Throughout
the Maldives
Dhivehi
is spoken, which is the national language.
It is a language with roots in old South Asian languages
(Indo-Aryan
languages), mixed with Arabic,
Hindi
and English
words.
The literacy rate of the Maldives is very high - 98%.
Since the early 1960s,
English has become the medium of education
in most schools, while Dhivehi is still the language
used for the overall administration and daily conversations
among Maldivians.
After defeating the Portuguese,
about 4 centuries ago, the Thaana
script, which is a refinement of older scripts, was
introduced. The script, as in Arabic,
is written from right to left.
It is a very phonetic language with the vowels below
and above the letters in the form of dashes. There
is no exact correlation between the Thaana
and Roman
script, which leads to the same word or name being
spelt in many different ways. In the 1940s,
the 20 administrative units, which are also known
as atolls, were each assigned a letter of the Dhivehi
alphabet. For example, North Maalhosmadulu
is usually referred to as Raa atoll
according to the alphabetic
assignment.
Due
to the widespread distribution of the islands, differences
in pronunciation and vocabulary have developed, especially
between the north and south atolls. People in Malé
cannot understand for example the dialect used by
the people of Addu or Seenu
Atoll.
Inherent in the Dhivehi
language is a form of class distinction expressed
through three levels. The first level, the “reethi
bas” or nice language, was and is still
used to address members of the upper class, but is
now more often used on national radio and TV. To show
respect for elders, officials and strangers, the second
level is used. Most people use the more informal last
level in every day life.
It’s
interesting to hear how English words have been “Dhivehinized”
by adding the ending “U”, e.g. computer
becomes computaru. Recently committees have been established
to reintroduce Dhivehi
words and to create new ones.
“Hello” and “Good bye” are
not used in Dhivehi,
instead someone might greet you with a smile or the
raising of the eyebrow and just ask “kihineh?”
(how are you?). Or they might just ask you
where you are going, “kon thaakah dhanee?”,
since they already know how you are, as is often the
case in such close communities.
Goodbyes
are usually expressed by announcing “dhanee!”
(I’m going). Last but not least the
often-overused word “thank you”
is not really part of the language, but has
been introduced recently through the Indian word “shukuriyya”.
Maldivians are naturally hospitable and generous people
and consider “thank you” unnecessary.
Read
more: Dhivehi language
