vowel sounds to characters
This section maps Dhivehi vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Thaana orthography.
The labels on the left indicate whether this is a dependent (post-consonant) vowel or a standalone vowel.
i
dependentި
standaloneއި
iː
dependentީ
standaloneއީ
u
dependentު
standaloneއު
uː
dependentޫ
standaloneއޫ
e
dependentެ
standaloneއެ
eː
dependentޭ
standaloneއޭ
o
dependentޮ
standaloneއޮ
oː
dependentޯ
standaloneއޯ
ə~a
dependentަ
standaloneއަ
əː~aː
dependentާ
standaloneއާ
Consonants
Consonant summary table
This table summarises basic consonant to character assignments.
For writing the languages of the Maldives there are 24 consonants in this block.
Click on each letter for more details and for examples of usage, especially where more than one sound is indicated.
ޕ␣ބ␣ތ␣ދ␣ޓ␣ޑ␣ކ␣ގ␣ޗ␣ޖ␣ފ␣ވ␣ސ␣ޒ␣ށ␣ހ␣މ␣ނ␣ޏ␣ރ␣ލ␣ޅ␣ޔ␣އ
އ 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.
އް is the most commond,566 (however, Wiktionary sometimes transcribes this as h).
އެކެއް
A word-final ށް or ތް,
also indicate a glottal stop, except that the latter also adds j before the stop.
ރަށް
ރަތް
Prenasalisation
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. 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 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
Consonant clusters
The diacritic 07B0 attached to a consonant signifies that it is not followed by a vowel.
Gemination
Gemination is common in Dhivehi. It is mostly written using އް before the doubled consonant.
ބައްޓެއް
However, if the consonant in question is a nasal, it is preceded instead by ން.d,566
އެންމެ
Gemination is also produced after ށް and ތް, except that the latter also adds j before the doubled consonant.
އަށްޑިހަ
އަތްޕުޅު
Consonant sounds to characters
This section maps Dhivehi consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Thaana orthography.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc. Light coloured characters occur infrequently.
p
consonantޕ
b
consonantބ
t
consonantތ
tˤ
arabic consonantޠRepresents the Arabic ط.
t͡ʃ
consonantޗ
d
consonantދ
dˤ
arabic consonantޟRepresents the Arabic ض.
d͡ʒ
consonantޖ
ʈ
consonantޓ
ɖ
consonantޑ
k
consonantކ
ɡ
consonantގ
q
arabic consonantޤRepresents the Arabic ق.
ʔ
consonantއްwhen syllable-final.
f
consonantފ
θ
arabic consonantޘRepresents the Arabic ث.
ð
arabic consonantޛRepresents the Arabic ذ.
s
consonantސ
sˤ
arabic consonantޞRepresents the Arabic ص.
z
consonantޒ
zˤ
arabic consonantޡRepresents the Arabic ظ.
ʃ
arabic consonantޝRepresents the Arabic ش.
ʒ
english consonantޜRepresents the English ʒ.
ʂ
consonantށ
x
arabic consonantޚRepresents the Arabic خ.
ɣ
arabic consonantޣRepresents the Arabic غ.
ħ
arabic consonantޙRepresents the Arabic ح.
ʕ
arabic consonantޢRepresents the Arabic ع.
h
consonantހ
m
consonantމ
n
consonantނ
ɳ
consonantޱAbolished from Maldivian official documents around 1953.
ɲ
consonantޏ
ⁿ
consonantޏWritten with no diacritic, this indicates prenasalization of a following stop.
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:
font/writing styles;
cursive text;
context-based shaping;
context-based positioning;
letterform slopes, weights, & italics;
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.
Context-based shaping & positioning
Thaana letters don't interact, so no special shaping is needed.
Base characters carry only a single combining mark.
Typographic units
Word boundaries
Words are separated by spaces.
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.
Dhivehi commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.
start
end
standard
(
)
Mirrored characters
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.
Line & paragraph layout
Line breaking & hyphenation
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.
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.
