Dhivehi Letters (Thaana)

Dhivehi, the language of the Maldives, is written in Thaana (ތާނަ), from right to left. Its 24 basic letters have a traditional order of their own, which differs from the Arabic and Latin ones: ހ haa, ށ shaviyani, ނ noonu, ރ raa, ބ baa, ޅ lhaviyani, ކ kaafu, އ alifu, ވ vaavu, މ meemu, ފ faafu, ދ dhaalu, ތ thaa, ލ laamu, ގ gaafu, ޏ gnaviyani, ސ seenu, ޑ daviyani, ޒ zaviyani, ޓ taviyani, ޔ yaa, ޕ paviyani, ޖ javiyani, ޗ chaviyani.

The order is not alphabetical in any sense borrowed from Arabic or Latin, because of where the letters came from. The first nine, ހ to ވ, were made from the Arabic-Indic digits 1 to 9, and the next nine, މ to ޑ, from the old Dhivehi numerals 1 to 9; the last six were added after them. That numeric start is rare: Thaana is one of the few scripts whose first letters were taken from numerals.

Thaana has no capital letters, and unlike Arabic its letters never join: each one stands on its own, with vowel signs above or below it. Several consonants have no English equivalent. ދ dhaalu and ތ thaa are a dental d and t, which is what the dh and th in English spellings like Dhivehi and Thaa Atoll mean, not the English th sound; ޑ daviyani and ޓ taviyani are their retroflex partners, said with the tongue curled back. ޅ lhaviyani is the retroflex sound spelled lh, as in ރަނގަޅު rangalhu (good), ށ shaviyani a retroflex sh, and ޏ gnaviyani the ny sound.

Fili and sukun: the ten Dhivehi vowel marks ަ ާ ި ީ ު ޫ ެ ޭ ޮ ޯ and no-vowel sign ް

A Thaana consonant followed by a vowel carries a mark called a fili (ފިލި), which shows that vowel. There are five short and five long vowels: ަ abafili a and ާ aabaafili aa, ި ibifili i and ީ eebeefili ee, ު ubufili u and ޫ ooboofili oo, ެ ebefili e and ޭ eybeyfili ey, ޮ obofili o and ޯ oaboafili oa. Only the two i marks go under the letter; the rest sit on top. So ބ with each mark reads ބަ ba, ބާ baa, ބި bi, ބީ bee, ބު bu, ބޫ boo, ބެ be, ބޭ bey, ބޮ bo, ބޯ boa.

Unlike Arabic, where short vowels are usually left out, Dhivehi writes them all the time, so a Thaana word can be read aloud exactly as spelled. A consonant with no vowel usually takes the sukun ް instead, as on the final ސ of ދިވެހި ބަސް (Dhivehi bas, the Dhivehi language).

އ alifu is the letter that makes this work for vowels with no consonant in front: it has no sound of its own and simply carries the fili, so a word starting with a is spelled އަ, as in އައްސަލާމު ޢަލައިކުމް. With a sukun in the middle of a word, އް doubles the consonant after it: ބައްޕަ bappa (dad). The fili are combining marks: paste one right after its letter and it lands above or below it; on its own it shows on a dotted circle.

Thikijehi Thaana: the dotted letters for words from Arabic

Next to the 24 basic letters, standard Dhivehi uses 14 dotted letters, Thikijehi Thaana (dotted Thaana), made by adding dots to native letters so Arabic words and names can be spelled the Arabic way: ޘ ޙ ޚ ޛ ޜ ޝ ޞ ޟ ޠ ޡ ޢ ޣ ޤ ޥ. You meet them every day in religious words, greetings and names: ޢ ainu (for Arabic ع) in ޢީދު Eid, ޝ sheenu (ش) in ޝުކުރިއްޔާ shukuriyyaa (thank you), ޙ hhaa (ح) in މުޙައްމަދު Muhammad, ޤ qaafu (ق) in ޤުރުއާން Quran and ޟ daadhu (ض) in ރަމަޟާން Ramazan.

Dhivehi text also takes the word Allah in Arabic script, usually as the single ligature ﷲ, even in the middle of Thaana names such as ޢަބްދުﷲ Abdullah. Unicode also has a letter ޱ naa, a consonant used only in the southern Addu dialect; it is outside the standard alphabet, so it is not in the set above.

How to type Dhivehi: keyboard, fonts and punctuation

On Windows 11, add Dhivehi under Settings › Time & language › Language & region and choose the Divehi Phonetic keyboard: the consonants sit on the Latin keys that sound like them (h ހ, n ނ, r ރ, b ބ, k ކ, m މ, f ފ, d ދ, t ތ, l ލ, g ގ, s ސ), and the fili on the vowel keys, with Shift for the long vowels. The older Divehi Typewriter layout follows Maldivian typewriters instead. A Mac has a Dhivehi-QWERTY input source, and on phones Gboard offers a Dhivehi keyboard. For a few letters, copying them from this page is quicker.

Windows ships the Thaana font MV Boli; in the Maldives the free Unicode font Faruma is a popular choice for documents and websites. Set the text direction to right-to-left (in HTML, dir="rtl" and lang="dv") so letters, fili and punctuation fall in the right places.

Dhivehi borrows its punctuation from Arabic: the comma ،, the semicolon ؛ and the question mark ؟, as in ކިހިނެއް؟ (kihineh?, how are you?). The full stop is the ordinary ., and numbers are written with the everyday digits 0–9, read left to right inside the right-to-left line.

Where Dhivehi is spoken

Dhivehi is the national language of the Maldives 🇲🇻, where CLDR estimates about 381,000 speakers. Roughly 4,000 more, by the same estimate, live on Minicoy (Maliku) in India's Lakshadweep islands 🇮🇳, where the local form is called Mahl and is also written in Thaana. Altogether that is an estimated 385,000 speakers. The southern atolls of Addu and Fuvahmulah have dialects distinct enough to be hard for people from Malé to follow.

Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language, and its closest relative is Sinhala of Sri Lanka, whose letters have a collection of their own; the punctuation and the words behind the dotted letters come from Arabic, covered on the Arabic letters page. Before Thaana, Dhivehi was written in its own Indic script, Dhives Akuru, which Thaana gradually replaced; Dhives Akuru was encoded in Unicode in 2020. For the country's flag and emoji such as 🏝️ 🐢 🐠, see the Maldives collection.