Thaana

Thaana ތާނަ
Script type	Abugida With no inherent vowel
Time period	17th century — present
Direction	right-to-left
Languages	Maldivian language
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Nabataean script Partially from Arabic Alphabet and Hindu-Arabic numerals Thaana
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Thaa (170), ​Thaana
Unicode
Unicode alias	Thaana
Unicode range	U+0780–U+07BF

Thaana (also spelled Tãna, Taana, or Tāna, written as ތާނަ) is the writing system used for the Maldivian language, which people speak in the Maldives. Thaana has features of both an abugida (a system where small marks are added to show vowels or remove them) and a regular alphabet (where all the vowels are written out).

The consonant letters in Thaana come from local symbols and Arabic numbers, and the vowel marks are based on the vowel signs used in the Arabic alphabet. The way words are written in Thaana usually matches how they sound when spoken, which makes it a phonetic writing system.

Name

H. C. P. Bell, the first serious researcher of Maldivian documents, used the spelling Tāna, as the initial consonant is unaspirated. The spelling Thaana was adopted in the mid-1970s, when the government of the Maldives embarked on a short period of Romanization; /t/ was transcribed ⟨th⟩, as ⟨t⟩ was used for the voiceless retroflex plosive [ʈ].

History

Sign at a mosque in Malé: the Thaana script reads Faivānā, būṭāeku erun manā!.

The Thaana script was first seen in the early 1600s in the Maldives. At first, it was a basic version called Gabulhi Thaana, which means "incomplete Thaana." This early script didn’t have spaces between words and was written as one continuous line. Over time, the letters became neater and slanted, and spaces were added between words. Slowly, Thaana replaced the older writing system called Dhives Akuru.

The oldest known example of Thaana writing is on the island of Kanditheemu, in Northern Miladhunmadulu Atoll. It is carved into the doorposts of the island’s main Friday mosque (Hukuru Miskiy). The writing dates back to 1599 and 1611 AD, from the time of Sultan Ibrahim III and Sultan Hussain II, when the mosque’s roof was built and later repaired.

The origin of the Thaana script is very unusual compared to other writing systems in the world. The first nine letters (h, ṣ, n, r, b, ḷ, k, ʔ, v) come from Arabic numbers. The next nine letters (m, f, d, t, l, g, ṇ, s, ḍ) come from old local numbers used in India, known as Indic numerals.

Some extra letters were added later to write sounds from Arabic and other foreign languages. These letters (like z, ṭ, y, p, j, c, ñ, and others) were made by changing the shapes of existing letters using small marks called diacritics (like the dot used in Hindi or Urdu, called a nuqta). The only exception is the letter for "yaa," whose origin is still unknown.

Because of its history, Thaana is one of the few writing systems that didn’t come from the ancient Semitic alphabet. The only similar example is the Ogham script used in Ireland long ago, which also had a link to numbers and used lines that looked like tally marks.

The order of the Thaana alphabet (ha, shaviyani, noonu, raa, baa, etc.) is different from other Indian or Arabic scripts and doesn’t seem to follow any clear pattern. Some believe this unusual order was made to keep the script secret from regular people. Originally, Thaana was mainly used to write magical spells (fanḍita), which included Arabic quotes written from right to left. Maldivian scholars, who were skilled in magic, saw the benefits of using this simpler, hidden script, so Thaana was slowly adopted for everyday writing.

The Thaana script was reinstated by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom shortly after he took power in 1978, although the Latin transcription of 1976 continues to be widely used.

Characteristics

Thaana, like Arabic, is written right to left. It indicates vowels with diacritic marks derived from Arabic. Each letter must carry either a vowel or a sukun (which indicates "no vowel"). The only exception to this rule is nūnu which, when written without a diacritic, indicates prenasalization of a following stop.

Even though it is not part of the alphabet, Arabic ligature Allah ﷲ is used for writing names in Thaana, for example އަބްދުﷲ (Abdullah). "Allah" is never written in thaana, with the ligature ﷲ used.

Unicode

Thaana was added to the Unicode Standard in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0.

The Unicode block for Thaana is U+0780–U+07BF:Template:Unicode chart Thaana