Indian Ocean · Southern Africa

Malagasy

Africa's only Austronesian language, carried to Madagascar by seafarers from Borneo around 1,500 years ago and then layered with Bantu, Arabic, Swahili and French words.

Family: Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian)
Script: Latin
Speakers: ~25 million speakers
Spoken in: Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte

The course

Five units, one word at a time

0/5 mastered

Unit 1

Greetings

Island greetings, formal and casual.

Manao ahoana — Hello / how are you?
Salama — Hi (casual)
Tsara fa misaotra — Fine, thank you
Misaotra — Thank you
Tongasoa — Welcome
Veloma — Goodbye

Unit 2

People and family

Family and ancestors, the centre of Malagasy life.

Olona — Person
Vehivavy — Woman
Lehilahy — Man
Neny — Mother
Dada — Father
Namana — Friend

Unit 3

Numbers one to ten

Austronesian roots you can still hear.

Iray — One
Roa — Two
Telo — Three
Efatra — Four
Dimy — Five
Folo — Ten

Unit 4

Food and the market

Rice is eaten three times a day here.

Vary — Rice
Rano — Water
Sakafo — Food
Ohatrinona? — How much?
Tsena — Market
Mila aho — I need / want

Unit 5

Getting around

Taxi-brousse travel basics.

Aiza? — Where?
Tsy azoko — I don't understand
Azafady — Please / excuse me
Eny — Yes
Tsia — No
Andao — Let's go

How to sound right

Final syllables are often barely voiced — 'manao ahoana' sounds like ma-now OWN.
The letter 'o' is pronounced 'oo', and 'j' sounds like 'dz'.
Speech is famously indirect; proverbs (ohabolana) do a lot of the work.

The audio button in lessons uses your device's speech engine, which rarely has a native African voice. Treat it as a rough guide and trust the written pronunciation hints and the coach instead.