South Asia Seminar: Garrett Field, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and School of Music, Ohio University
The official language of the Maldives is Dhivehi, an Indo-Aryan language. Prior to the twentieth century the most popular form of Dhivehi poetry was known as raivaru. To create raivaru Maldivians utilized a poetic device termed bas olhuvun. Bas olhuvun literally means “word scrambling” and it refers to the scrambling of syllables. This presentation consists of three parts. Part 1 offers a brief social history of raivaru. Part 2 centers attention on six formal features that function as the playground where syllable scrambling occurs. Part 3 analyzes types of syllable scrambling in raivaru and identifies binary principles that raivaru poets internalized to help them quickly scramble syllables.
Dates:
Thursday, April 18, 2019 – 5:00pm
Foster 103