Indo-European · ISO 639-3 div · dv
Dhivehi Language ދިވެހި
Dhivehi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 380,000 people in 2 countries. It is an official language of Maldives. It is written in the Thaana script.
Where Dhivehi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Dhivehi language
Dhivehi (ދިވެހި) is spoken by about 380,000 people, which makes it the 504th most spoken language in the world — just behind Jola-Fonyi (410,000) and ahead of Fiji Hindi (380,000). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Dhivehi-Sinhala group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Dhivehi spoken?
Dhivehi is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Maldives (381,080) and India (4,227). More than half of the population speaks it in Maldives — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Dhivehi: Maldives 98% (381,080) and India <0.1% (4,227).
Dhivehi is an official language in 1 country: Maldives.
Writing system and status
Dhivehi is written in the Thaana script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Sinhala, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Panjabi, Western Panjabi and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 dv, ISO 639-3 div.
Frequently asked questions about Dhivehi
How many people speak Dhivehi?
Where is Dhivehi spoken?
In which countries is Dhivehi an official language?
What language family does Dhivehi belong to?
What is Dhivehi called in Dhivehi?
Is Dhivehi an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.