Thaana
Thaana is the writing system for the Dhivehi language spoken in the Maldives. It shows clear influences from Arabic, but whereas Arabic has numerous forms for every letter, Thaana has one form for each letter. It is also by and large a phonemic script. With a few minor exceptions, spelling can be predicted from pronunciation, and pronunciation from spelling. It is also easily mapped from the romanization system used for Dhivehi.
Thaana, like Arabic, is written right-to-left. It also indicates vowels with superscripts (or, in the case of /i/ and /i:/, subscripts). Each letter must carry a vowel or a sukun (which indicates "no vowel"). The letter alifu has three main uses: It can act as a carrier for a vowel with no preceding consonant; when it carries a sukun, it indicates gemination (lengthening) of the following consonant; and if alifu+sukun occurs at the end of a word, it indicates that the word ends in /eh/.
Thaana occupies Unicode codepoints 1920-1983 (hexadecimal 0780-07BF), supported natively on Windows XP. (ed. note: please note other operating systems that support Thaana, I don't know if any others exist)
Characters of the Thaana script
(vowels are displayed with an alifu carrier)
| Grapheme | HTML Unicode | Name | Romanization | SAMPA value |
| ހ | &1920; | HAA | h | /h/ |
| ށ | &1921; | SHAVIYANI | sh | /S/ |
| ނ | &1922; | NOONU | n | /n/ |
| ރ | &1923; | RAA | r | /r/ |
| ބ | &1924; | BAA | b | /b/ |
| ޅ | &1925; | LHAVIYANI | lh | /l'/ |
| ކ | &1926; | KAAFU | k | /k/ |
| އ | &1927; | ALIFU | varies -
see article | n/a |
| ވ | &1928; | VAAVU | v | /v/ |
| މ | &1929; | MEEMU | m | /m/ |
| ފ | &1930; | FAAFU | f | /f/ |
| ދ | &1931; | DHAALU | dh | ? |
| ތ | &1932; | THAA | th | ? |
| ލ | &1933; | LAAMU | l | /l/ |
| ގ | &1934; | GAAFU | g | /g/ |
| ޏ | &1935; | GNAVIYANI | gn | /ñ/ |
| ސ | &1936; | SEENU | s | /s/ |
| ޑ | &1937; | DAVIYANI | d | /d/ |
| ޒ | &1938; | ZAVIYANI | z | /z/ |
| ޓ | &1939; | TAVIYANI | t | /t/ |
| ޔ | &1940; | YAA | y | /y/ |
| ޕ | &1941; | PAVIYANI | p | /p/ |
| ޖ | &1942; | JAVIYANI | j | /dZ/ |
| ޗ | &1943; | CHAVIYANI | ch | /tS/ |
| ޘ | &1944; | TTAA | Arabic-to-Dhivehi
transliteration
characters |
| ޙ | &1945; | HHAA |
| ޚ | &1946; | KHAA |
| ޛ | &1947; | THAALU |
| ޜ | &1948; | ZAA |
| ޝ | &1949; | SHEENU |
| ޞ | &1950; | SAADHU |
| ޟ | &1951; | DAADHU |
| ޠ | &1952; | TO |
| ޡ | &1953; | ZO |
| ޢ | &1954; | AINU |
| ޣ | &1955; | GHAINU |
| ޤ | &1956; | QAAFU |
| ޥ | &1957; | WAAVU |
| ައ | &1958; | ABAFILI | a | /a/ |
| ާއ | &1959; | AABAAFILI | aa | /a:/ |
| ިއ | &1960; | IBIFILI | i | /i/ |
| ީއ | &1961; | EEBEEFILI | ee | /i:/ |
| ުއ | &1962; | UBUFILI | u | /u/ |
| ޫއ | &1963; | OOBOOFILI | oo | /u:/ |
| ެއ | &1964; | EBEFILI | e | /e/ |
| ޭއ | &1965; | EYBEYFILI | ey | /e:/ |
| ޮއ | &1966; | OBOFILI | o | /o/ |
| ޯއ | &1967; | OABOAFILI | oa | /o:/ |
| ްއ | &1968; | SUKUN | varies -
see article | n/a |
| ޱ | &1969; | NAA | ? | ? |
External links:
A brief description of Thaana is available at this website
Referenced By
Demographics of the Maldives | List of writing systems | Maldives/Government | Maldives/People | Politics of Maldives | Politics of the Maldives
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