Malagasy language

Malagasy (/ˌmæləˈɡæsi/ MAL-ə-GASS-ee;^[2] Malagasy pronunciation: [malaˈɡasʲ]) is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French.

Malagasy
malagasy / مَلَغَسِ‎
Native to	Madagascar Mayotte
Ethnicity	Malagasy
Native speakers	25 million (2015)^[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Malagasy
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet) Sorabe alphabet (Historically) Malagasy Braille
Official status
Official language in	Madagascar
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mg
ISO 639-2	mlg
ISO 639-3	mlg – inclusive code Individual codes: xmv – Antankarana bhr – Bara buc – Bushi msh – Masikoro bmm – Northern Betsimisaraka plt – Plateau Malagasy skg – Sakalava bzc – Southern Betsimisaraka tdx – Tandroy-Mafahaly txy – Tanosy tkg – Tesaka xmw – Tsimihety
Glottolog	mala1537
Linguasphere	31-LDA-a
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

A woman speaking Malagasy

Malagasy is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language, brought to Madagascar with the settlement of Austronesian speakers from the Sunda Islands (about 7,300 kilometres or 4,500 miles away) around the 5th century AD or perhaps between the 7th and 13th centuries.^[3][4] The Malagasy language is one of the Barito languages and is most closely related to the Ma'anyan language, still spoken on Borneo. Malagasy also includes numerous Malay loanwords,^[5] from the time of the early Austronesian settlement and trading between Madagascar and the Sunda Islands.^[6] After c. 1000 AD, Malagasy incorporated numerous Bantu and Arabic loanwords brought over by traders and new settlers.

Malagasy is spoken by around 25 million people in Madagascar and the Comoros. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language, as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere. Malagasy is divided across its twelve dialects between two main dialect groups; Eastern and Western. The central plateau of the island, where the capital Antananarivo and the old heartland of the Merina Kingdom is located, speaks the Merina dialect. The Merina dialect is the basis of Standard Malagasy, which is used by the government and media in Madagascar. Standard Malagasy is one of two official languages of Madagascar alongside French, in the 2010 constitution of the Fourth Republic of Madagascar.

Malagasy is written in the Latin script introduced by Western missionaries in the early 19th century. Previously, the Sorabe script was used, a local development of the Arabic script.

Classification

The Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family,^[7] a grouping that includes languages from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands. In fact, Malagasy's relation with other Austronesian languages had already been noted by early scholars, such as the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland in 1708.^[8][9]

Among all Austronesian languages, Dahl (1951) demonstrated that Malagasy and Ma'anyan – an East Barito language spoken in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo – were particularly closely related.^[10] The language also has apparent influence from early Old Malay. Furthermore, there appears to be a Bantu influence or substratum in Malagasy phonotactics (Dahl 1988). There are some Sanskrit loanwords in Malagasy, which are said to have been borrowed via Malay and Javanese.^[4]

Adelaar (1995) suggested that the vocabulary of Malagasy also contains many words that are of South Sulawesi origin.^[11] Further evidence for this suggestion was presented by Blench (2018).^[12]

Decimal numbers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Proto-Austronesian, circa 4000 BC	*isa	*duSa	*telu	*Sepat	*lima	*enem	*pitu	*walu	*Siwa	*puluq
Malagasy	iray/isa	roa	telo	efatra	dimy	enina	fito	valo	sivy	folo
Ma'anyan	isa	rueh	telo	epat	dime	enem	pitu	balu	su'ey	sapulu
Kadazan	iso	duvo	tohu	apat	himo	onom	tu'u	vahu	sizam	hopod
Dusun	iso	duo	tolu	apat	limo	onom	turu	walu	siam	hopod
Waray-Waray	usá	duhá	tuló	upát	limá	unóm	pitó	waló	siyám	napúlo
Tagalog	isá	dalawá	tatló	ápat	limá	ánim	pitó	waló	siyám	sampu
Hiligaynon	isa	duha	tatlu	apat	lima	anum	pito	walu	siyam	pulo
Kinaray-a	sara	darwa	tatlo	apat	lima	anəm	pito	walo	siyam	pulû
Ilocano	maysá	dua	talló	uppát	limá	inném	pitó	waló	siam	sangapúlo
Chamorro	maisa/håcha	hugua	tulu	fatfat	lima	gunum	fiti	guålu	sigua	månot/fulu
Malay (incl. Indonesian and Malaysian)	satu	dua	tiga	empat	lima	enam	tujuh	(de)lapan	sembilan	sepuluh
Sundanese	hiji	dua	tilu	opat	lima	genep	tujuh	dalapan	salapan	sapuluh
Javanese	siji	loro	telu	papat	limå	nem	pitu	wålu	sångå	sepuluh
Tetum	ida	rua	tolu	haat	lima	neen	hitu	ualu	sia	sanulu
Fijian	dua	rua	tolu	vā	lima	ono	vitu	walu	ciwa	tini, -sagavulu
Tongan	taha	ua	tolu	fā	nima	ono	fitu	valu	hiva	-fulu
Samoan	tasi	lua	tolu	fa	lima	ono	fitu	valu	iva	sefulu

Etymology

Malagasy is the demonym of Madagascar, from which it is taken to refer to the people of Madagascar in addition to their language.

