Thaana
From Academic Kids
Thaana is the writing system for the Dhivehi language spoken in the Maldives. It's an abugida, with vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic abjad. It is a largely 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.
The origins of Thaana are unique among the world's alphabets: The first nine letters (h–v) are derived from the Arabic numerals, whereas the next nine (m–d) were the local Indic numerals. (See Hindu-Arabic numerals.) The remaining letters for loanwords (z–ch) and Arabic transliteration are derived from phonetically similar native consonants by means of diacritics, with the exception of y, which is of unknown origin. This means that Thaana is one of the few alphabets not derived graphically from the original Semitic alphabet — unless the Indic numerals were (see Brahmi numerals).
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 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).
| Grapheme | HTML Unicode | Name | Romanization | IPA value |
| ހ | &1920; | HAA | h | Template:IPA |
| <center>ށ | &1921; | SHAVIYANI | sh | Template:IPA |
| <center>ނ | &1922; | NOONU | n | Template:IPA |
| <center>ރ | &1923; | RAA | r | Template:IPA |
| <center>ބ | &1924; | BAA | b | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޅ | &1925; | LHAVIYANI | lh | Template:IPA |
| <center>ކ | &1926; | KAAFU | k | Template:IPA |
| <center>އ | &1927; | ALIFU | varies | see article |
| <center>ވ | &1928; | VAAVU | v | Template:IPA |
| <center>މ | &1929; | MEEMU | m | Template:IPA |
| <center>ފ | &1930; | FAAFU | f | Template:IPA |
| <center>ދ | &1931; | DHAALU | dh | Template:IPA |
| <center>ތ | &1932; | THAA | th | Template:IPA |
| <center>ލ | &1933; | LAAMU | l | Template:IPA |
| <center>ގ | &1934; | GAAFU | g | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޏ | &1935; | GNAVIYANI | gn | Template:IPA |
| <center>ސ | &1936; | SEENU | s | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޑ | &1937; | DAVIYANI | d | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޒ | &1938; | ZAVIYANI | z | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޓ | &1939; | TAVIYANI | t | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޔ | &1940; | YAA | y | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޕ | &1941; | PAVIYANI | p | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޖ | &1942; | JAVIYANI | j | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޗ | &1943; | CHAVIYANI | ch | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޘ | &1944; | TTAA | Arabic-to-Dhivehi transliteration characters | |
| <center>ޙ | &1945; | HHAA | ||
| <center>ޚ | &1946; | KHAA | ||
| <center>ޛ | &1947; | THAALU | ||
| <center>*ޜ | &1948; | ZAA | ||
| <center>ޝ | &1949; | SHEENU | ||
| <center>ޞ | &1950; | SAADHU | ||
| <center>ޟ | &1951; | DAADHU | ||
| <center>ޠ | &1952; | TO | ||
| <center>ޡ | &1953; | ZO | ||
| <center>ޢ | &1954; | AINU | ||
| <center>ޣ | &1955; | GHAINU | ||
| <center>ޤ | &1956; | QAAFU | ||
| <center>ޥ | &1957; | WAAVU | ||
| <center>ައ | &1958; | ABAFILI | a | Template:IPA |
| <center>ާއ | &1959; | AABAAFILI | aa | Template:IPA |
| <center>ިއ | &1960; | IBIFILI | i | Template:IPA |
| <center>ީއ | &1961; | EEBEEFILI | ee | Template:IPA |
| <center>ުއ | &1962; | UBUFILI | u | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޫއ | &1963; | OOBOOFILI | oo | Template:IPA |
| <center>ެއ | &1964; | EBEFILI | e | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޭއ | &1965; | EYBEYFILI | ey | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޮއ | &1966; | OBOFILI | o | Template:IPA |
| <center>ޯއ | &1967; | OABOAFILI | oa | Template:IPA |
| <center>ްއ | &1968; | SUKUN | varies | see article |
| <center>ޱ | &1969; | NAA (Addu dialect) | ? | ? |
Note: The letter ޜ is not an Arabic-Dhivehi transliteration character.It is actually used to write the English sound Template:IPA
Source: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/thaana.htm
External links
- A brief description of Thaana is available at this website (http://www.maldivesculture.com/thaana01.html)
- Project thaana (http://www.mitf.net/index.php/projects/thaana/unicode.html) - resource for developers
