Malagasy language page

Classification and where spoken

Malagasy belongs to the West Indonesian branch of Hesperonesian and is spoken in Madagascar.

Number of speakers

There are more than eight million speakers of Malagasy.

Usage

Malagasy is the national language of the Madagascar Republic (population 14 million [1997]). It is broadcast on Radio-Télévision Malagasy. In addition to many daily newspapers, the Ministère de l'Information puts out the bimonthly Bulletin de Madagascar, containing linguistic and other studies. Grimes (1996) gives a figure of 10,156,900 total Malagasy speakers.

Orthographic status

Malagasy has a standardized orthography.

Sets of learning materials

One set of learning materials, based on the Merina dialect, is sufficient.