Maldivian language

Dhivehi
Maldivian
ދިވެހި, dhivehi
"Dhivehi" written in the Thaana script
Pronunciation	[d̪iʋehi]
Native to	Maldives Minicoy Island (Maliku)
Ethnicity	Maldivians
Native speakers	500,000 (2022)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Southern Zone Insular Indo-Aryan Dhivehi–Sinhala Dhivehi
Early form	Old Dhivehi
Writing system	Thaana Dhives Akuru until the 19th century
Signed forms	Dhivehi Sign Language
Official status
Official language in	Maldives
Regulated by	Dhivehi Academy
Language codes
ISO 639-1	dv
ISO 639-2	div
ISO 639-3	div
Glottolog	dhiv1236
IETF	dv-MV
Maldives

Dhivehi, Divehi or Mahl is an Indo-Aryan language.

It is spoken by about 350,000 people in the Republic of Maldives and Suvadives and also in the disputed island of Minicoy (Maliku), claimed by Maldivians that is annexed by neighbouring India, where it is known by another name, the Mahal language or Mahl (މަހަލް). In the Maldives, it is the official national language. In different atolls the words may change but have the same meaning.

Dhivehi is the main language spoken in Maldives. Since it involves the use of many English, Hindi and Arabic words, it seems to resemble many languages spoken in Sri Lanka, South East Asia and North India.

In the earlier times, people spoke "Elu", a language that was basically a form of ancient Singhalese language. This language underwent a lot of transformations and gave rise to the Dhivehi language of today. Dhivehi is written from left to right. In the olden days, the language was inscribed on the copper plates, popularly known as the "Loamaafaanu".

References