Old Dhivehi

Old Dhivehi is the earliest attested form of the Maldivian language, with records found in the Loamaafaanu from the 12th and 13th centuries CE, as well as various Buddhist texts dating back to the 6th century CE. It is the ancestral form that evolved into the modern northern dialect of the Dhivehi language. Old dhivehi belongs to Indo-Aryan branch of the wider Indo-European language family.

Old Dhivehi
Dhanbidhoo Loamaafaanu (1195 CE) is written in the Old Dhivehi language
Region	Maldives
Era	12-13th century CE
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Southern Zone Insular Indo-Aryan Elu Old Dhivehi
Writing system	Eveylaa akuru (older variant of Dhives Akuru)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
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No endonym for the language is known. However the language may have been called "Dhuvesi" or "Dhivesi" meaning "Islander", which has evolved into the endonym for the modern language.^[1]

History

Old Dhivehi descends through Proto Dhivehi-Sinhala or Elu spoken in 3rd century BCE. Around 1st century BCE, the unattested Proto-Dhivehi, the direct ancestor to all Maldivian dialects, started to separate from Elu prakrit. Proto-Dhivehi came to be influenced by subcontinental Middle Indo-Aryan dialects and Dravidian languages.^[2]

Phonology

Vowel inventory of Old Dhivehi is mostly identical to that of modern dhivehi. Like Sinhala and Dravidian and unlike most Indo-Aryan languages, spoken Old Dhivehi distinguished between long and short forms of [e, eː] and [o, oː]. However these were not distinguished in writing.^[3]

Vowels^[4]

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Open			a	aː

• Modern [æː] developed as an independent phoneme from the Old Dhivehi diphthong /ai/.

Consonants^[4]

	Labial		Dental/ Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m		n		ɳ		ɲ
Stop/ Affricate	p	b ᵐb	t̪	d̪ ⁿd̪	ʈ	ɖ ᶯɖ			k	ɡ ᵑɡ
Fricative			s̪								h
Approximant		ʋ		l̪		ɭ		j
Tap						ɽ

• The Old Dhivehi vowel inventory was more limited compared to that of modern Dhivehi, as the phonemes of /f/, /z̪/, /d͡ʒ/, /t͡ʃ/ and /ʃ/ had not evolved.
• OIA sibilants historically merged /ʃ/ and /ʂ/ into /s]/.^[5]
• The Old Dhivehi consonant clusters /dy/ and /ty/ evolved into later /d͡ʒ/ and /t͡ʃ/ respectively.^[6]
• Prenasalized consonants existed in the spoken form of Old Dhivehi, however were not written down.^[7]
• Modern Dhivehi ށ /ʂ/ is a reflex of OIA and Old Dhivehi /ʈ/ rather than OIA /ʂ/.^[5]
• Old Dhivehi contrasted between the retroflex nasal ޱ [ɳ] and dental nasal ނ [n̪].^[8][9]
• Old Dhivehi /p/ shifted to /f/ after the 17th century.^[10]
• Vowel backing of Old Dhivehi /e/ to /o/ before retroflexes occurred after the 13th century.^[11]

Grammar

Comparison of case suffixes between Old Dhivehi, Modern Standard Dhivehi (Male'), Addu and Fuvahmulah dialects^[4][12]

Vocabulary

Old Dhivehi	Modern Dhivehi	English
Puʈi ޕުޓި	Fuʂi ފުށި	Islet
Pavuru ޕަވުރު	Fāru ފާރު	Wall
Ateɭu އަތެޅު	Atoɭu އަތޮޅު	Atoll
Malu މަލު	Mā މާ	Flower
Raʈu ރަޓު	Raʂ ރަށް	Island/Country
Keɭu ކެޅު	Koɭu ކޮޅު	end/piece
Simu ސިމު	In އިން	Border
Saᶯdu ސަނދު	Haᶯdu ހަނދު	Moon
Doruveʈi ދޮރުވެޓި	Dorōʂi ދޮރޯށި	Gate