- Naviyani
Letter Naviyani ( ޱ ) used to be the used to be the nineteenth letter of the Divehi alphabet. This letter's former position in the alphabet was between letters Daviyani and Zaviyani. [Bodufenvahuge Sidi. "Divehi Akuru; Evvana Bai". Malé 1958. Pages 4-13.]
Naviyani is the retroflex "n" sound (IPA| [ɳ] ) common to most Indic languages (Sinhala, Gujarati,
Hindi , Tamil, etc.).Letter Naviyani was abolished from official documents around 1953 by Muhammad Amin, the ruler of
Maldives at that time. The reason why this particular retroflex sound was abolished and not others, like Lhaviyani (ޅ), Daviyani (ޑ) or Taviyani (ޓ), is not known. Perhaps it was a mere whim of that charismatic Maldivian leader.Letter Naviyani is still pronounced in the
Dhivehi language . Nouns like "onu" (bamboo) or verbs like "bunung" (to say), have this letter. Its sound is especially clear in the speech of southern Maldivians.This letter is still seen in writing in reprints of traditional old books, written before the 1950s, like the Bodu Tartheebu, an ancient religious book. It is also used by Addu people when writing songs or poetry in their language variant.
In 2000, when the
Tāna script was put intoUnicode , certain Maldivian government officials didn't see the need to include this letter.Now, however, there is a minor movement for the reinstating of this letter, especially among Addu intellectuals, whose goal is to bring letter Naviyani (ޱ) back into currency.References
*Geiger, Wilhelm. "Maldivian Linguistic Studies." Reprint 1919 edn. Novelty Press. Male’ 1986.
*Xavier Romero-Frias, "The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom". ISBN 84 7254 801 5
*H. C. P. Bell "Excerpta Maldiviana." Reprint 1922-1935 edn. New Delhi 1998.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
