Despite foreign words, Dhivehi belongs to Maldivians: Ashraf

Although Dhivehi language has borrowed several foreign words and terms, the language has its unique identity and fully belongs to the Maldivians according to the President of Dhivehi Bahuge Academy Dr. Ashraf Abdulraheem.

Dr. Ashraf made the statement at the Asian Literary Society Caravan 2024, held by the Indian High Commission in association with Ahmadiyya International School and Marketers Summit.

In his speech, Ashraf noted that the Dhivehi language, while having borrowed several foreign words, has altered their vernacular into the Dhivehi language.

The phonetics of the Dhivehi language itself, according to Ashraf, is proof of the unique characteristics and identity of the language as well.

"In Arabic we do not have the ta-viyani, da-viyani, pa-viyani sounds, but are found in Dhivehi, and there are original sounds like sha-viyani," Dr. Ashraf noted.

He further noted that the "tenses" of "adjectives" in Dhivehi language are another case of a unique identity of the lanugage. He added that that the past-participle, present continuous, and future tense all incorporate unique Dhivehi stylization.

While highlighting the languages with grammatical gender such as Urdu and Hindi, which use feminine and masculine terms for women and men, respectively, Dr. Ashraf emphasized that Dhivehi language does not possess this trait as it is universally applied to the genders.

He also highlighted that Dhivehi language is also unique due to its Right-to-Left (RTL) script direction as well as the usage of diacritical marks. Dr. Ashraf pointed out to the unique qualities found in Dhivehi poetry as well.

"Although the first Maldivian poets heavily relied on the Arabic poetry to borrow the structure, the language command and grammar of Dhivehi is still unique and eloquent... that is why, Dhivehi is a grammatically sound and beautiful langauge," Dr. Ashraf added.

Several linguistics and experts gathered at the Asian Literary Society Caravan 2024 for healthy discourse regarding their technical fields, including literature and creative writing. Besides this, the event featured various cultural and other activities as well.