Malagasy
Let an agent explain the Malagasy language and its dialects, relay its status, origins and structure from linguistic and official sources, describe history and literature, and route to entries for specific dialects.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify
Researched by: Claude
Purpose and description
Let an agent explain the Malagasy language and its dialects, relay its status, origins and structure from linguistic and official sources, describe history and literature, and route to entries for specific dialects.
An Austronesian language of the East Barito group, the national language of Madagascar alongside French, spoken by about 25 million people, brought to the island by settlers from Borneo over a thousand years ago and enriched by Bantu, Arabic and French vocabulary, with a standard based on the Plateau or Merina dialect and regional dialects such as Sakalava, Vezo, Sahafatra, Anjoaty and Zafisoro; Malagasy is written in the Latin alphabet since the nineteenth century and has verb-initial word order.
What it is for: Not applicable; a language.
It can be explain the language and dialects; relay status and origins; relay structure and literature; route to specific dialects.
Distinguishing features
Austronesian in Africa
Verb-initial order
Dialect diversity
Latin script
What it looks like
Not a visible object; written in the Latin alphabet.
Physical character
speakers: about 25 million - estimates
Latin orthography adopted: 1823 year - under Radama I
closest relatives: Barito languages of Borneo family
How it is recognised
Austronesian language of Madagascar
Plateau or Merina standard; Sakalava, Vezo, Sahafatra, Anjoaty, Zafisoro and other dialects
Malagasy also names the people; French is the co-official language; Comorian is a Bantu language
Related models
is a kind of - in registry terms
is the national language of - with French
is spoken by - the population of Madagascar
is related to - of Borneo
In practice
Families and kinds
Plateau Malagasy, the Merina-based standard
northern dialects such as Sakalava and Anjoaty
southern and western dialects such as Vezo, Sahafatra and Zafisoro
eastern dialects such as Betsimisaraka
Malagasy in the diaspora
Identifiers
ISO 639-1 mg
ISO 639-3 mlg macrolanguage
Standards and regulation
Constitution of Madagascar naming Malagasy the national language
Malagasy Academy standardisation
Unicode Latin script
Failure modes and hazards
Conflating dialects with the standard
Stale speaker counts
Confusing the language with the people or with Comorian
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.
Understand What Malagasy is.
Linguistics.
Definition
Definition and classification.
Definition
Definition.
- What is Malagasy, and how is it classified within Austronesian? definition
- Is the question about the language, a dialect or the Malagasy people? boundary
Dialects
Dialects.
Dialects
Dialects.
- How do Plateau, Sakalava, Vezo, Sahafatra, Anjoaty and Zafisoro varieties differ? definition
- Which entry fits the specific dialect? action
Structure Structure and writing.
Linguistics.
Grammar
Grammar.
Grammar
Grammar.
- What are the main features of Malagasy phonology and its verb-initial grammar? provenance
- Which references are standard? provenance
Writing
Writing.
Writing
Writing.
- How did the sorabe Arabic script and the Latin orthography develop? provenance
- Which entry fits sorabe? action
Use Status and use.
Regulation.
Status
Official status.
Status
Status.
- What status does Malagasy hold, and how is it used in education, media and government? provenance
- Which sources are cited? provenance
Learning
Learning.
Learning
Learning.
- How can learners approach Malagasy, and what resources exist? action
- Which entry fits language learning? action
Context History and literature.
Context.
History
History.
History
History.
- How did Austronesian settlers bring the language to Madagascar, and how did contact shape it, as linguists describe? provenance
- Which entry fits the settlement of Madagascar? action
Literature
Literature and oral tradition.
Literature
Literature.
- What are hainteny, kabary and modern Malagasy literature? provenance
- Which entry fits Malagasy literature? action
What the second pass must settle
- Should the major dialects be separate entries?
- How should linguistic references be linked?
- The registry entry has merged aliases naming dialects; should they be split off?