Maldivian phonology

The phonemic inventory of Maldivian (Dhivehi) consists of 29 consonants and 10 vowels. Like other modern Indo-Aryan languages the Maldivian phonemic inventory shows an opposition of long and short vowels, of dental and retroflex consonants as well as single and geminate consonants.

Vowels[1]
Front Central Back
shortlong shortlong shortlong
Close i u
Mid e o
Open (æː) a
  • [æː] is developed as a sound from the diphthong /ai/.
  • The short open back vowel is phonetically central [ä].
Consonants[1]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɳ (ɲ)*
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p ʈ t͡ʃ k
voiced b ɖ d͡ʒ ɡ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd̪ ᶯɖ ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f ʂ ʃ h
voiced z
Approximant ʋ ɭ j
Tap ɽ
  • The status of /ɲ/ as a phoneme is unclear. Except for two words, /ɲamɲam/ cynometra cauliflora (a kind of fruit) and /ɲaʋijani/ 'Gnaviyani' (alphabet letter), the /ɲ/ only occurs as the result of the fusion of /n/ and /i/: /du:ni/ 'bird', /du:ɲɲeʔ/ 'a bird'.
  • /ʋ/ can occasionally be heard as a fricative [v], it has a [w] allophone occurring between vowel sounds /a/ and /u/.

Dental and retroflex stops are contrastive in Maldivian. For example: maḍun means ‘quietly’ madun means ‘seldom’. The segments /t/ and /d/ are articulated just behind the front teeth. The Maldivian segments /ʈ/, /ɖ/, /ʂ/, and /ɭ/ are not truly retroflex, but apical, produced at the very rear part of the alveolar ridge.

Maldivian has the prenasalized stops /ᵐb/, /ⁿd/, /ᶯɖ/, and /ᵑɡ/. These segments occur only intervocalically: /haⁿdu/ ('moon') /haᶯɖuː/ ('uncooked rice') and /aᵑɡa/ ('mouth'). Maldivian and Sinhalese are the only Indo-Aryan languages that have prenasalized stops.

The influence of other languages has played a great role in Maldivian phonology. For example, the phoneme /z/ comes entirely from foreign influence: /ɡaːziː/ ('judge') is from Persian, /maːziː/ ('past') is from Urdu.

The phoneme /p/ also occurs only in borrowed words in Modern Standard Maldivian: /ripoːtu/ ('report'). At one point, Maldivian did not have the phoneme /f/, and /p/ occurred in the language without contrastive aspiration. Some time in the 17th century, word initial and intervocalic /p/ changed to /f/. Historical documents from the 11th century, for example, show 'five' rendered as /pas̪/ whereas today it is pronounced /fas̪/.

In standard Maldivian when the phoneme /s/ occurs in the final position of a word it changes to [h] intervocalically when inflected. For example, /bas̪/ ('word' or 'language') becomes /baheʔ/ ('a word' or 'a language') and /mas/ ('fish') becomes /maheʔ/ ('a fish'). /s/ and /h/ still contrastive, though: initially /hiᵑɡaː/ ('operating') and /siŋɡaː/ ('lion') and intervocalically /aharu/ ('year') and /asaru/ ('effect').

/ʂ/ is peculiar to Dhivehi among Indo-Aryan languages. In some dialects, it is pronounced as a [ɽ̊] or [ɽ̊͜r̊].[2] The /ʂ/ is related historically and allophonically to /ʈ/ (but not to Sanskrit /ʂ/ or /ɕ/). Sometime after the 12th century, the intervocalic /ʈ/ became [ʂ] /raʈu/ 'island' (12th c.), [raʂu] 'island'. The /ʈ/ is retained in geminate clusters like /feʂuni:/ 'started', /faʈʈaifi/ 'has caused to start'. The contrast between /ʂ/ and /ʈ/ was made through loan words like /koʂani:/ 'cutting', /koʈari/ 'room'.[3]

Borrowed phonemes

Modern Standard Maldivian has borrowed many phonemes from Arabic. These phonemes are used exclusively in loan words from Arabic, for example, the phoneme /x/ in words such as /xaːdim/ ('male servant'). However, most Maldivians do not pronounce the sounds exactly. The following table shows the phonemes that have been borrowed from Arabic/Persian together with their transliteration into Tāna, and their original and native pronunciation.

Tāna Arabic / Persian SAMT IPA
Original / Dhivehi[4]
ޙ ح [ħ] / [h]
ޚ خ x [x] / [h]
ޜ ژ ʒ [ʒ] / [ʒ]
ޢ ع [ʕ] / [ʔ]
ޣ غ ġ [ɣ] / [g] or [ʔ]
ޥ و w [w] / [ʋ]
ޛ ذ ź [ð] / []
ޠ ط ţ [] / []
ޡ ظ [] / [l] or []
ޘ ث [θ] / []
ޤ ق q [q] / [g]
ޞ ص ş [] / []
ޟ ض [] / [l]
ޝ ش ś [ʃ] / [ʃ] or []

Phonotactics

Native Maldivian words do not allow initial consonant clusters; the syllable structure is (C)V(C) (i.e. one vowel with the option of a consonant in the onset and/or coda). This affects the introduction of loanwords, such as /ʔis.kuːl/ from English school.

References

  1. Gnanadesikan, Amalia E. (2017). Dhivehi: The Language of the Maldives. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–25.
  2. Maumoon (2002:35)
  3. Dhivehi (Maldivian) by Bruce Dwayne Cain (2000)
  4. ThatMaldivesBlog: Dhivehi Lesson 1: Script and Pronunciation
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