Malagasy Language - Dialects

Dialects

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. These are easily distinguished by several phonological features.

Sakalava lost final nasal consonants, whereas Merina added a voiceless :

• *taŋan 'hand' → Sakalava, Merina

Final *t became - in the one but - in the other:

• *kulit 'skin' → Sakalava, Merina

Sakalava retains ancestral *li and *ti, whereas in Merina these become (as in huditra 'skin' above) and :

• *putiq 'white' → Sakalava, Merina

However, these last changes started in Borneo before the Malagasy arrived in Madagascar.

Ethnologue encodes a dozen varieties of Malagasy as distinct languages. They have about a 70% similarity in lexicon with Merina dialect.