Malagasy ( ;Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh ; Sorabe: ) is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is one of the official languages of Madagascar, alongside French.

Malagasy is the westernmost Austronesian 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. The Malagasy language is one of the Barito languages and is most closely related to the Maʼanyan language, still spoken on Borneo. Malagasy also includes numerous Malay loanwords. In from the time of the early Austronesian settlement and trading between Madagascar and the Sunda Islands. After , 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 in dozen dialects between three main dialect groups: Northern Malagasic, Central-Eastern Malagasic and Southern Malagasic. 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, which was 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 (Hesperonesian) member of the Austronesian language family,Malagasy's family tree on Ethnologue a grouping that is closely related to the Western Indonesian languages. Similarities between Malagasy and Eastern Sumatran (Malay) had been observed since the 17th century and Malagasy's relation with other Austronesian languages had already been noted by early scholars, such as the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland in 1708.

Among all Austronesian languages, Dahl (1951) demonstrated that Malagasy and Maʼanyan Dayak – an East Barito language natively spoken in Central Kalimantan (Indonesia) on the island of Kalimantan – were particularly closely related. 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 Javanese (mainly).

Adelaar (1995) suggested that the vocabulary of Malagasy also contains many words that are of South Sulawesi-origin (especially Makassar) . Further evidence for this suggestion was presented by Blench (2018).

Decimal numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Proto-Austronesian (hypothetical reconstruction) *isa *duSa *telu *Sepat *lima *enem *pitu *walu *Siwa *puluq Malagasy / Maʼanyan Dayak isa rueh / rue telo epat dime enem pitu balu su'ey sapulu Deyah Dayak 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 Cebuano usá duhá tuló upát limá unóm pitó waló siyám napúlo Ilocano maysá dua talló uppát limá inném pitó waló siam sangapúlo Chamorro maisa/håcha hugua tulu fatfat lima gunum fiti guålu sigua månot/fulu Javanese // Kangean Sundanese Indonesian / Malay 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 Maori tahi rua toru whā rima ono whitu waru iwa tekau Hawaiian kahi lua kolu hā lima ono hiku walu iwa ʻumi

However, the diversity of Malagasy dialects does not correspond to the genetic diversity of the populations. For example, the Merina, who often show a relatively high proportion of Austronesian ancestry (more than 50–60% according to several studies), nevertheless use certain words of African origin such as or . Conversely, several coastal populations, whose proportion of Asian ancestry is generally lower (around 30–40%), do not always use these terms and instead retain Austronesian words absent from the Merina vocabulary, such as or .Deschamps, Hubert. Histoire de Madagascar... (4e éd. revue et complétée). Paris: Berger-Levrault, p. 20, 1972.

+ Regional Vocabulary Not Found in Merina And Austronesian Parallels Malagasy word Malagasy specific dialect Closest Austronesian form Austronesian language Gloss Antefasy Malagasy Maʼanyan Dayak Mosquito Antefasy Malagasy Javanese smallpox / rash Antefasy Malagasy kōuraura Maori shrimp Antefasy Malagasy Javanese curly Antefasy Malagasy huelo Hawaiian tail Northern Malagasy dialects Sundanese fish Antefasy Malagasy / Antemoro Malagasy Sundanese fish Southern Malagasy dialects Javanese rope Northern Malagasy dialects Kaeha Hawaiian to call Southern Malagasy dialect i'a Samoan / Hawaiian fish

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

Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia from the Sunda Islands (Malay archipelago). 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.P. Y. Manguin. Pre-modern Southeast Asian Shipping in the Indian Ocean: The Maldive Connection. 'New Directions in Maritime History Conference' Fremantle. December 1993. 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. The Malagasy language originates from the Southeast Barito languages, and the Ma'anyan language is its closest relative, with numerous Malay and Javanese loanwords.Otto Chr. Dahl, Malgache et Maanjan: une comparaison linguistique, Egede-Instituttet Avhandlinger, no. 3 (Oslo: Egede-Instituttet, 1951), p. 13.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. 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 –500 AD. Later, , the original Austronesian settlers mixed with Bantus and Arabs, amongst others. There is evidence that the predecessors of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar. 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.

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.

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

In his 1658 work , provided one of the earliest known attempts to classify the Malagasy language into dialectal regions. He divided Malagasy into two main dialect groups: northern and southern. He noted significant lexical differences between them — for instance, the word was used in the south to mean 'woman' or 'girl', while was used in the north. Similarly, was a northern term for 'father', whereas was used in the south.

Flacourt also observed phonological variations. He noted similarities between the Tanosy and Antemoro dialects, especially their shared use of the [] sound in words like . In contrast, in the Masikoro and Mahafaly dialects, the [] sound is often replaced by [], producing for the same meaning.

Malagasy dialects can be divided into northern, central-eastern, and southern groups. Northern dialects (Kibushi, Northern Sakalava, Antakarana, Tsimihety, Northern Betsimisaraka) are heavily influenced by Swahili and French. Northern Malagasy speakers pronounce the vowel o like the English vowel in "cold," orthographically written ô. Examples include ('first'), ('island'), ('before'), ('to carry'), ('moon; month'), and ('bald').

Non-Northern Malagasy speakers pronounce the same vowel o like the English "oo" in "food", as in , , , , and .

Southern Malagasy dialects, including Tandroy, Southern Sakalava, Tanosy, and Bara, reflect conservative phonology and can phonetically resemble Polynesian languages. They also use a progressive or ascending numeral system, where the smaller unit is added after the base (e.g., → literally '10 + 1'), in contrast with other Malagasy dialects that use a retrograde or descending system (e.g., → literally '1 over 10').

For example, the word ('leech') corresponds to Malay , ('rope') corresponds to Malay , and ('five') corresponds to Malay , whereas in other dialects it appears as , , and .

Central-Eastern subgroup which contains Antesaka, Sahafatra, Southern Betsimisaraka and Plateau dialects like Antefasy, Antambahoaka, Vakinankaratra, Sihanaka, Merina (basis of Standard Malagasy) constitutes an intermediate group, with a structure and vocabulary largely close to standard Malagasy, and with influence sometimes coming from either the northern or southern branches.

Although considered a single ethnic group, the Sakalava speak at least two distinct dialects. The Southern Sakalava dialect is more closely related to Masikoro, while the Northern Sakalava dialect shares linguistic features with the Tsimihety dialect. The Betsimisaraka also demonstrate internal dialectal variation: the Northern Betsimisaraka dialect is closer to Tsimihety, whereas the Southern variant is more similar to Antambahoaka.

Tree list of Malagasy dialects

Proto-Malagasy Central-Eastern Malagasic Plateaux Malagasy Merina-Vakinankaratra Merina Standard Malagasy Inner City Merina Vakinankaratra Marofotsy Betsileo Bezanozano Sihanaka Antemoro-Antefasy Sahavoay Antemoro Antefasy Zafisoro Antambahoaka Tanala Sahafatra-Antesaka Antemanambondro Sahafatra Antesaka Southern Betsimisaraka Southern Malagasic Vezo-Sakalava Southern Sakalava Vezo Masikoro Mikea Tandroy Karimbola Mahafaly Bara Antanosy Northern Malagasic Northern Sakalava Kibushi Kibushi Kimaore Kibushi Kiantalaotsy Sakalava Anjoaty