History

 

Malagasy Bible

Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia from the Sunda Islands (Malay archipelago).^[13] As for their route, one possibility is that the Indonesian Austronesian came directly across the Indian Ocean from Java to Madagascar. It is likely that they went through the Maldives, where evidence of old Indonesian boat design and fishing technology persists until the present.^[14] The migrations continued along the first millennium, as confirmed by linguistic researchers who showed the close relationship between the Malagasy language and Old Malay and Old Javanese languages of this period.^[15][16] The Malagasy language originates from the Southeast Barito languages, and the Ma'anyan language is its closest relative, with numerous Malay and Javanese loanwords.^[6][17] It is known that Ma'anyan people were brought as labourers and slaves by Malay and Javanese people in their trading fleets, which reached Madagascar by c. 50–500 AD.^[18][19] Later, c. 1000, the original Austronesian settlers mixed with Bantus and Arabs, amongst others.^[20] There is evidence that the predecessors of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar.^[21] Adelaar (2017) proposes that a distinct Malagasy speech community had already been established in South Borneo before the early Malagasy speakers migrated to East Africa.^[22]

Malagasy has a tradition of oratory arts and poetic histories and legends. The most well-known is the national epic, Ibonia, about a Malagasy folk hero of the same name.^[23]

Geographic distribution

Malagasy is the principal language spoken on the island of Madagascar. It is also spoken by Malagasy communities on neighboring Indian Ocean islands such as Réunion, Mayotte and Mauritius. Expatriate Malagasy communities speaking the language also exist in Europe and North America.

Legal status

The Merina dialect of Malagasy is considered the national language of Madagascar. It is one of two official languages alongside French in the 2010 constitution put in place the Fourth Republic. Previously, under the 2007 constitution, Malagasy was one of three official languages alongside French and English. Malagasy is the language of instruction in all public schools through grade five for all subjects, and remains the language of instruction through high school for the subjects of history and Malagasy language.

Dialects

 

Map of the Malagasy dialects on Madagascar

There are two principal dialects of Malagasy; Eastern (including Merina) and Western (including Sakalava), with the isogloss running down the spine of the island, the south being western, and the central plateau and much of the north (apart from the very tip) being eastern. Ethnologue encodes 12 variants of Malagasy as distinct languages. They have about a 70% similarity in lexicon with the Merina dialect.

Eastern Malagasy

The Eastern dialects are:

• Northern Betsimisaraka Malagasy (1,270,000 speakers) – spoken by the Betsimisaraka on the northeastern coast of the island
• Southern Betsimisaraka Malagasy (2,000,000 speakers) – spoken by the Betsimisaraka in the North of the region Vatovavy Fito Vinany.
• Plateau (Merina) Malagasy (10,893,000 speakers) – spoken in the centre of the island and includes southeastern dialects like Antemoro and Antefasy.^[24]
• Tanosy Malagasy (639,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antanosy people in the south of the island
• Tesaka Malagasy (1,130,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antaisaka people in the southeast of the island.^[25]

Western Malagasy

The Western dialects are:

• Antankarana Malagasy (156,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antankarana in the northern tip of the island
• Bara Malagasy (724,000 speakers) – spoken by the Bara people in the south of the island
• Masikoro Malagasy (550,000 speakers) – spoken by the Masikoro in the southwest of the island
• Sakalava Malagasy (1,210,000 speakers) – spoken by the Sakalava people on the western coast of the island
• Tandroy-Mahafaly Malagasy (1,300,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antandroy and the Mahafaly people on the southern tip of the island
• Tsimihety Malagasy (1,615,000 speakers) – spoken by the Tsimihety people.^[25]

Additionally, the Bushi dialect (41,700 speakers) is spoken on the French overseas territory of Mayotte,^[26] which is part of the Comoro island chain situated northwest of Madagascar.

Region specific variations

The two main dialects of Malagasy are easily distinguished by several phonological features.

Sakalava lost final nasal consonants, whereas Merina added a voiceless [ə̥]:

• *tañan 'hand' → Sakalava [ˈtaŋa] **tan̈a, Merina [ˈtananə̥] tanana

Final *t became -[tse] in the one but -[ʈʂə̥] in the other:

• *kulit 'skin' → Sakalava [ˈhulitse] **holitse, Merina [ˈhudiʈʂə̥] hoditra

Sakalava retains ancestral *li and *ti, whereas in Merina these become [di] (as in huditra 'skin' above) and [tsi]:

• *putiq 'white' → Sakalava [ˈfuti] **foty, Merina [ˈfutsi] fotsy

However, these last changes started in Borneo before the Malagasy arrived in Madagascar.

Writing system

 

Sorabe Malagasy Arabic script

 

Malagasy version of the Book of Mormon, in Latin script with the letter ô

The language has a written literature going back presumably to the 15th century. When the French established Fort-Dauphin in the 17th century, they found an Arabico-Malagasy script in use, known as Sorabe ("large writings"). This Arabic-derived Sorabe alphabet was mainly used for astrological and magical texts. The oldest known manuscript in that script is a short Malagasy-Dutch vocabulary from the early 17th century, which was first published in 1908 by Gabriel Ferrand^[27] though the script must have been introduced into the southeast area of Madagascar in the 15th century.^[20]

The first bilingual renderings of religious texts are those by Étienne de Flacourt,^[28] who also published the first dictionary of the language.^[29] Radama I, the first literate representative of the Merina monarchy, though extensively versed in the Arabico-Malagasy tradition,^[30] opted in 1823 for a Latin system derived by David Jones and invited the Protestant London Missionary Society to establish schools and churches. The first book to be printed in Malagasy using Latin characters was the Bible, which was translated into Malagasy in 1835 by British Protestant missionaries working in the highlands area of Madagascar.^[31]

The current Malagasy alphabet consists of 21 letters: a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, v, y, z. The orthography maps rather straightforwardly to the phonemic inventory. The letters i and y both represent the /i/ sound (y is used word-finally, and i elsewhere), while o is pronounced /u/. The affricates /ʈʂ/ and /ɖʐ/ are written tr and dr, respectively, while /ts/ and /dz/ are written ts and j. The letter h is often silent. All other letters have essentially their IPA values. The letters c, q, u, w and x are all not used in native Malagasy words.

