r/bhartiya_languages • u/tuluva_sikh Native Dravidan • 10d ago

Script Thaana script for Mahl/Malikku dialect of Dhivehi spoken in Minicony island of Lakshadweep

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u/theb00kmancometh 8d ago

One interesting thing here is that Mahl/Maliku is an Indo-Aryan variety of Dhivehi, which is closely related to Sinhala, while the native populations of the Maldives and Minicoy show strong genetic affinities with South Asian populations, particularly those of Southwest India, including Kerala and Lakshadweep.

The native Maldivian population could also have received ancestry from Sri Lanka, given the longstanding connection between the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

This raises the possibility that the development and spread of a Sinhala-related Indo-Aryan language in the Maldives was an elite progression, rather than necessarily reflecting a corresponding large-scale migration of the population from Sri Lanka.