Malagasy ( / ˌ m æ l ə ˈ ɡ æ s i / MAL -ə- GASS -ee ; Malagasy pronunciation: [malaˈɡasʲ] ; Sorabe : مَلَغَسِ ) is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar . The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French .
38-577: 21, see text Tephrodornithidae The family Vangidae (from vanga , Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga , Vanga curvirostris ) comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family owes its name. Many species in this family were previously classified elsewhere in other families. Recent molecular techniques made it possible to assign these species to Vangidae, thereby solving several taxonomic enigmas. The family contains 40 species divided into 21 genera. In addition to
76-540: A verb–object–subject (VOS) word order : Mamaky reads boky book ny the mpianatra student Mamaky boky ny mpianatra reads book the student "The student reads the book" Nividy bought Newtonias Newtonia is a genus of passerine birds containing four to five species. They were formerly classified in the Old World warbler family Sylviidae or Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae but have recently been shown to belong to
114-649: A 70% similarity in lexicon with the Merina dialect. The Eastern dialects are: The Western dialects are: Additionally, the Bushi dialect (41,700 speakers) is spoken on the French overseas territory of Mayotte , which is part of the Comoro island chain situated northwest of Madagascar. The two main dialects of Malagasy are easily distinguished by several phonological features. Sakalava lost final nasal consonants, whereas Merina added
152-444: A large nest of sticks. Some species of vanga are common such as the chabert vanga which can survive in secondary woodland and plantations of introduced trees. Several other species are threatened by loss of their forest habitat. Pollen's vanga is classed as near-threatened by BirdLife International and the red-shouldered vanga, Bernier's vanga, helmet vanga and red-tailed newtonia are regarded as vulnerable . Van Dam's vanga
190-409: A particularly large bill with a casque on top. Other species, such as the newtonias , have a small, thin bill. The sickle-billed vanga is notable for its long, curved bill used to probe into holes and cracks. Most vangas are largely black, brown or grey above and white below. Exceptions include the blue and white blue vanga and the blue-grey nuthatch vanga . The helmet vanga is mostly black with
228-547: A phonological quality not unlike that of Portuguese . /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] or [ɛ, ɔ] in more casual speech. /ai/ , whichever way it is pronounced, affects following /k, ɡ/ as /i/ does. 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
266-533: A rufous back. Male Bernier's vangas are entirely black while the females are brown. It is one of several species with distinct male and female plumage while in other species the sexes are identical. Most vangas have whistling calls. They are native to Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indomalayan realm , although most are endemic to Madagascar in a variety of forest and scrub habitats. Several species including Van Dam's vanga and sickle-billed vanga can be found in
304-408: A single founding population into a variety of forms adapted to various niches occupied by other bird families in other parts of the world. They differ in size, colour and bill shape but are similar in skull shape and bony palate structure. They are small to medium-sized birds, varying from 12 to 32 cm in length. Many have strong, hooked bills similar to those of shrikes. The helmet vanga has
342-652: A variety of different foraging strategies. Many species glean food as they move through the branches. The nuthatch vanga climbs up trunks and branches like a nuthatch but does not climb downwards as nuthatches do. Crossley's babbler forages by walking along the forest floor amongst the leaf litter . The chabert vanga and the tylas vanga often fly into the air to catch prey. The three Xenopirostris vangas use their laterally flattened bills to strip bark off trees to search for food underneath. Most species nest in pairs, building cup-shaped nests using twigs, bark, roots and leaves. The sickle-billed vanga nests in groups and builds
380-631: A voiceless [ə̥] : Final *t became -[tse] in the one but -[ʈʂə̥] in the other: Sakalava retains ancestral *li and *ti, whereas in Merina these become [di] (as in huditra 'skin' above) and [tsi] : However, these last changes started in Borneo before the Malagasy arrived in Madagascar. The language has a written literature going back presumably to the 15th century. When the French established Fort-Dauphin in
418-417: 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 . Diacritics are not obligatory in standard Malagasy, except in the case where its absence leads to an ambiguity: tanàna ("city") must have the diacritic to discriminate itself from tanana ("hand"). They may however be used in
