“Dhivehin (ދިވެހިން), Dhivehi Bas (ދިވެހިބަސް) and Dhivehi Raajje (ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ), all three are so intricately bound together that we do not know which came first. Was it Dhivehin, the people of the Maldives? Was it Dhivehi Bas, the language of the Maldivians? Or was it the country Dhivehi Raajje, the country organized into a state? We can only surmise. But what we do know with certainty is the well harmonized fusion that exists among all these with the terrain on which Dhivehin live, speaking Dhivehi Bas and organized into the homogeneous state of Dhivehi Raajje. It is the island world of Maldives, now called the Republic of Maldives.”

Introduction, A Concise Etymological Vocabulary of the Republic of the Maldives, Hassan Ahmed Maniku