Thaana is the writing system for the Dhivehi language[?] spoken in the Maldives. It shows clear influences from Arabic, but whereas Arabic has numerous forms for every letter, Thaana has one form for each letter. It is also by and large a phonemic script. With a few minor exceptions, spelling can be predicted from pronunciation, and pronunciation from spelling. It is also easily mapped from the romanization system used for Dhivehi.
Thaana, like Arabic, is written right-to-left. It also indicates vowels with superscripts (or, in the case of /i/ and /i:/, subscripts). Each letter must carry a vowel or a sukun (which indicates "no vowel"). The letter alifu has three main uses: It can act as a carrier for a vowel with no preceding consonant; when it carries a sukun, it indicates gemination (lengthening) of the following consonant; and if alifu+sukun occurs at the end of a word, it indicates that the word ends in /eh/.
Thaana occupies Unicode codepoints 1920-1983 (hexadecimal 0780-07BF), supported natively on Windows XP. (ed. note: please note other operating systems that support Thaana, I don't know if any others exist)
| Grapheme | HTML Unicode | Name | Romanization | SAMPA value |
| ހ | &1920; | HAA | h | /h/ |
| ށ | &1921; | SHAVIYANI | sh | /S/ |
| ނ | &1922; | NOONU | n | /n/ |
| ރ | &1923; | RAA | r | /r/ |
| ބ | &1924; | BAA | b | /b/ |
| ޅ | &1925; | LHAVIYANI | lh | /l'/ |
| ކ | &1926; | KAAFU | k | /k/ |
| އ | &1927; | ALIFU | varies - see article | n/a |
| ވ | &1928; | VAAVU | v | /v/ |
| މ | &1929; | MEEMU | m | /m/ |
| ފ | &1930; | FAAFU | f | /f/ |
| ދ | &1931; | DHAALU | dh | ? |
| ތ | &1932; | THAA | th | ? |
| ލ | &1933; | LAAMU | l | /l/ |
| ގ | &1934; | GAAFU | g | /g/ |
| ޏ | &1935; | GNAVIYANI | gn | /ñ/ |
| ސ | &1936; | SEENU | s | /s/ |
| ޑ | &1937; | DAVIYANI | d | /d/ |
| ޒ | &1938; | ZAVIYANI | z | /z/ |
| ޓ | &1939; | TAVIYANI | t | /t/ |
| ޔ | &1940; | YAA | y | /y/ |
| ޕ | &1941; | PAVIYANI | p | /p/ |
| ޖ | &1942; | JAVIYANI | j | /dZ/ |
| ޗ | &1943; | CHAVIYANI | ch | /tS/ |
| ޘ | &1944; | TTAA | Arabic-to-Dhivehi transliteration characters | |
| ޙ | &1945; | HHAA | ||
| ޚ | &1946; | KHAA | ||
| ޛ | &1947; | THAALU | ||
| ޜ | &1948; | ZAA | ||
| ޝ | &1949; | SHEENU | ||
| ޞ | &1950; | SAADHU | ||
| ޟ | &1951; | DAADHU | ||
| ޠ | &1952; | TO | ||
| ޡ | &1953; | ZO | ||
| ޢ | &1954; | AINU | ||
| ޣ | &1955; | GHAINU | ||
| ޤ | &1956; | QAAFU | ||
| ޥ | &1957; | WAAVU | ||
| ައ | &1958; | ABAFILI | a | /a/ |
| ާއ | &1959; | AABAAFILI | aa | /a:/ |
| ިއ | &1960; | IBIFILI | i | /i/ |
| ީއ | &1961; | EEBEEFILI | ee | /i:/ |
| ުއ | &1962; | UBUFILI | u | /u/ |
| ޫއ | &1963; | OOBOOFILI | oo | /u:/ |
| ެއ | &1964; | EBEFILI | e | /e/ |
| ޭއ | &1965; | EYBEYFILI | ey | /e:/ |
| ޮއ | &1966; | OBOFILI | o | /o/ |
| ޯއ | &1967; | OABOAFILI | oa | /o:/ |
| ްއ | &1968; | SUKUN | varies - see article | n/a |
| ޱ | &1969; | NAA | ? | ? |
External links:
A brief description of Thaana is available at this website (http://www.maldivesculture.com/thaana01.html)
Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)
haana taana thana thana thaaa thaan htaana tahana thaana thanaa thaaan thaan tthaana thhaana thaaana thaaana thaanna thaanaa 5haana rhaana fhaana 6haana ghaana 6haana yhaana ghaana tyaana tgaana tbaana tuaana tnaana tuaana tjaana tnaana thqana thwana thzana thwana thsana thzana thaqna thawna thazna thawna thasna thazna thaaha thaaba thaaja thaaja thaama thaanq thaanw thaanz thaanw thaans thaanz yhaana tyhaana thaanasnobler or purer life. End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of "The Altruist in Politics" .