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#1732849062737456-425: Is classed as endangered because it is restricted to a small area of north-west Madagascar where the forest is rapidly disappearing due to clearance for agriculture and uncontrolled bushfires. The family contains 21 genera and 40 species. FAMILY: VANGIDAE Malagasy language Malagasy is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language , brought to Madagascar with the settlement of Austronesian speakers from
494-499: 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
532-456: 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
570-740: Is not clear if they are actually trilled, or are simply non- sibilant affricates [ʈɻ̊˔ ᶯʈɻ̊˔ ɖɻ˔ ᶯɖɻ˔] . 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 transcribed [ ʈʂ ᶯʈʂ ɖʐ ᶯɖʐ ], and that is the convention used in this article. In reduplication, compounding, possessive and verbal constructions, as well as after nasals, fricatives and liquids, 'spirants' become stops, as follows: Here, stressed syllables are indicated by grave diacritics ⟨à⟩ , although these diacritics are normally not used. Words are generally accented on
608-434: Is pronounced [fə̥ˈnurnə̥] . According to Penelope Howe in 2019, Central Malagasy is undergoing tonogenesis , with syllables containing voiced consonants are "fully devoiced" and acquire a low tone ( /ba/ → [b̥à] ), while those containing unvoiced consonants acquire a high tone ( /pa/ → [pá] ). However, this development appears to not occur in posttonic syllables, and she called it " pitch accent " instead. Malagasy has
646-671: 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. 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
684-452: Is the national epic, Ibonia , about a Malagasy folk hero of the same name. 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. The Merina dialect of Malagasy
722-879: The Latin script introduced by Western missionaries in the early 19th century. Previously, the Sorabe script was used, a local development of the Arabic script . The Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family , a grouping that includes languages from Indonesia , Malaysia , the Philippines and the Pacific Islands . In fact, Malagasy's relation with other Austronesian languages had already been noted by early scholars, such as
760-561: 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 Ma'anyan language , still spoken on Borneo . Malagasy also includes numerous Malay loanwords, from the time of the early Austronesian settlement and trading between Madagascar and
798-597: The dry deciduous forests in the west of the island. Some such as Crossley's babbler, helmet vanga and Bernier's vanga are restricted to rainforest in the east of the island. Lafresnaye's vanga and the recently discovered red-shouldered vanga occur in subarid thorn scrub in the south-west. Their diet can include insects, earthworms, millipedes, lizards and amphibians. The blue vanga and chabert vanga occasionally eat fruit. Many species feed in small groups, often in mixed-species foraging flocks . The hook-billed vanga and Lafresnaye's vanga tend to forage alone. Vangas have
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#1732849062737836-522: The vanga family Vangidae. They are endemic to Madagascar where they occur in forest or scrubland . They forage in pairs for insects , often joining mixed-species feeding flocks . They are small plump birds, about 12 centimetres in length. They have slender bills and usually have a pale eye. Their plumage is mainly grey or brown, paler on the underparts. They have loud, repeated songs . List of species in taxonomic order: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] This Vangidae -related article
874-401: The 17th century, they found an Arabico-Malagasy script in use, known as Sorabe ("large writings"). This Arabic-derived Sorabe alphabet was mainly used for astrological and magical texts. The oldest known manuscript in that script is a short Malagasy-Dutch vocabulary from the early 17th century, which was first published in 1908 by Gabriel Ferrand though the script must have been introduced into
912-697: The Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland in 1708. Among all Austronesian languages, Dahl (1951) demonstrated that Malagasy and Ma'anyan – an East Barito language spoken in Central Kalimantan , Indonesia, on the island of Borneo – were particularly closely related. The language also has apparent influence from early Old Malay . 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 Malay and Javanese . Adelaar (1995) suggested that
950-584: The Protestant London Missionary Society to establish schools and churches. The first book to be printed in Malagasy using Latin characters was the Bible , which was translated into Malagasy in 1835 by British Protestant missionaries working in the highlands area of Madagascar. The current Malagasy 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
