Thaana
former semitic abugida writing system, derived from the Arabic abjad and the former Dives Akuru abugida
Thaana, Tãna, Taana or Tāna ( ތާނަ ) is the writing system of the Maldivian language spoken in the Maldives. Thaana has characteristics of both an abugida (diacritics, vowel-killer strokes) and a true alphabet (all vowels are written), with consonants derived from indigenous and Arabic numerals, and vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic abjad. Maldivian orthography in Thaana is largely phonemic.
Name
H. C. P. Bell 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
The Thaana script first appeared in Maldivian inscriptions towards the beginning of the fifteenth century, during the reign of Golāvahī Nāṣiruddīn (Sultan Nasir al-Din al-Gulavihi, 1409–1411), in an early form known as Gabulhi (“incomplete”) Thaana. This early form was written in scripta continua, without spaces between words. The earliest known surviving Thaana inscription, dating to AD 1479, was discovered on a gravestone. The oldest written sample of the Thaana script is found in the island of Kanditheemu in Northern Miladhunmadulu Atoll. It is inscribed on the door posts of the main Hukuru Miskiy (Friday mosque) of the island and dates back to 1599 and 1611 when the roof of the building was built and then renewed during the reigns of Ibrahim Kalaafaan (Sultan Ibrahim III) and Hussain Faamuladeyri Kilege (Sultan Hussain II) respectively.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q877906. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1409, 1411, 1479 and 1599.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thaana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.