Mahl language

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Mahl މަހަލް mahal
Spoken in:	Minicoy (India); Maldives
Total speakers:	15,000-20,000 (Mahl only)
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Southern zone     Sinhalese-Maldivian      Mahl
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	dv
ISO 639-2:	div
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	div — Dhivehi
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Mahl (މަހަލް mahal), also known locally as Maliku Bas, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the people of Minicoy Island (Maliku), India. It is a dialect of Dhivehi, the official language of Maldives.

Linguists agree that Mahl is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Hindi, Marathi and its most closest sister is Sinhalese. Dhivehi represents the southernmost Indo-Aryan language and even the southernmost Indo-European language. Together with the closely related Sinhala, Mahl (Divehi) establishes a special subgroup within the West and Southwest group of the Modern Indo-Aryan languages.

Contents 1 History 2 Classification 3 Geographic distribution 3.1 Official status 3.2 Dialects 4 Modern standard 4.1 Sound 4.2 Nominal morphology 4.3 Numerals 4.4 Verbal morphology 5 Alphabet 5.1 Thaana alphabet 5.2 Devanagari script for Mahl 6 Grammar 7 Vocabulary 7.1 Word origins 7.2 Some common phrases 7.3 Mahl word box 8 Modern issues 8.1 Information technology issues 8.1.1 Typography 8.1.2 Text editors 8.1.3 Fonts 8.1.4 Unicode support for Thaana characters 9 Mahl literature 10 Mahl authors 11 External links 12 Notes 12.1 Further reading

[edit] History

Mahl first appeared in writing around 10th century AD. (Where ????)

[edit] Classification

Mahl belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Most speakers of Mahl live in Minicoy island, in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, while a few migrated to Kochi and elsewhere in the state of Kerala. Dhivehi is also spoken by about 300,000 people in the Republic of Maldives.

[edit] Official status

Dhivehi is the official language of Maldives.

[edit] Dialects

According to Sonja Fritz:

"In many respects, the dialects of Divehi represent different diachronial stages in the development of the language. Especially in the field of morphology, the amount of archaich features steadily increase from the north to the south. Within the three southern most atolls (of the Maldives), the dialect of the Addu islands which form the southern tip of the whole archipelago is characterized by the highest degree of archaicity".

Sonja Fritz puts forward this theory based on research into the dialects of Addu and Fua Mulah. She is yet to do research on the dialect of Huvadhu Atoll. And even she has to do more research on both Addu and Fua Mulah dialect. Only then can she determine whether the dialects Fua Mulah and Huvadhu or that of Addu is more archaich. How ever from Male' (Maldives) to the south up to Huvadhu Atoll (Maldives) the amount of archaich features increase but from Huvadhu Atoll the amount of archaich features decrease towards south. And the dialect of Huvadhu is characterized by the highest degree of archaicity.

Fritz also adds:

"Thus the different classes of verb conjugation and nominal inflection are best preserved there, morphological simplifications and, as a consequence increasing from atoll to atoll towards north (in the Maldives)".

Other dialects of Dhivehi are, amongst others, Haddhunmathee bas, Huvadhoo bas, Moloki bas and Addu bas.

[edit] Modern standard

Modern standard Mahl is the standard language used in written Mahl.

[edit] Sound

The sound system of Mahl is similar to that of South Indian languages. Like other Modern Indo-Aryan languages the Mahl phonemic inventory shows an opposition of long and short vowels, of dental and retroflex consonants as well as single and geminate consonants.

[edit] Nominal morphology

The nominal system of Mahl comprises nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals as parts of speech.

[edit] Numerals

Mahl uses two numeral systems. Both of them are identical up to 30. After 30, however, one system places the unit numeral stem before the decade (for example: eh-thirees '31' lit. one and thirty) while the other combines the stem of the decade with the unit numeral (for example: thirees-ekeh '31' lit. thirty + one). The latter system also has numerals multiplied by ten for decades 70, 80 and 90.

The decade fas dholhas '60' lit. five twelves, comes from a much older duodecimal or dozen system which has nearly disappeared.

[edit] Verbal morphology

The Mahl verbal system is characterized by a derivational relationship between active, causative and involitive/intransitive verb forms.

[edit] Alphabet

[edit] Thaana alphabet

Mahl uses the Thaana alphabet for writing.

[edit] Devanagari script for Mahl

Though Mahl is written with Thaana alphabet, around 1950s a Devanagari script was modified to write Mahl Language.

[edit] Grammar

Mahl grammar is the same as Dhivehi grammar.

[edit] Vocabulary

The Mahl language enriched with many words borrowed from other languages.

[edit] Word origins

The Mahl has borrowed words from Arabic (in particular many religious terms), Portuguese, Urdu, Hindi and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). Some examples follow:

• taareekh - date or history (from Arabic tarikh)
• zaraafaa - giraffe (from Arabic zarafah)

A lot of English words are commonly used in conversation and are practically a part of the Mahl vocabulary and they include - phone, note, radio.

