Malagasy language

Malagasy is the language spoken by the majority of the population of Madagascar, where it is an official language alongside French. It is also spoken in parts of the Comoros Islands and Mayotte, as well as by diaspora communities.

Malagasy belongs to the Austronesian language family, which is spread across Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the coasts of East Africa. This distinguishes it from other languages of Madagascar, which are mostly Bantu. The closest recognized linguistic relation is to languages spoken in southern Borneo, particularly the Barito group.

History and origins

Linguists debate whether Austronesian peoples sailed to Madagascar across the Indian Ocean and subsequently encountered populations from the East African coast. Consequently, Malagasy vocabulary contains Bantu elements alongside words borrowed from Arabic, Swahili, French, and English. Some Arabic words relate to the names of months and days.

Dialects and standard form

Malagasy has many dialects distributed across the island, though they are generally mutually intelligible when spoken carefully. The Merina dialect of the central highlands, spoken around Antananarivo, forms the basis of standard Malagasy used in schools, government, and media. The greatest differences exist between eastern and western dialects.

Grammar

Malagasy has a verb-object-subject (VOS) word order in which the verb typically comes first, followed by the object, then the subject—differing from Somali. It also has a complex voice system that permutes the order and role of sentence elements, similar to other Austronesian languages. Words are written in the Latin script, standardized in the 19th century; previously an Arabic script called Sorabe was used.