Mp and occasionally nt may begin a word, but they are pronounced /p, t/.

@ is used informally as a short form for amin'ny, which is a preposition followed by the definite form, meaning for instance with the.

Sorabe alphabet with corresponding Latin Letters^[32]

Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial	IPA	Modern Latin
ا‎	ـا‎		ا‎	/ʔ/	-
ب‎	ـب‎	ـبـ‎	بـ‎	/b, ᵐb/	b / mb
ت‎	ـة‎	ـتـ‎	تـ‎	/ts, ⁿts/	ts / nts
ج‎	ـج‎	ـجـ‎	جـ‎	/dz, ⁿdz/	j / nj
ڊ‎	ـڊ‎		ڊ‎	/d/	d
ر‎	ـر‎		ر‎	/r/	r
رّ‎	ـرّ‎		رّ‎	/ɖʳ, ᶯɖʳ, ʈʳ, ᶯʈʳ/	dr / ndr / tr / ntr
س‎	ـس‎	ـسـ‎	سـ‎	/s/	s
ࢋ‎	ـࢋ‎	ـࢋـ‎	ࢋـ‎	/t, ⁿt/	t / nt
ع‎	ـع‎	ـعـ‎	عـ‎	/ŋ/	n̈
غ‎	ـغ‎	ـغـ‎	غـ‎	/g, ᵑɡ/	g / ng
ٯ‎	ـٯ‎	ـڧـ‎	ڧـ‎	/f/	f
ٯّ‎	ـٯّ‎	ـڧّـ‎	ڧّـ‎	/p, ᵐp/	p / mp
ك‎	ـك‎	ـكـ‎	كـ‎	/k, ᵑk/	k / nk
ل‎	ـل‎	ـلـ‎	لـ‎	/l/	l
م‎	ـم‎	ـمـ‎	مـ‎	/m/	m
ن‎	ـن‎	ـنـ‎	نـ‎	/n/	n
و‎	ـو‎		و‎	/v/	v
ه‎	ـه‎	ـهـ‎	هـ‎	/h/	h
ي‎	ـي‎	ـيـ‎	يـ‎	/z/	z

Diacritics

Diacritics are not obligatory in standard Malagasy, except in the case where its absence leads to an ambiguity: tanàna ("city") must have the diacritic to discriminate itself from tanana ("hand"). They may however be used in the following ways:

• ◌̀ (grave accent) shows the stressed syllable in a word. It is frequently used for disambiguation. For instance in tanàna (town) and tanana (hand), where the word that is an exception to the usual pronunciation rules (tanàna) gets an accent. Using the accent on the word that follows the pronunciation rules (tànana) is less common, mainly in dictionaries.^{[clarification needed]} (This is very similar to the usage of the grave accent in Italian.)
• ◌́ (acute accent) may be used in
  • very old dictionaries, along with grave accent
  • dialects such as Bara
  • French (Tuléar) and French-spelled (Antsirabé) names. Malagasy versions are Toliara or Toliary and Antsirabe.
• ◌̂ (circumflex) is used as follows:
  • ô shows that the letter is pronounced /o/ and not /u/, in Malagasified foreign words (hôpitaly) and dialects (Tôlan̈aro). In standard Malagasy, ao or oa (as in mivoaka) is used instead.
  • sometimes the single-letter words a and e are written â and ê but it does not change the pronunciation
• ◌̈ (diaeresis) is used with n̈ in dialects for a velar nasal /ŋ/. Examples are place names such as Tôlan̈aro, Antsiran̈ana, Iharan̈a, Anantson̈o. This can be seen in maps from FTM, the national institute of geodesy and cartography.
• ◌̃ (tilde) is used in ñ sometimes, perhaps when the writer cannot produce an n̈ (although ng is also used in such cases). In Ellis' Bara dialect dictionary, it is used for velar nasal /ŋ/ as well as palatal nasal /ɲ/.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i, y⟩		u ⟨o⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩		o ⟨ô, ao, oa⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩

After a stressed syllable, as at the end of most words and in the final two syllables of some, /a, u, i/ are reduced to [ə, ʷ, ʲ]. (/i/ is spelled ⟨y⟩ in such cases, though in monosyllabic words like ny and vy, ⟨y⟩ is pronounced as a full [i].) Final /a/, and sometimes final syllables, are devoiced at the end of an utterance. /e/ and /o/ are never reduced or devoiced. The large number of reduced vowels, and their effect on neighbouring consonants, give Malagasy a phonological quality not unlike that of Portuguese.

/o/ is marginal in Merina dialect, found in interjections and loan words, though it is also found in place names from other dialectical areas. /ai, au/ are diphthongs [ai̯, au̯] in careful speech, [e, o] or [ɛ, ɔ] in more casual speech. /ai/, whichever way it is pronounced, affects following /k, ɡ/ as /i/ does.

