Theories about the Origin of the Dhivehi Language
At
present, there are several theories about the origin of the Dhivehi
language from the studies done so far.
The foundation of the historical linguistic analysis of both Dhivehi
and Sinhalese was laid by Wilhelm Geiger (1856 – 1943). In
Geiger’s comparative study of Dhivehi and Sinhalese he assumes
that the Dhivehi language is a dialectical offspring of Sinhalese
and therefore is a “daughter language” of Sinhalese.2
However, the material he collected was not sufficient to judge the
“degree of the relationship” between Dhivehi and Sinhalese.3
Geiger concludes that Dhivehi must have split from Sinhalese not
earlier that the 10th century A.D. This means that migrations of
Sinhalese people must have taken place around this time. However,
there is nothing in Maldivian history or the Sinhalese chronicles,
even in legendary form that alludes to such a migration. Furthermore,
archaeological evidence as well as references to the Maldives in
early writings show that the Maldives has been inhabited for nearly
two thousand years.
Vitharana suggests that Dhivehi did not evolve as a separate language
to Sinhala until 12th century A.D. when the Maldives converted to
Islam4, but Reynolds and others have suggested that Dhivehi started
showing indications of divergence as early as the 4th century A.D.5
De Silva proposes that Dhivehi and Sinhalese must have branched
off from a common mother language. He says that “the earliest
Indic element in Maldivian (Dhivehi) is not so much a result of branching
off from Sinhalese as a result of a simultaneous separation with
Sinhalese from the Indic languages of the mainland of India”.6
De Silva is referring to the Dravidian influences seen in the Dhivehi
language such as in the old place names.
De Silva’s theory is supported by the legend of Prince Vijaya
as told in the Mahavamsa because if this legend is to be believed,
the migration of Indo-Aryan colonists to the Maldives and Sri Lanka
from the mainland (India) must have taken place simultaneously. This
means that Dhivehi and Sinhalese must be “sister languages” that
developed from a common Prakrit.7
However, “despite the research work that has been devoted
to Dhivehi in recent times, and its results which also elucidate
parts of the history of the language, it is still too early to decide
with certainty whether Dhivehi and Sinhala developed at about the
same time from a common Prakrit ancestor which would allow us to
call them “sister languages” in the literal sense of
the word, as proposed by De Silva. We cannot disprove the opposite
that Dhivehi might represent a “daughter language” which
split of from it in prehistoric time: it is clear however, that this
time must have been much earlier than Geiger proposed”.8
Therefore there is still no conclusive proof whether the Dhivehi
language developed directly from Sinhalese or whether Dhivehi and
Sinhalese developed simultaneously from a common Prakrit. There is
also no way of proving when Dhivehi started developing as a separate
language. As we can see there are differing theories about the origin
of Dhivehi and the reason for such differences is that, on the one
hand, Dhivehi shares features with Sinhala that appear relatively
late while on the other hand it also shows significant indications
of early divergence.
Whatever the origin of Dhivehi, linguists agree that Dhivehi is
an Indo-Aryan language very closely related to Sinhalese, but which
also has older Indic elements in it.
 Theories
about the Origin of the Dhivehi Language
The Historical Layers of the Dhivehi Language
Influences of other Languages on the Development of Dhivehi
2 Wilhelm Geiger;
Maldivian Linguistic Studies; Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society, 1919, volume XXVII – Extra
Number
3,7,8Sonja Fritz; The Dhivehi Language; A Descriptive and Historical
Grammar
of Maldivian
and its Dialects. Heidelberg 2001.
4 Vitharana (1995:16)
5 Reynolds (1974:197)
6 De Silva, M.W.S Some Observations on the History of Maldivian in
Transactions
of the Philological Society, London 1970.
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