Explorer Malagasy

About this course

Malagasy is the language spoken on the island of Madagascar. The first Malagasy came from the Borneo/Indonesia area and might have spent some time on the Eastern part of Africa before settling in Madagascar around the 5^th century B.C. Although it uses words from that Eastern part of Africa, Ma’anyan (language of the Dayak people, in the central Kalimantan, Indonesia) remains the closest language to Malagasy.

Because Madagascar had also been a trade route for silk and spices and slave trade, some Arabs probably stopped by. This is confirmed by the presence of Arabic words in the Malagasy vocabulary. These Arabs were undoubtedly the first ones to introduce the Malagasy writing around the 17^th century as they were mostly the scribes under some monarchy.

Malagasy also is influenced by British English, when the British missionaries created the Latin script of the Malagasy alphabet and published the Bible in Malagasy in the 19^th century (1835). Finally, as Madagascar became a French colony (1896), the Malagasy language would have more and more French words in its vocabulary.

Malagasy was then born as a result of the encounter between these South East Asian languages, Arabic, Bantu and later tremendously influenced by English and French.

Malagasy is in a grave situation today. In fact, although it is spoken on the island of Madagascar and by some Malagasy diaspora overseas, the Malagasy people’s desire to succeed (by using and learning a global language), the influence of technology (less and less use of Malagasy) and, the scarcity or the high cost of Malagasy literature, all contribute to the loss of Malagasy vocabulary and culture.

Learn Malagasy with us and open a wide window to the island of Madagascar where you learn access the very essence of Malagasy culture. 

About your teacher

Haingo grew up in Madagascar and has lived in the U.S., Gabon, the Philippines, Canada and Mexico. She speaks Malagasy, French, English and some Tagalog (official language in the Philippines) and has translated stories, songs and fairytales from English into Malagasy. Haingo enjoys exploring new cities and learning about the people, their culture, and history!

Her family moves from one country to another every two to three years. She enjoys learning the language of her host countries – when they lived in the Philippines, she took some Tagalog classes and was very amazed at the similarities between Malagasy and Tagalog.

Haingo joined Tribalingual in order to raise awareness of the Malagasy language and culture and propagate it to people all around the world. Join her in learning about the people of this wonderful island today!