988-496: The Southeast Barito languages , and the Ma'anyan language is its closest relative, with numerous Malay and Javanese loanwords. 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 c. 50 –500 AD. Later, c. 1000 , the original Austronesian settlers mixed with Bantus and Arabs , amongst others. There
1026-571: The Sunda Islands. After c. 1000 AD , 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 across its twelve dialects between two main dialect groups; Eastern and Western. The central plateau of
1064-539: The following ways: 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. The large number of reduced vowels, and their effect on neighbouring consonants, give Malagasy
1102-467: 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
1140-412: 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, [ʈɽ̊˔ ᶯʈɽ̊˔ ɖɽ˔ ᶯɖɽ˔] . It
1178-528: The penultimate syllable, unless the word ends in ka , tra and often na , in which case they are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Secondary stresses exist in even-numbered syllables from the last stressed syllable, when the word has more than four syllables ( fàmantàranàndro [ˌfamˌtarˈnandʐʷ] "watch, clock"). Neither prefixation nor suffixation affect the placement of stress. In many dialects, unstressed vowels (except /e/ ) are devoiced, and in some cases almost completely elided ; thus fanòrona
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1216-480: The phonemic inventory. 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. The letters c, q, u, w and x are all not used in native Malagasy words. Mp and occasionally nt may begin
1254-493: The small set of Malagasy species traditionally called the vangas, Vangidae includes some Asian groups: the woodshrikes ( Tephrodornis ), flycatcher-shrikes ( Hemipus ) and philentomas . Vangidae belongs to a clade of corvid birds that also includes bushshrikes (Malaconotidae), ioras (Aegithinidae) and the Australian butcherbirds, magpies and currawongs ( Cracticidae ) and woodswallows ( Artamidae ), which has been defined as
1292-512: The southeast area of Madagascar in the 15th century. The first bilingual renderings of religious texts are those by Étienne de Flacourt , who also published the first dictionary of the language. Radama I , the first literate representative of the Merina monarchy , though extensively versed in the Arabico-Malagasy tradition, opted in 1823 for a Latin system derived by David Jones and invited
1330-415: The subjects of history and Malagasy language. 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. Ethnologue encodes 12 variants of Malagasy as distinct languages. They have about
1368-556: The superfamily Malaconotoidea . They seem closely related to some enigmatic African groups: the helmetshrikes ( Prionops ) and the shrike-flycatchers ( Bias and Megabyas ). On Madagascar, vangas were traditionally believed to be a small family of shrike-like birds. Recent research suggests that several Madagascan taxa most similar in appearance and habits (and formerly considered to be) Old World warblers, Old World flycatchers or Old World babblers may be vangas. Yamagishi et al. found in 2001 that Newtonia appeared to belong with
1406-1280: The vangas rather than the warblers and also that Tylas was a vanga and not a bulbul . It also appears that Ward's flycatcher and Crossley's babbler belong with the vangas. The phylogenetic relationships between the genera are shown below. The cladogram is based on a study by Sushma Reddy and collaborators that was published in 2012. The species in the subfamily Vanginae are endemic to Madagascar. Prionops – helmetshrikes (8 species) Megabyas – African shrike-flycatcher Bias – black-and-white shrike-flycatcher Hemipus – flycatcher-shrikes (2 species) Tephrodornis – woodshrikes (4 species) Philentoma – philentomas (2 species) Newtonia – newtonias (4 species) Tylas – tylas vanga Calicalicus – vangas (2 species) Hypositta – nuthatch vanga Mystacornis – Crossley's vanga Leptopterus – Chabert vanga Cyanolanius – blue vangas (2 species) Vanga – hook-billed vanga Pseudobias – Ward's flycatcher Schetba – rufous vanga Euryceros – helmet vanga Xenopirostris – vangas (3 species) Oriolia – Bernier's vanga Falculea – sickle-billed vanga Artamella – white-headed vanga The vangas are an example of adaptive radiation , having evolved from
1444-472: The vocabulary of Malagasy also contains many words that are of South Sulawesi origin. Further evidence for this suggestion was presented by Blench (2018). Malagasy is the demonym of Madagascar , from which it is taken to refer to the people of Madagascar in addition to their language. Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia from the Sunda Islands ( Malay archipelago ). As for their route, one possibility
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