Consonants

			Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Nasal			m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨n̈⟩
Plosive and affricate	voiceless	plain	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	ts ⟨ts⟩	ʈʳ ⟨tr⟩	k ⟨k⟩
		prenasal	ᵐp ⟨mp⟩	ⁿt ⟨nt⟩	ⁿts ⟨nts⟩	ᶯʈʳ ⟨ntr⟩	ᵑk ⟨nk⟩
	voiced	plain	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩	dz ⟨j⟩	ɖʳ ⟨dr⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
		prenasal	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩	ⁿdz ⟨nj⟩	ᶯɖʳ ⟨ndr⟩	ᵑɡ ⟨ng⟩
Fricative	voiceless		f ⟨f⟩		s ⟨s⟩			h ⟨h⟩
	voiced		v ⟨v⟩		z ⟨z⟩
Lateral					l ⟨l⟩
Trill					r ⟨r⟩

The alveolars /s ts z dz l/ are slightly palatalized. /ts, dz, s, z/ vary between [ts, dz, s, z] and [tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ], and are especially likely to be the latter when followed by unstressed /i/: Thus French malgache [malɡaʃ] 'Malagasy'. The velars /k ɡ ᵑk ᵑɡ h/ are palatalized after /i/ (e.g. alika /alikʲa/ 'dog'). /h/ is frequently elided in casual speech.

The reported postalveolar trilled affricates /ʈʳ ᶯʈʳ ɖʳ ᶯɖʳ/ are sometimes simple stops, [ʈ ᶯʈ ɖ ᶯɖ], but they often have a rhotic release, [ʈɽ̊˔ ᶯʈɽ̊˔ ɖɽ˔ ᶯɖɽ˔]. It is not clear if they are actually trilled, or are simply non-sibilant affricates [ʈɻ̊˔ ᶯʈɻ̊˔ ɖɻ˔ ᶯɖɻ˔]. However, in another Austronesian language with a claimed trilled affricate, Fijian, trilling occurs but is rare, and the primary distinguishing feature is that it is postalveolar.^[33] The Malagasy sounds are frequently transcribed [ʈʂ ᶯʈʂ ɖʐ ᶯɖʐ], and that is the convention used in this article.

In reduplication, compounding, possessive and verbal constructions, as well as after nasals, fricatives and liquids, 'spirants' become stops, as follows:

Malagasy sandhi

voiced		voiceless
spirant	stop	spirant	stop
v	b	f	p
l	d
z	dz	s	ts
r	ɖʳ (ɖʐ)
		h	k

Stress

Here, stressed syllables are indicated by grave diacritics ⟨à⟩, although these diacritics are normally not used.

Words are generally accented on the penultimate syllable, unless the word ends in ka, tra and often na, in which case they are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Secondary stresses exist in even-numbered syllables from the last stressed syllable, when the word has more than four syllables (fàmantàranàndro [ˌfamˌtarˈnandʐʷ] "watch, clock"). Neither prefixation nor suffixation affect the placement of stress.

In many dialects, unstressed vowels (except /e/) are devoiced, and in some cases almost completely elided; thus fanòrona is pronounced [fə̥ˈnurnə̥].

Grammar

Word order

Malagasy has a verb–object–subject (VOS) word order:

Mamaky

reads

boky

book

ny

the

mpianatra

student

Mamaky boky ny mpianatra

reads book the student

"The student reads the book"

Nividy

bought

ronono

milk

ho

for

an'ny

the

zaza

child

ny

the

vehivavy

woman

Nividy ronono ho an'ny zaza ny vehivavy

bought milk for the child the woman

"The woman bought milk for the child"

Within phrases, Malagasy order is typical of head-initial languages: Malagasy has prepositions rather than postpositions (ho an'ny zaza "for the child"). Determiners precede the noun, while quantifiers, modifying adjective phrases, and relative clauses follow the noun (ny boky "the book(s)", ny boky mena "the red book(s)", ny boky rehetra "all the books", ny boky novakin'ny mpianatra "the book(s) read by the student(s)").

Somewhat unusually, demonstrative determiners are repeated both before and after the noun ity boky ity "this book" (lit. "this book this").

Verbs

Verbs have syntactically three productive "voice" forms according to the thematic role they play in the sentence: the basic "agent focus" forms of the majority of Malagasy verbs, the derived "patient focus" forms used in "passive" constructions, and the derived "goal focus" forms used in constructions with focus on instrumentality. Thus

• (1) Manasa ny tanako amin'ny savony aho. ("I am washing my hands with soap.")
• (2) Sasako amin'ny savony ny tanako. ("My hands are washed with soap by me.")
• (3) Anasako ny tanako ny savony. ("It is with soap that my hands are washed by me.")

all mean "I wash my hands with soap" though focus is determined in each case by the sentence initial verb form and the sentence final (noun) argument: manasa "wash" and aho "I" in (1), sasako "wash" and ny tanako "my hands" in (2), anasako "wash" and ny savony "soap" in (3). There is no equivalent to the English preposition with in (3).

Verbs inflect for past, present, and future tense, where tense is marked by prefixes (e.g. mividy "buy", nividy "bought", hividy "will buy").

Nouns and pronouns

Malagasy has no grammatical gender, and nouns do not inflect for number. However, pronouns and demonstratives have distinct singular and plural forms (cf. io boky io "that book", ireto boky ireto "these books").

