Dhives Akuru    Dhives akuru

Origin

Dhives Akuru is a script that was once used in the Maldive Islands. It developed from the Grantha script and the earliest known inscription, found on Landhū Island in Southern Miladhunmadulhu Atoll, dates back to the 8th century AD. The script is thought to have been in use before then, however evidence of this has yet to be found.

The early Madivian scripts were divided into two variants, Dhives Akuru, "island letters", and Evēla Akuru, "ancient letters", by H. C. P. Bell, who studied the Maldivian linguistics after retiring from the British colonial service in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the early 20th century.

Dhives Akuru developed from Evēla Akuru and was used mainly on tombstones, grants and on some monuments until about the 18th century, when it was replaced by the Thaana script. However in some of the southern Maldive islands, Dhives Akuru continued to be used until the early 20th century. Today only scholars and hobbyists stil use the script.

Dhives Akuru is also known as Dives Akuru, Divehi Akuru or Dhivehi Akuru.

Notable features

Evēla Akuru

Evela Akuru script

Dhives Akuru

Dhives Akuru script

Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhives_Akuru from images drawn by Xavier Romero-Frias

Sample text in Dhives Akuru

Sample text in the Dhives Akuru script

Links

Information about Evēla Akuru and Dhives Akuru
http://www.maldivesculture.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhives_Akuru
http://www.obib.de/Schriften/AlteSchriften/alte_schriften.php
http://www.maldives-ethnography.com/scripts.html

Syllabic alphabets / abugidas

Ahom, Balinese, Batak, Bengali, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Chakma, Cham, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dhives Akuru, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Gondi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gupta, Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Hanuno'o, Hmong, Javanese, Kannada, Kharosthi, Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Malayalam, Manpuri, Modi, New Tai Lue, Oriya, Pallava, Phags-pa, Ranjana, Redjang, Shan, Sharda, Siddham, Sindhi, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tocharian, Varang Kshiti

Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app