Origin
Dhives akuru (island letters) is a script that was probably developed from the Sinhala alphabet. Inscriptions have been found on tombstones and copper plates and there are some manuscripts written in the script. Traces of an earlier script, known as Eveylaa Akuru (ancient letters) have also been found.

After the Islamic conversion of the Maldives in 1153, Dhives akuru was replaced a new, Arabic-influenced alphabet known as Thaana, but continued to be used in isolated parts of the Maldives until the 19th century.

Notable features

• Written from left to right in horizontal lines
• Probably modelled on the Sinhala alphabet.

Used to write:
Divehi (Maldivian), an Indo-Ayran language spoken by the people of the Maldives. Divehi is most closely related to Sinhala.

Divehi akuru

Taana script

Origin
The Thaana script was developed during the 16th century by an unknown inventor. It first appeared in government documents in 1703 and replaced an older alphabet known as Dhives akuru.

Some of the Taana letters were derived from Dhives akuru, while others were modelled on Arabic numerals. Vowel indication is modelled on the Arabic system of diacritics.

Notable Features

• Words are written from right to left, but numerals are written from left to right.
• Originally Arabic numerals were used, however nowadays Western numerals (1, 2, 3, etc) are used
• Vowels are indicated with diacritics which appear above or below the consonants. When vowels are come at the beginning of a word or are pronounced separately, they are attached to the letter alifu.
• When the sukun symbol is combined with the letter alifu it either doubles the following consonant, or if it appears at the end of a word after an "e", it adds and "h" sound.
• A number of letters are used solely for writing Arabic loan words.