There is a complex series of demonstrative pronouns, depending on the speaker's familiarity with the referent.^[34]

The following set of pronouns are the pronouns found in Standard Malagasy. Note: the nominative first person singular pronoun is divided between a long and short form; the long form occurs before a verb (focalized or topicalized subjects) and the short form after a verb. The genitive first and second person pronouns are also divided between long and short forms; the long form occurs if the root ends with anything but [na], [ka*] or [tra]; if the stem ends with [na], the long form also occurs but [na] is deleted; and if the stem ends with [ka*] or [tra], the final vowel of the root is deleted and the short form occurs.^[35]

			Nominative	Genitive	Accusative
1st person	singular		izaho/aho	-ko/-o	ahy
	plural	exclusive	izahay	-nay/-ay	anay
		inclusive	isika	-ntsika/-tsika	antsika
2nd person	singular		ianao	-nao/-ao	anao
	plural		ianareo	-nareo/-areo	anareo
3rd person	singular		izy	-ny	antsy
	singular		izy (ireo)	-ny	azy (ireo)

Deixis

Malagasy has a complex system of deixis (these, those, here, there, etc.), with seven degrees of distance as well as evidentiality across all seven. The evidential dimension is prototypically visible vs. non-visible referents; however, the non-visible forms may be used for visible referents which are only vaguely identified or have unclear boundaries, whereas the visible forms are used for non-visible referents when these are topical to the conversation.^[36]

Malagasy deixis

		proximal		medial		distal
Adverbs (here, there)	NVIS	atỳ	àto	ào	àtsy	àny	aròa*	arỳ
	VIS	etỳ	èto	èo	ètsy	èny	eròa	erỳ
Pronouns (this, that) (these, those)	NVIS	izatỳ*	izàto*	izào	izàtsy*	izàny	izaròa*	izarỳ*
	VIS	itỳ	ìto	ìo	ìtsy	ìny	iròa*	irỳ
	VIS.PL	irèto		irèo	irètsy	irèny	ireròa*	irerỳ*

Notes:

• Diacritics in deixis are not mandatory in Malagasy.
• Deixis marked by a * are rarely used.

Vocabulary

Malagasy shares much of its basic vocabulary with the Ma'anyan language, a language from the region of the Barito River in southern Borneo. The Malagasy language also includes some borrowings from Arabic and Bantu languages (especially the Sabaki branch, from which most notably Swahili derives), and more recently from French and English.

The following samples are of the Merina dialect or Standard Malagasy, which is spoken in the capital of Madagascar and in the central highlands or "plateau", home of the Merina people.^[37][38] It is generally understood throughout the island.

English	Malagasy	IPA
English	Anglisy	ãŋˈɡliʂ
Yes	Eny	ˈʲenj
No	Tsia, (before a verb) Tsy	tsi, tsʲ
Hello! / How are you?	Manao ahoana!	manaˈʷonə̥/manaˈonə̥
Hello! (rural areas)	Salama!	saˈlamə̥
I'm fine, thank you.	Tsara fa misaotra.	ˈtsarə̥ fa mʲˈsoːtʂə̥
Goodbye!	Veloma!	veˈlumə̥
Please	Azafady	azaˈfadʲ
Thank you	Misaotra	mʲˈsoːtʂa
You're welcome	Tsisy fisaorana.	tsʲ ˈmisʲ fʲˈsoːranə̥
Excuse me	Azafady (with arm and hand pointing to the ground)	azaˈfadʲ
Sorry	Miala tsiny	mjala ˈtsinʲ
Who?	Iza?	ˈiːza/ˈiza
What?	Inona?	inːa
When?	Rahoviana?, (past tense) Oviana	roːˈvinə̥/rawˈvinə̥
Where?	Aiza?, (past tense) Taiza	ajzə̥
Why?	Fa maninona?	fa maninːə̥
How?	Ahoana?	aˈʷonə̥
How many?	Firy?	ˈfirʲ
How much?	Ohatrinona?	ʷoˈtʂinːə̥
What's your name?	Iza ny anaranao?	iza njanaraˈnaw
For	Ho an'ny / Ho an'i	wanːi
Because	Satria	saˈtʂi
I don't understand.	Tsy mazava, Tsy azoko.	tsʲ mazavə̥
Yes, I understand.	Eny, mazava, Eny, azoko	ʲenʲ mazavə̥
Help!	Vonjeo!	vunˈdzew
Go away!	Mandehana!	man di anə
Can you help me please?	Afaka manampy ahy ve ianao azafady?	afaka manapʲ a ve enaw azafadʲ
Where are the toilets?	Aiza ny efitrano fivoahana?, Aiza ny V.C.?, Aiza ny toilet?	ajza njefitʂanʷ fiˈvwaːnə̥
Do you speak English?	Mahay teny anglisy ve ianao?	miˈtenʲ ãŋˈɡliʂ ve eˈnaw
I do not speak Malagasy.	Tsy mahay teny malagasy aho.	tsʲ maaj tenʲ malaˈɡasʲ a
I do not speak French.	Tsy mahay teny frantsay aho.	tsʲ maaj tenʲ frantsaj a
I am thirsty.	Mangetaheta aho.	maŋɡetaˈeta
I am hungry.	Noana aho.	noːna
I am sick.	Marary aho.
I am tired.	Vizaka aho, Reraka aho	ˈvizaka, rerakau
I need to pee.	Poritra aho, Ny olombelona tsy akoho	purtʂa
I would like to go to Antsirabe.	Te hankany Antsirabe aho.	tiku ankanʲ anjantsirabe
That's expensive!	Lafo be izany!	lafʷˈbe zanʲ
I'm hungry for some rice.	Noana vary aho.	noːna varja
What can I do for you?	Inona no azoko atao ho anao?	inːa ɲazʷkwataʷ wanaw
I like...	Tiako...	tikʷ
I love you.	Tiako ianao.	tikwenaʷ
	Numbers
one	isa/iray	isə̥
two	roa	ru
three	telo	telʷ
four	efatra	ˈefatʂə̥
five	dimy	ˈdimʲ
six	enina	enː
seven	fito	fitʷ
eight	valo	valʷ
nine	sivy	sivʲ
ten	folo	fulʷ
eleven	iraika ambin'ny folo	rajkʲambefulʷ
twelve	roa ambin'ny folo	rumbefulʷ
twenty	roapolo	ropulʷ
thirty	telopolo	telopulʷ
forty	efapolo	efapulʷ
fifty	dimampolo	dimapulʷ
sixty	enim-polo	empulʷ
seventy	fitopolo	fitupulʷ
eighty	valopolo	valupulʷ
ninety	sivifolo	sivfulʷ
one hundred	zato	zatʷ
two hundred	roan-jato	rondzatʷ
one thousand	arivo	arivʷ
ten thousand	iray alina	rajal
one hundred thousand	iray hetsy	rajetsʲ
one million	iray tapitrisa	rajtaptʂisə̥
one billion	iray lavitrisa	rajlavtʂisə̥
3,568,942	roa amby efapolo sy sivin-jato sy valo arivo sy enina alina sy dimy hetsy sy telo tapitrisa	rumbefapulʷ sʲsivdzatʷ sʲvalorivʷ sʲenːal sʲdimjetsʲ sʲtelutapitʂisə̥

