Language of Maldives

The official language of the Maldives is Dhivehi which is essentially a mix of Hindi, Arabic, English and the dialects of Sri Lanka, South East Asia and Northern India; however there are striking parallels between Dhivehi and Singhalese.

The Maldives has a very high literacy rate of 98% and a vast majority of the locals speak English. Consequently, western tourists would not encounter any problems when touring the country.

The original settlers on the isles spoke ‘Elu’, a variant of Singhalese. Modern Dhivehi is a modification of this ancient tongue and now, the language is written from right to left in the manner of Arabic. The modern Thaana script was coined in the 16^th century after the ouster of Portuguese. In olden days, Dhivehi was inscribed on copper plates called ‘Loamaafaanu’.

In the Thaanu script, vowels are indicated either on top or beneath the letters in the form of dashes or notations. A unique feature of Dhivehi is its three-tiered class distinction – the elite are addressed with ‘reethi bas’ or genteel language, the elders are spoken to in the second level and the more informal mode is reserved for commonplace matters.

Dhivehi is widely used in the administration of the isles and English words when used in conjunction with it are suffixed with an ‘u’ sound.

Owing to geographical differences amongst the islands, various dialects have emerged as a result of which residents of Male cannot grasp the dialect used by the incumbents of Seenu Atoll.