The following is excerped from the Country Studies--Area Handbook program of the U.S. Department of the Army. The original version of this text is available at the Library of Congress.
Full index of Country Studies-Madagascar
Madagascar
Language
The Malagasy language--spoken throughout Madagascar by
the
entire population--is the only one in the African region
that
belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian language family.
Linguists
believe that it shares a common origin with, and is most
closely
related to Maanyan, a language spoken in southeast Borneo.
Both
Malagasy and Maanyan bear a close affinity with the
languages of
the western Indonesian archipelago, such as Malay,
Javanese,
Balinese, and the Minangkabau language of Sumatra.
The origins of the Malagasy language in southeast Asia
are
clearly demonstrated by common words and meanings shared
with
several of the Indonesian languages. For example, the
Malagasy
term antalaotra (people of the sea) echoes the
Malay
laut (sea). Even more geographically widespread and
interesting affinities have been discovered. Vahiny
means
"stranger" in Malagasy, while vahini means "girl"
in
Tahitian Polynesian. Scholars suggest that the two words
(assuming they share a common origin) reveal that the
first
Malayo-Indonesian settlers along the African coast, or
Madagascar
itself, were male and that women came later as guests or
strangers to settlements already established.
Although different regional dialects of Malagasy exist,
these
are mutually intelligible, and the language is a
significant
basis of cultural unity. Words are formed from roots with
basic
meanings, which are combined with prefixes or suffixes to
create
derivatives. Many Malagasy words, particularly names (such
as
that of the Merina king, Andrianampoinimerina), are very
long,
but certain syllables, particularly the last, are lightly
accented or not at all.
A number of foreign words are found in the Malagasy
vocabulary. The names of the days of the week and the
months of
the year are taken from Arabic, and the names of animals
are
taken from a Swahili dialect of East Africa. A number of
English
and French words also entered the language in the
nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
Before the nineteenth century, the only Malagasy people
with
a written language were the Antaimoro, keepers of the
sorabe. By 1824-25, a written form of Malagasy
using Roman
characters was developed by members of the London
Missionary
Society working under the patronage of Merina King Radama
I. The
result was an almost perfectly consistent phonetic
language that
continues to be used throughout the country; the
consonants are
pronounced as in English and the vowels as in French, a
compromise apparently promoted by Radama I. The completion
of the
alphabet enabled the missionaries to publish a Malagasy
Bible and
other books for their schools, and the possession of a
written
language was to prove decisive to the development of the
Merinadominated portion of Madagascar.
The colonial period witnessed the emergence of French
as the
dominant language of the island, and Malagasy was
relegated to an
inferior position, particularly in official and academic
circles.
Although the First Republic adopted an official policy of
bilingualism (French and Malagasy), French continued to
dominate
until the inauguration of Ratsiraka and his promulgation
of an
official policy of Malagachization. Originally conceived
by
nationalists as the promotion of education in the national
language, Malagachization also ultimately included the
more
radical denunciation of French culture and influence over
the
national economy and political system. Malagachization
further
entailed the creation of a common Malagasy language that
partook
of dialects from all the regions and peoples of the island
rather
than being primarily a Merina dialect, as remains the case
with
official Malagasy today. After 1982 the drive toward
Malagachization increasingly faltered in favor of a
continuing
trend toward reembracing the concept of Madagascar's
inclusion in
the international francophone community. Indeed, French
remains
important, largely because of its international status and
the
fact that most of the leadership has been educated in
French.
Both Malagasy and French are used in official government
publications.
Data as of August 1994
This is excerped from the Country Studies--Area Handbook program of the U.S. Department of the Army. The original version of this text is available at the Library of Congress.
Full index of Country Studies-Madagascar
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