In his 1915 book A naturalist in Madagascar, naturalist James Sibree published the following table of Malagasy terms used to refer to times of day and night:^[39]

English	Malagasy	Time of day (approximate)
Centre of night	Mamaton’ alina	12:00 AM; midnight
Halving of night	Misasaka alina
Frog croaking	Maneno sahona	2:00 AM
Cock-crowing	Maneno akaho	3:00 AM
Morning also night	Maraina alina koa	4:00 AM
Crow croaking	Maneno goaika	5:00 AM
Bright horizon	Manga vodilanitra	5:15 AM
Reddish East	Mangoan’ atsinanana
Glimmer of day	Mangiran-dratsy
Colors of cattle can be seen	Ahitan-tsoratr’ omby	5:30 AM
Dusk	Mazava ratsy
Diligent people awake	Mifoha lo-maozoto
Early morning	Maraina koa
Sunrise	Vaky masoandro	6:00 AM
Daybreak	Vaky andro
	Piakandro
Broad daylight	Antoandro be nanahary
	Efa bana ny andro
Dew-falls	Mihintsana ando	6:15 AM
Cattle go out (to pasture)	Mivoaka omby
Leaves are dry (from dew)	Maim-bohon-dravina	6:30 AM
Hoar-frost disappears	Afa-dranom-panala	6:45 AM
The day chills the mouth	Manara vava ny andro
Advance of the day	Misandratra andro	8:00 AM
Over (at a right angle with) the purlin	Mitatao haratra	9:00 AM
Over the ridge of the roof	Mitatao vovonana	12:00 PM; noon
Peeping-in of the day	Mitsidika andro	1:00 PM
Day less one step	Latsaka iray dia ny andro
Slipping of the day	Solafak’ andro	1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
		2:00 PM
Decline of the day	Tafalatsaka ny andro
	Mihilana ny andro
At the rice-pounding place	Am-pitotoam-bary
At the house post	Mby amin’ ny andry ny andro
At the place of tying the calf	Am-pamatoran-janak’ omby	3:00 PM
At the sheep or poultry pen	Mby am-pisoko ny andro	4:00 PM
The cow newly calved comes home	Mody omby tera-bao	4:30
Sun touching (i.e. the eastern wall)	Tafapaka ny andro	5:00
Cattle come home	Mody omby	5:30
Sunset flush	Mena masoandro	5:45
Sunset (lit. “Sun dead”)	Maty masoandro	6:00
Fowls come in	Miditra akoho	6:15
Dusk; twilight	Somambisamby	6:30
Edge of rice-cooking pan obscure	Maizim-bava-vilany	6:45
People begin to cook rice	Manokom-bary olona	7:00
People eat rice	Homan-bary olona	8:00
Finished eating	Tapi-mihinana	8:30
People go to sleep	Mandry olona	9:00
Everyone in bed	Tapi-mandry olona	9:30
Gun-fire	Mipoa-tafondro	10:00

Lexicography

 

Malagasy lexicon (1773) (Collection BULAC Paris)

The first dictionary of the language is Étienne de Flacourt's Dictionnaire de la langue de Madagascar published in 1658 though earlier glossaries written in Arabico-Malagasy script exist. A later Vocabulaire Anglais-Malagasy was published in 1729. An 892-page Malagasy–English dictionary was published by James Richardson of the London Missionary Society in 1885, available as a reprint; however, this dictionary includes archaic terminology and definitions. Whereas later works have been of lesser size, several have been updated to reflect the evolution and progress of the language, including a more modern, bilingual frequency dictionary based on a corpus of over 5 million Malagasy words.^[37]