[edit] Some common phrases

Mahl Phrase	Latin Transliteration	English Translation
ސުވަސްތީ	Suvasthee	Welcome
ޝުކުރިއްޔާ	Shukuriyyaa	Thank you
ނޫން	Noon	No

[edit] Mahl word box

Mahl Word	Latin Transliteration	English Translation
ކަނީރު	Kaneeru	Oleander
ކަންފަތް	Kanfaiy	Ear
ކަނިފަށް	Kanifah	Barb
ކަންކުން	Kankun	Water spinach
ކުޑަ	Kuda	Umbrella

[edit] Modern issues

[edit] Information technology issues

[edit] Typography

The Mahl Unit Press at Minicoy started functioning in 1984 onwards where all kinds of Mahl printing work is undertaken. The press also releases the Lakshadweep Times in three languages on a regular basis: Mahl, English and Malayalam. Presently this unit is functioning in the main Building which is constructed in 1998. For the first time in the history, Mahl Language was brought into the field of typography.

Activities :

1. Production of note books for the department of Education and Jawahar Navodaya School at Minicoy.
2. Printing Mahl Text Book for I to IV Standards.
3. Undertaking printing work from the public on a payment basis.

[edit] Text editors

Fthaana, Universal Word, Accent Express, Accent Special Edition are the most common word processors used. However now most of the people use MS Word to write Mahl.

[edit] Fonts

[edit] Unicode support for Thaana characters

Thaana occupies Unicode codepoints 1920-1983 (hexadecimal 0780-07BF).

Characters of the Thaana script
(vowels are displayed with an alifu carrier)

Grapheme	HTML Unicode	Name	Romanization	IPA value
ހ	ހ	HAA	h	[h]
ށ	ށ	SHAVIYANI	sh	[ʂ]
ނ	ނ	NOONU	n	[n]
ރ	ރ	RAA	r	[r]
ބ	ބ	BAA	b	[b]
ޅ	ޅ	LHAVIYANI	lh	[ɭ]
ކ	ކ	KAAFU	k	[k]
އ	އ	ALIFU	varies	see article
ވ	ވ	VAAVU	v	[v]
މ	މ	MEEMU	m	[m]
ފ	ފ	FAAFU	f	[f]
ދ	ދ	DHAALU	dh	[d]
ތ	ތ	THAA	th	[t]
ލ	ލ	LAAMU	l	[l]
ގ	ގ	GAAFU	g	[g]
ޏ	ޏ	GNAVIYANI	gn	[ɲ]
ސ	ސ	SEENU	s	[s]
ޑ	ޑ	DAVIYANI	d	[ɖ]
ޒ	ޒ	ZAVIYANI	z	[z]
ޓ	ޓ	TAVIYANI	t	[ʈ]
ޔ	ޔ	YAA	y	[j]
ޕ	ޕ	PAVIYANI	p	[p]
ޖ	ޖ	JAVIYANI	j	[ɟ]
ޗ	ޗ	CHAVIYANI	ch	[c]
ޘ	ޘ	TTAA	Arabic-to-Dhivehi transliteration characters
ޙ	ޙ	HHAA
ޚ	ޚ	KHAA
ޛ	ޛ	THAALU
ޜ	ޜ	ZAA	English-to-Dhivehi transliteration [ʒ]
ޝ	ޝ	SHEENU	Arabic-to-Dhivehi transliteration characters
ޞ	ޞ	SAADHU
ޟ	ޟ	DAADHU
ޠ	ޠ	TO
ޡ	ޡ	ZO
ޢ	ޢ	AINU
ޣ	ޣ	GHAINU
ޤ	ޤ	QAAFU
ޥ	ޥ	WAAVU
އަ	ަ	ABAFILI	a	[a]
އާ	ާ	AABAAFILI	aa	[aː]
އި	ި	IBIFILI	i	[i]
އީ	ީ	EEBEEFILI	ee	[iː]
އު	ު	UBUFILI	u	[u]
އޫ	ޫ	OOBOOFILI	oo	[uː]
އެ	ެ	EBEFILI	e	[e]
އޭ	ޭ	EYBEYFILI	ey	[eː]
އޮ	ޮ	OBOFILI	o	[o]
އޯ	ޯ	OABOAFILI	oa	[oː]
އް	ް	SUKUN	varies	see article
ޱ	ޱ	NAA (Addu dialect)	?	?

[edit] Mahl literature

Main article: Mahl literature

Husain Salaahuddheen wrote Siyarathunnabaviyyaa which is the most famous religious literature. The poet Bandeyri Hasan Manikufaan ranks as the most important major literateur in the Mahl language. Bandeyri Hasan Manikufaan wrote Dhiyoage Raivaru.

Other prominent poets include Edhuru Umaru Maafaiy Kaleygefaanu, Mohamed Amin, and Assayyidhu Bodufenvalhugey Seedhee.

[edit] Mahl authors

• H. Salahuddin
• Maulavi M.I. Umari
• U. Easa
• A. Sadiq
• H.H. Habeeb
• F. Nahula
• A. Husain
• A. Faiza
• Ali Musthafa
• Ibrahim Shihab
• Mohamed Amin Didi

[edit] External links

• Ekumaafaanu forum discussing about Mahl Encyclopedia
• A Guide to Mahl Language
• Ethnologue report for India
• Mahl Unit Press Minicoy
• Literacy Programme in Mahl Language of Minicoy Island
• A Workshop for mother tongue teaching strategies for Mahl Language
• Dhivehi-English dictionary
• Unicode standard for Middle Eastern Scripts

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Cain, Bruce D. (2000). Divehi (Maldivian): A Synchronic and Diachronic study, PhD thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at Cornell University.
• Fritz, Sonja. (2001). The Divehi Language: A Descriptive and Historical Grammar of the Maldivian and its Dialects, 2 vols, Heidelberg.

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