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.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | u | uː | ||
| Mid | e | eː | o | oː | ||
| Open | ( æː ) [a] | a | aː | |||
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ( ɲ ) [a] | |||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | t͡ʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd̪ | ᶯɖ | ᵑɡ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s̪ | ʂ | ( ʃ ) [b] | h | |
| voiced | z | ||||||
| Approximant | ʋ [c] | l̪ | ɭ | j | |||
| Tap | ɽ | ||||||
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:[ citation needed ]/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 Historical documents from the 11th century, for example, show 'five' rendered as /pas̪/ whereas today it is pronounced /fas̪/.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]
/ʃ/ is a loan phoneme (see section below). Although most speakers clearly distinguish between /ʃ/ and /ʂ/, some researchers report that this contrast is diminishing among younger speakers, especially those receiving education in English.. [1]
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 (and /ʒ/ from Persian and English) with their transliteration into Tāna, and their original and native pronunciation.
| Tāna | Arabic | SAMT | IPA Original / Dhivehi [4] |
|---|---|---|---|
| ޙ | ح | ḥ | [ 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 ] / [ z̺ ] |
| ޠ | ط | ţ | [ tˤ ] / [ t̪ ] |
| ޡ | ظ | ẓ | [ ðˤ ] / [ l ] or [ z̺ ] |
| ޘ | ث | ṡ | [ θ ] / [ s̺ ] |
| ޤ | ق | q | [ q ] / [ g ] |
| ޞ | ص | ş | [ sˤ ] / [ s̺ ] |
| ޟ | ض | ḑ | [ dˤ ] / [ l ] |
| ޝ | ش | ś | [ ʃ ] / [ ʃ ] or [ s̺ ] |
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.
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