• Winterton, M. et al.: Malagasy–English, English–Malagasy Dictionary / Diksionera Malagasy–Anglisy, Anglisy–Malagasy. Raleigh, North Carolina. USA: Lulu Press 2011, 548 p.
• Richardson: A New Malagasy–English Dictionary. Farnborough, England: Gregg Press 1967, 892 p. ISBN 0-576-11607-6 (Original edition, Antananarivo: The London Missionary Society, 1885).
• Diksionera Malagasy–Englisy. Antananarivo: Trano Printy Loterana 1973, 103 p.
• An Elementary English–Malagasy Dictionary. Antananarivo: Trano Printy Loterana 1969, 118 p.
• English–Malagasy Phrase Book. Antananarivo: Editions Madprint 1973, 199 p. (Les Guides de Poche de Madagasikara.)
• Paginton, K: English–Malagasy Vocabulary. Antananarivo: Trano Printy Loterana 1970, 192 p.
• Bergenholtz, H. et al.: Rakibolana Malagasy–Alemana. Antananarivo: Leximal/Moers: aragon. 1991.
• Bergenholtz, H. et al.: Rakibolana Alemana–Malagasy. Antananarivo: Tsipika/Moers: aragon. 1994.
• Rakibolana Malagasy. Fianarantsoa: Régis RAJEMISOA – RAOLISON 1995, 1061 p.

