Malagasy language

Malagasy
Native to	Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte
Native speakers	18 million  (2007)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Barito East Barito Malagasy
Official status
Official language in	Madagascar
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mg
ISO 639-2	mlg (B) mlg (T)
ISO 639-3	mlg – inclusive code Individual codes: xmv – Antankarana bhr – Bara msh – Masikoro bmm – Northern Betsimisaraka plt – Plateau Malagasy skg – Sakalava bzc – Southern Betsimisaraka tdx – Tandroy-Mafahaly txy – Tanosy tkg – Tesaka xmw – Tsimihety

Malagasy /mæləˈɡæsi/ (Malagasy: [ˌmalaˈɡasʲ]) is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.

History

Sorabe Malagasy Arabic script

Sorabe alphabet, the Malagasy Arabic script

The Malagasy language is not related to nearby African languages, instead it is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. This was noted in 1708 by the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland.

It is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and more closely to the Southeast Barito languages spoken in Borneo except for its Polynesian morphophonemics. According to Roger Blench (2010), the earliest form of language spoken on Madagascar could have had some non-Austronesian substrata. Malagasy shares much of its basic vocabulary with the Ma'anyan language, a language from the region of the Barito River in southern Borneo. This indicates that Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian people from Maritime Southeast Asia who had passed through Borneo. According to the literature, the first Austronesian settlement may have taken place around the 7th century AD. The migrations continued along the first millennium, as confirmed by linguistics researchers who showed the close relationship between the Malagasy language and Old Malay and Old Javanese languages of this period. Far later, ca. 1000 A.D., the original Austronesian settlers must have mixed with East Africans and Arabs, amongst others. Thus, the Malagasy language also includes some borrowings from Arabic and Bantu languages (especially the Sabaki branch, from which most notably Swahili derives).

There is evidence that the predecessor(s) of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar.

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. The oldest known manuscript in that script is a short Malagasy-Dutch vocabulary from the early 17th century first published in 1908 by Gabriel Ferrand though the script must have been introduced into the southeast area of Madagascar in the 15th century. Radama I, the first literate representative of the Merina monarchy, though extensively versed in the Arabico-Malagasy tradition, opted for alphabetization in Latin characters, by David Jones, and invited the Protestant London Missionary Society to establish schools and churches.

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.

The first book to be printed in Malagasy was the Bible, which was translated into Malagasy in 1835 by British Protestant missionaries working in the highlands area of Madagascar. The first bilingual renderings of religious texts are those by Étienne de Flacourt, who also published the first dictionary of the language.

Dialects

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. These are easily distinguished by several phonological features.

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

• *taŋan 'hand' → Sakalava [ˈtaŋa], Merina [ˈtananə̥]

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

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

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

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

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

Ethnologue encodes a dozen varieties of Malagasy as distinct languages. They have about a 70% similarity in lexicon with Merina dialect.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i, y /i/		o /u/
Mid	e /e/		(ô /o/)
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.

/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] in more casual speech. /ai/, whichever way it is pronounced, affects following /k, ɡ/ as /i/ does.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩			n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨n̈⟩
Plosive or affricate	Voiceless	p ⟨p⟩		t ⟨t⟩	ts ⟨ts⟩	ʈʳ ⟨tr⟩	k ⟨k⟩
	Voiceless prenasalized	mp ⟨mp⟩		nt ⟨nt⟩	nts ⟨nts⟩	ɳʈʳ ⟨ntr⟩	ŋk ⟨nk⟩
	Voiced	b ⟨b⟩		d ⟨d⟩	dz ⟨j⟩	ɖʳ ⟨dr⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
	Voiced prenasalized	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, [ʈɽ̝̊ ɳʈɽ̝̊ ɖɽ̝ ɳɖɽ̝]. It is not clear if they are actually trilled, or are simply non-sibilant affricates. 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. The Malagasy sounds are frequently trascribed [ʈʂ ɳʈʂ ɖʐ ɳɖʐ], and that is the convention used in this article.

In reduplication, compounding, possessive and verbal constructions, and 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

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

Orthography

Malagasy has been written using the Latin script since 1823, before which the Arabic Ajami script, or Sorabe ("large writings") as it is known in Madagascar, was used for astrological and magical texts.

The 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 phonetics. 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.

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 script with the modern Malagasy script equivalent
ـَ	ب	د	ـِ	ف	غ	ه	ـِ	ج	ك	ل	م	ن	ـُ	ڡ	ر	س	ط	و	‹ي› na ‹ز›	ع	‹ڊ› na ‹رّ›	‹̣ط› na ‹رّ›	ت	ڡّ	طّ	ـَيْ	ـَوْ	ـُوً	ـُيْ	‹ـِيَا› na ‹ـِيْا›	ـِوْ	ـِيْ
a	b	d	e	f	g, ng	h	i, y	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	r	s	t	v	z	n̈	dr	tr	ts	mp	nt	ai	ao	oa	oi	ia, ea	io, eo	ie

Diacritics

Diacritics are not obligatory in standard Malagasy. 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 accent on the word that follows the pronunciation rules ("tànana") is less common, mainly in dictionaries. (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/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
• ¨ (trema) 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/.

Grammar

Word order

Malagasy has a verb–object–subject word order:

Mamaky ny boky ny mpianatra
(reads book the student)
"The student is reading the book"

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). It should be noted that 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 personal and demonstrative pronouns, depending on the speaker's familiarity and closeness to the referent.

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.

Malagasy deixis

		PROX		MED		DIST
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.

Lexicography

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.

• 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.

Samples

The following samples are of the Merina dialect (standard Malagasy), spoken in the capital of Madagascar and in the central highlands or "plateau," home of the Merina tribe. It is generally understood throughout the island.

English	Malagasy	IPA
English	Anglisy	ãŋɡliʂ
Yes	Eny	ˈʲenj
No	Tsia, Tsy	tsi, tsʲ
Hello! and 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? or Oviana past tense	roᶷˈvinə̥, rawˈvinə̥
Where?	Aiza?	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, or ho an'i	wanːi
Because	Satria	saˈtʂi
I don't understand.	Tsy mazava, or tsy azoko.	tsʲ mazavə̥
Yes, I understand.	Eny, mazava (or azoko).	ʲenʲ mazavə̥
Help!	Vonjeo!	vunˈdzew
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 toliet?)	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. or Reraka aho.	ˈvizaka rerakau
I need to pee.	Poritra aho. or Ny olombelona tsy akoho.	purtʂa
I would like to go to Antsirabe.	Tiako hankany Antsirabe.	tiku ande 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

See also

• Étienne de Flacourt
• Jean Joseph Rabearivelo

Additional references

• Biddulph, Joseph (1997). An Introduction to Malagasy. Pontypridd, Cymru. ISBN 978-1-897999-15-8.
• 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 76:894–901.
• 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-English, English-Malagasy bilingual frequency dictionary
• Large audio database of Malagasy words with recorded pronunciation
• Searchable Malagasy–French–English Dictionary/Translator
• Malagasy–English Dictionary
• Malagasy–French dictionary
• Malagasy Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Malagasy Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
• PanAfrican L10n page on Malagasy (information for/on localization)
• 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