Software - Mac AfroRoman for Mac Regular Price $129.95 Buy Info Professional-quality Type 1 and TrueType fonts in a Times (Times New Roman�) style, in plain, bold, italic, and bold-italic. AfroRoman includes characters and diacritics used in many African and European languages. It features over 50 overstrike...	Software - Windows AfroRoman for Windows Regular Price $129.95 Buy Info Professional-quality Type 1 and TrueType fonts in a Times (Times New Roman�) style, in plain, bold, italic, and bold-italic. AfroRoman includes characters and diacritics used in many African and European languages. It features over 50 overstrike...	Töï-hoïc Talk Now Learn Malagasy Special Price $29.99 Regular Price $45.00 Buy Info Talk Now! Is the world's best selling language learning CD-ROM series for beginners because it gets results fast. Used by more than two million people, its innovation and fun learning method gives you the key words you want and the help ...
Töï-ñieån Hippocrene Malagasy - Malagasy to and from English Dictionary and Phrasebook Regular Price $11.95 Buy Info This compact book provides the traveler to the beautiful islands of Madagaskar and Mayotte with the means for basic communication as well as an introduction to the country's culture: essential topics from introductions and common phrases to...

Saûn-phaåm  Phaàn giôùi-thieäu  Maãu cuûa moät baøi vaên  Chuyeån-dòch 

Saûn-phaåm

Phaàn giôùi-thieäu

Malagasy, also known as Malgache, is spoken on the island of Madagascar which in 1960 became the Malagasy Republic. Its 13 million speakers include most of the population of the island.

It would be logical to assume that Malagasy belongs to one or another of the African language families but this is not the case. Investigation has established it as one of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, the rest of which are spoken thousands of miles to the east, in Southeast Asia and on islands in the Pacific. It is now believed that the inhabitants of Madagascar are descendants of settlers from present-day Indonesia (perhaps the island of Borneo), who arrived between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago.

Malagasy contains some words of Bantu, Arab, French, and English origin. It has a soft, musical quality somewhat reminiscent of Italian.

Family: Malayo-Polynesian
Subgroup: Austronesian
Branch: Indonesian

Maãu cuûa moät baøi vaên

Chuyeån-dòch

You shall not ask what the present tears
From the deep of my silence mean!
You shall not ask because you know
They are memories of long ago!

I recall the joys of days gone by,
They waned alas to flit away!
I claim and call them forth in vain
As though oblivious and never again!

—J. J. RANEARIVELO, Love Song