Malagasy is a member of the East Barito branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family spoken in Madagascar, where it is the national and official language, and also in Comoros, Réunion and Mayotte. There are also communities of Malagasy speakers in France and Quebec in Canada, and smaller ones in Belgium and Washington D.C. in the USA. In 2007 there were 18 million speakers of Malagasy.
Malagasy is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and more closely to the South-east Barito group of languages spoken in Borneo, particularly to Ma'anyan.
Malagasy contains some words borrowed from Swahili and Arabic, There are also loanwords from French, the former colonial language which still enjoys official status, and English, thanks mainly to the 18th century pirates who made the island their base.
There are a number of dialects of Malagasy, including Antankarana, Bara, Masikoro, Northern Betsimisaraka, Merina, Sakalava, Tanosy, Tesaka and Tsimihety. The Merina dialect is spoken in the capital, Antananarivo, and in the central highlands. It is considered the standard form of the language, and is understood by most Madagascans. The Merina dialect is also known as Plateau Malagasy, Ambaniandro, Borizany, Fiteny Malagasy, Hova, Malgache, Official Malagasy, Standard Malagasy or Teny ofisiealy.
Malagasy is used as a medium of instruction in Madagascan primary and secondary schools, along with French.
In the 17th century when the French set up Fort-Dauphin (now Tôlan̈aro) in the south of Magagascar, they noticed that the Malagasy people were using a version of the Arabic alphabet known as Sorabe to write their language. This was used mainly for astrological and magical texts, and it is thought to have been in use since the 15th century.
The first Malagasy dictionary was published in 1658 by Étienne de Flacourt. An English-Malagasy dictionary was published by James Richardson in 1885.
In 1823 a Welsh missionary called David Jones (1796-1841), devised a way of writing Malagasy with the Latin alphabet. He also translated the Bible into Malagasy, working with David Griffiths, another missionary, and invited the London Missionary Society to set up schools and churches in Madagascar.
Download an alphabet chart for Malagasy (Excel)
Corrections by Michael Peter Füstumum
Teraka afaka sy mitovy zo sy fahamendrehana ny olombelona rehetra. Samy manan-tsaina sy fieritreretana ka tokony hifampitondra ampirahalahiana.
Hear a recording of this text by Sanda Miangaly Rabearimanana, provided by Moshe Ash
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Malagasy | Phrases | Numbers | Tower of Babel
Information about the Malagasy Language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/plt
http://dico.malgache.free.fr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorabe_alphabet
Cours de Malgache (Online Malagasy lessons - in French)
http://www.gasikara.net/Langue.htm
Malagasy phrases
http://mylanguages.org/malagasy_phrases.php
http://www.wildmadagascar.org/people/malagasy-english.html
http://ilanguages.org/malagasy_phrases.php
http://wikitravel.org/en/Malagasy_phrasebook
Online Malagasy dictionaries
http://www.madanight.com/dictionnaire_anglais_francais_malgache.htm
http://dico.malgache.free.fr/alphabetMF.php3
http://dico.malgache.free.fr/alphabet.php3
Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de Madagascar
http://malagasyworld.org
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 03.12.21
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