Moments in Malagasy (1)

At time of writing, we are a month into learning the beautiful and complex language of Madagascar, which is Malagasy. Under the fantastic tutelage of language helper Monique at the Nehemia centre in Antananarivo, we are emboldened to continue striving with the language. We are hopeful that God will us this time of learning to make us more effective for the building of his kingdom and the mobilisation of Malagasy people for his mission in the world.

So for the time being, I thought I would share some of the more interesting (as I see it) aspects of the Malagasy language, both in its form and through individual words. Learning the heart tongue of a nation is a crucial gateway into its culture and worldview, so I hope that this post will provide a small glimpse into that. And it will be certainly be a small glimpse, as we have only completed 13 sessions! A small caveat: I am happy to be corrected if I have made any assumptions on the Malagasy language and I plead inexperience.

As a brief aside, I would like to say thank you for all of the positive feedback I have received as I have started blogging. Going forward we hope to continue providing a variety of topics to write about, and that the Lord would keep inspiring us with ideas (Miriam is hoping to contribute in the not-too distant future). Speaking of inspire (or respire/perspire/suspire/conspire - all from the same root word) if you are interested in the nuances of the English language, I can heartily recommend the podcast Something Rhymes with Purple, hosted by Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth.

But now, onto the Malagasy!

It's not about YOU!

The first thing to say about Malagasy is that their word order is quite different from English. Whereas we would say: They see the bird (Subject - Verb - Object), Malagasy's active sentences are usually ordered as Verb - Object - Subject:

mijery ny vorona izy ireo (lit. see the bird they)

When we asked why this is the case in Malagasy active sentences, we discovered that Malagasy people prefer to give prominence to the object that the action is being carried out on, rather than the subject that is carrying out the action. This is likely because Madagascar is more culturally inclined towards deference and humility, rather than boasting. Therefore, by focussing on the object in the sentence, it takes the gloss away from the subject, which could in fact be the person speaking. This point is proved further by the fact that the Malagasy language employs the use of the passive voice far greater than in Western nations. So often they would likely say

jeren'izy ireo ny vorona (the bird is being watched by them)

Again, the passive voice allows the Malagasy to ascribe importance to the object (the bird) rather than those who are watching it.

Legacy of Colonialism

It is perhaps obvious that the influence of the French on Malagasy culture through colonialism would have spread to its language. Interestingly, there are even words of English origin that have made their way into the Malagasy parlance (a cup/mug is kaopy). This colonial impact partly came in the form of new vocabulary that was introduced to Madagascar through new objects. Take many words for different clothes, for example:

ENGLISH	FRENCH	MALAGASY
T-shirt	un T-shirt	T-shirt
Shorts	un short	short
Skirt	une jupe	zipo
Dress	une robe	robe
Jacket	un blouson	blouson
Tie	une cravate	kiravaty
Bathing Suit	un maillot	maillot
Trousers	un pantalon	pataloha

However, some words from French or English have replaced existing Malagasy words in common expression. Colours such as gris, orange and marron have overtaken their Malagasy counterparts in conversation. The biggest example of this is in numbers - it is becoming much more regular to use French numbers over Malagasy numbers (although I may confess, this may be an urban bias as we are based in the capital city).

Deferential Description

As with word order, the Malagasy language has deference built into their adjectives as well. If you want to change the word "blue" to a lesser degree - "blueish" - then all you need to do is double the adjective (In this case manga to mangamanga). This works with most adjectives , although you may need to alter the doubled word slightly (kely = small, kelikely = a bit small; lehibe = big, leihibebe = a bit big).

What is most interesting is that Monique informed us that Malagasy people often opt to use the doubled adjective rather than the original form, even if the object that is being described is more accurately with the original adjective. They would rather soften the meaning of the word and perhaps be slightly inaccurate in their description, rather than be seen to be to definite and self-assured in their language. So if a Malagasy describes the car below as only mangamanga, there's no need to take offence!

It's fun to be literal

Finally, just a bit of fun. We've really enjoyed the construction of certain Malagasy words and how they are literally translated in English, so here's a brief list:

Bibilava	Snake	Lit. long animal
Voninkazo/Voankazo	Flowers/Fruit	Both words contain the roots for "seed" and "tree"
Ronono	Milk	nono is the word for breast
Ratsan-tanana/Ratsan-tongotra	Fingers/Toes	Lit. the branches of the hands/feet
Volom-borona	Feathers	Lit. the hair of the bird
Mangatsika	Cold	Lit. we are blue - because you can turn blue when really cold!
Mavokely	Pink	Lit. little yellow. We were very surprised that pink wasn't "little red" which would be menakely
Volom-parasy	Purple	Lit. hair of the flea. We have no idea...
Fehikibo	Belt	Lit. fence for the belly
Tsaramaso​	Beans	Lit. good eyes. This reminded us of black-eyed beans back in the UK
Masoandro	Sun	Lit. Eye of the day. Again this beautiful word reminded me of daisies in the UK, which are called daisies because they are the "day's eye" (they only open up during the daytime)

There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.

1 Corinthians 14:10-11