See also

•  Madagascar portal
•  Languages portal

• Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
• Languages of Madagascar

References

1. Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
2. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
3. Adelaar, K. Alexander (1995). "Asian Roots of the Malagasy: A Linguistic Perspective". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia. 151 (3): 325–356. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003036. ISSN 0006-2294. JSTOR 27864676. OCLC 5672481889.
4. Adelaar, K. Alexander (2006). "Borneo as a Cross-Roads for Comparative Austronesian Linguistics". In Bellwood, Peter; Fox, James J.; Tryon, Darrell T. (eds.). The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Canberra: ANU E Press. pp. 81–102. doi:10.22459/A.09.2006.04. ISBN 1-920942-85-8. JSTOR j.ctt2jbjx1.7. OCLC 225298720.
5. Blench, Roger (2009), Remapping the Austronesian expansion (PDF), p. 8. In Evans, Bethwyn (2009). Discovering History Through Language: Papers in Honour of Malcolm Ross. Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 9780858836051.
6. Otto Chr. Dahl, Malgache et Maanjan: une comparaison linguistique, Egede-Instituttet Avhandlinger, no. 3 (Oslo: Egede-Instituttet, 1951), p. 13.
7. Malagasy's family tree on Ethnologue
8. Blench, Roger (2007). (PDF). Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 42 (1): 69–82. doi:10.1080/00672700709480451. S2CID 59022942. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-21.
9. Relandus, Hadrianus (1708). Dissertationum Miscellanearum, Pars Tertia et Ultima (in Latin). Trajecti ad Rhenum: Gulielmi Broedelet. pp. 137–138. Haec omnia satis evincunt (quod in initio hujus dissertationis monuimus) longe lateque diffundi usum linguae Malaïcae, quae non tantum in Chersoneso Malaeorum & insulis Sumatra, Java, Bomeo, Moluccis sed & aliis magis ad orientem sitis usurpatur. Quibus cum si conferamus illud quod linguae Insulae Madagascar plurima vocabula Malaïca sint permixta, magis adhuc stupebimus linguam unam, qualis Malaïca est, vestigia sua reliquisse in tam dissitis terrarum spatiis qualia sunt insula Madagascar ad litus Africae & insula Cocos in mari inter Asiam & Americam interjecto. Lubet hic laterculum addere vocum Madagascaricarum, ut dicta nostra confirmemus.
10. Dahl, Otto Christian (1951), Malgache et Maanyan: Une comparaison linguistique, Avhandlinger utgitt av Instituttet 3 (in French), Oslo: Egede Instituttet
11. Adelaar, Alexander (1995). "Asian Roots of the Malagasy: A Linguistic Perspective". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 151 (3): 325–356. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003036. JSTOR 27864676.
12. Blench, Roger (2018), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Stratifying the Peopling of Madagascar (PDF) – via www.rogerblench.info
13. Ricaut, François-X; Razafindrazaka, Harilanto; Cox, Murray P; Dugoujon, Jean-M; Guitard, Evelyne; Sambo, Clement; Mormina, Maru; Mirazon-Lahr, Marta; Ludes, Bertrand; Crubézy, Eric (2009). "A new deep branch of eurasian mtDNA macrohaplogroup M reveals additional complexity regarding the settlement of Madagascar". BMC Genomics. 10 (1): 605. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-605. PMC 2808327. PMID 20003445.
14. P. Y. Manguin. Pre-modern Southeast Asian Shipping in the Indian Ocean: The Maldive Connection. ‘New Directions in Maritime History Conference’ Fremantle. December 1993.
15. Adelaar, K. Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus, eds. (2005). The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-7007-1286-1.
16. Simon, Pierre R. (2006). Fitenin-drazana. L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-296-01108-3.
17. There are also some Sulawesi loanwords, which Adelaar attributes to contact prior to the migration to Madagascar: See K. Alexander Adelaar, “The Indonesian Migrations to Madagascar: Making Sense of the Multidisciplinary Evidence”, in Truman Simanjuntak, Ingrid Harriet Eileen Pojoh and Muhammad Hisyam (eds.), Austronesian Diaspora and the Ethnogeneses of People in Indonesian Archipelago, (Jakarta: Indonesian Institute of Sciences, 2006), pp. 8–9.
18. Dewar, Robert E.; Wright, Henry T. (1993). "The culture history of Madagascar". Journal of World Prehistory. 7 (4): 417–466. doi:10.1007/bf00997802. hdl:2027.42/45256. S2CID 21753825.
19. Burney DA, Burney LP, Godfrey LR, Jungers WL, Goodman SM, Wright HT, Jull AJ (August 2004). "A chronology for late prehistoric Madagascar". Journal of Human Evolution. 47 (1–2): 25–63. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.05.005. PMID 15288523.
20. Ferrand, Gabriel (1905), "Les migrations musulmanes et juives à Madagascar", Revue de l'histoire des religions, Paris
21. Serva, Maurizio; Petroni, Filippo; Volchenkov, Dima; Wichmann, Søren (2011). "Malagasy Dialects and the Peopling of Madagascar". Journal of the Royal Society, Interface. 9 (66): 54–67. arXiv:1102.2180. doi:10.1098/rsif.2011.0228. PMC 3223632. PMID 21632612.
22. Adelaar, K. Alexander (2017). "Who Were the First Malagasy, and What Did They Speak?". In Acri, Andrea; Blench, Roger; Landmann, Alexandra (eds.). Spirits and Ships: Cultural Transfers in Early Monsoon Asia. Book collections on Project MUSE 28. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. pp. 441–469. doi:10.1355/9789814762779-012. ISBN 978-981-4762-75-5. OCLC 1012757769.
23. [The translation of the Malagasy Bible is still being revised]. haisoratra.org (in French). 3 May 2007. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
24. "Antanosy in Madagascar". Joshua Project.
25. "Madagascar". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
26. "Bushi". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
27. Ferrand, Gabriel (1908). "Un vocabulaire malgache-hollandais." Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië 61.673-677. The manuscript is now in the Arabico-Malagasy collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
28. Flacourt, Étienne de (1657). Le Petit Catéchisme madécasse-français.Paris;(1661). Histoire de la grande isle Madagascar.Paris, pp.197–202.
29. Flacourt, Étienne de (1658). Dictionnaire de la langue de Madagascar. Paris.
30. Berthier, H.J. (1934). De l'usage de l'arabico=malgache en Imérina au début du XIXe siècle: Le cahier d'écriture de Radama Ier. Tananarive.
31. The translation is due to David Griffith of the London Missionary Society, with corrections in 1865–1866.. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
32. FERRAND, Gabriel. (1906) Un Texte Arabico-Malgache Du XVIe siècle Transcrit, Traduit Et annoté D'apres Les MSS. 7 Et 8 De La bibliothèque Nationale Par M.G. Ferrand.. http://ia800309.us.archive.org/29/items/untextearabicoma00pariuoft/untextearabicoma00pariuoft.pdf
33. Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 131. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
34. "The Austronesian Languages: Malagasy" (PDF).
35. Zribi-Hertz, Anne; Mbolatianavalona, Liliane (1999). "Towards a Modular Theory of Linguistic Deficiency: Evidence from Malagasy Personal Pronouns". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 17: 171–172. doi:10.1023/A:1006072823421. S2CID 169890842. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
36. Janie Rasoloson and Carl Rubino, 2005, "Malagasy", in Adelaar & Himmelmann, eds, The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar
37. [1] Winterton, Matthew et al. (2011). Malagasy–English, English–Malagasy Dictionary / Diksionera Malagasy–Anglisy, Anglisy–Malagasy. Lulu Press.
38. Rasoloson, Janie (2001). Malagasy–English / English–Malagasy: Dictionary and Phrasebook. Hippocrene Books.
39. Sibree, James (1915). A naturalist in Madagascar: a record of observation, experiences, and impressions made during a period of over fifty years' intimate association with the natives and study of the animal & vegetable life of the island. London: Seeley, Service & Co., Limited. pp. 93–94.

Sources

• Biddulph, Joseph (1997). An Introduction to Malagasy. Pontypridd, Cymru. ISBN 978-1-897999-15-8.
• Houlder, John Alden, Ohabolana, ou proverbes malgaches. Imprimerie Luthérienne, Tananarive 1960.
• Hurles, Matthew E.; et al. (2005). "The Dual Origin of the Malagasy in Island Southeast Asia and East Africa: Evidence from Maternal and Paternal Lineages". American Journal of Human Genetics. 76 (5): 894–901. doi:10.1086/430051. PMC 1199379. PMID 15793703.
• Ricaut et al. (2009) "A new deep branch of eurasian mtDNA macrohaplogroup M reveals additional complexity regarding the settlement of Madagascar", BMC Genomics.

External links

 

Malagasy edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Malagasy language.

 

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Malagasy.

• Malagasy-English, English–Malagasy bilingual frequency dictionary
• Large audio database of Malagasy words with recorded pronunciation
• Searchable Malagasy–French–English Dictionary/Translator
• Malagasy–French dictionary
• Malagasy Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Malagasy Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
• La Bible Malgache en texte intégral – the complete text of the 1865 Malagasy Bible
• List of references on Malagasy language (with links to online resources).
• Oxford University: Malagasy Language
• Paper on Malagasy clause structure