Langfiles Ep. 17: Malagasy

[@avokokoa]

Good job for the video ! To your answer your first question, french words are only used for few field like scientific or medical words. Otherwise, Malagasy is used everytime

[@seid3366]

Glad to hear the language has outgrown the colonizer language (similar to Indonesian with Dutch)

[@flavmendrikaja3784]

As a Malagasy native speaker, I really appreciate this video for its accuracy. You explained very well even the smallest details like the ny/ilay distinction or the demonstratives. 😉👏 I think you could have explained more about the pronunciation rules, such as the vowel reduction on unstressed syllables. And talking about phonology, I don't think the influence in phonology were from French but rather from Bantu languages, or maybe it's a native innovation. In Malagasy, the vowels are written, but reduced in speaking (as in Portugal's Portuguese). While in French, the vowels are written but not pronounced at all. So it's slightly different. To answer your first question, Malagasy is the language of daily life, whether you are at home, at school (apart from French schools), at work (talks between colleagues), etc... Even though we belong to the French-speaking sphere, many of us don't speak French fluently. French is mostly a written language and we only speak French during presentations, job interviews or when we talk to French speakers. A lot of French loanwords are used in daily life though. Anyway, continue the good work! 😊👍

[@derekfrost8991]

When you say vowels are written but reduced, I think you mean consonants.. 🙂

[@flavmendrikaja3784]

@@derekfrost8991 I don't think it's the consonants. If you listen to Portuguese of Portugal, you will understand well.

[@kilanspeaks]

I was looking for info on Malagasy when I was recommended this video. Nice info. I’m interested in the connection the language has with Ma’anyan (of which I have three videos on my channel). Cheers!

[@rusherarrow3731]

Hey, I am from Madagascar and we mainly use Malagasy at home or any other places. However, it is more common to use French words for the things that were not originaly a concept from withing the country so, for instance, it is more common to use "réstaurant" (or even "hôtely" xd even if its a word borrowed from "hotel" which is not a place known for eating) when refering to restaurants even though we have a word for it "trano fisakafoanana". French is only used by some families and certain schools. Most schools use the french language and system but malagasy is used for explanations xd. Great work on the video, I will check your channel on other language of the same family.

[@seid3366]

Thanks for watching the video. I'm glad to have highlighted your language.

[@LoveYouPlant]

I'm a Peace Corps volunteer who is learning Malagasy, and the passive voice is one of the hardest aspects for most american learners! Malagasy native speakers seem to default to it, and it is very hard for us Americans to think outside of our natural person-oriented way of framing things. Then beyond that, the relative or "circumstantial" as you put it, might as well be the final boss.

[@seid3366]

I'm quite surprised the passive voice is used more than the active form.

[@HassanUmer]

you may not get the most views but love your topic selection + content! Don't stop the langfiles series ever!!

[@seid3366]

I won't. Making Langfiles is a blast for me.

[@w4lr6s]

Malagasy's Austronesian features becomes much clearer if you speak any non-Malayic Bornean languages and has a degree of knowledge of Southern Sulawesi languages. Grammatically speaking, it has some similarity with my mother tongue, Melanau (the m/n tense is obvious to me; although Malagasy is substantially more complicated). The 2nd person possessive (-nao) is immediately recognizable as cognate with Mukah Melanau (-nou). But the vocabulary - this is where it gets complicated - apparently is not fully Bornean. A very substantial portion of Malagasy vocabulary exhibits Buginese (or south Sulawesi languages) influence which dilutes its similarity to Bornean languages. That, along with sound changes, make Malagasy in appearance not particularly close to any languages of Southeast Asia - but it is just because the word sources are a bit more diverse than expected (Barito valley basin, South Sulawesi, Malay and Javanese). Other observations: Avo (high) = bau or amau (high/up) in Melanau The sound h seems to correspond to k alot Haavo = kedebau (height) Mividy = bemelei Nividy = benelei I surmise that hividy has a relationship to dialectical Malay 'kebeli' or 'kebelian' (which is a very rare form), but I am not sure on this one. Hi/Han - (R) - ana does sound like Malay ke - (R) - an

[@seid3366]

I can at least see the correspondence of Beli and Vidy. It's there if you analyze, but Malagasy is one of few Austronesian languages that has cognate vocabulary look vastly different than that to SEA and to most Oceania. Guess that's what happens with isolating cultures.

[@w4lr6s]

@@seid3366 Malagasy has some consonantal changes Y = Z hazo = kayu B = V vidy = beli T = Tr lanitra = langit K = H hazo = kayu L = D hoditra = kulit Even the VOS word order does not feel alien - it is a possible word order in Melanau and many Bornean languages and I see the logic of the grammar immediately

[@w4lr6s]

Non Malayic lexicon Malagasy olona = North Bornean ulun (people) Malagasy nify = Melanau nyip/nyipen (teeth) Malagasy voalavo = Melanau belabau (rat) Malagasy iva = Melanau ibak (lower/down) Malagasy firy = Javanese piro (how many) Some are funny a bit Malagasy hanitra (fragrance) = Malay hangit (smelly)

[@ariyahedie9457]

continue creating these cool videos! i love it

[@seid3366]

I will, alongside a new series I'm planning

[@tiramisu7544]

Good video, but in the part where you were explaining the origins of the Malagasy language and people, when you were explaining that malagasy had loanwords from Malay & Javanese you should have probably given some examples like “rivatra” and “ribut” which mean storm and “fasika” and “pasir” which mean sand. French loanwords could also be interesting despite not being prevalent as inter-Austronesian borrowings. Other than that, good video and especially good job explaining the sentence structures of Malagasy!

[@seid3366]

No prob. I hadn't found a place to find such loans, but I'm still happy to have people find this video.

[@avokokoa]

*rivotra

[@gachi1297]

Hi omg, this video is so detailed! Thank you for your research, I’ve been interested in Malagasy for a while but couldn’t find any places making a good summary like this one! To answer your last question, I’m a native speaker of Tagalog and as you mentioned, both languages are agglutinating (most of the affixes you mentioned also exist in Tagalog), have the three types of demonstratives, and two ways to say “we”. Both languages also share the same three voices and the three same, main conjugations, but the main difference seems to be that Tagalog uses case markers (which also means it has three sets of pronouns), and the voices also split into “sub” voices that carry more nuance. All of these voices have their own similar but different conjugations. 😅 Actually, Tagalog verbs also have two to three more, less important conjugations which are the infinitive, the recent past, and the imperative (some verb forms also have a plural form, most verbs have passive form, and most verbs in the passive voice also can indicate ability) depending on dialect The main verb families (as in, they make a major distinction in meaning) in Tagalog are… Active (all focus on who did the action): mag-, magsi- (doing together), -um- (active equivalent of i-), maki- (spontaneous), mang- (characteristic of something or someone), pala- (habitual) Middle* (this is just something I’ve noticed; I’ll mark what voice these verbs are usually categorized under): magka- A (reciprocal, sometimes copula-like), maka- A (unconscious, intrinsic ability), ipagka- P (“less active” version of magka-) Passive (all focus on who received the action): i- (change in state), ma- (conscious ability), -in- (passive equivalent of -um-), pagka- (after x, then y) Circumstantial: ipang- (focus on what was used), ipag- (focus on conscious motivation), ika- (focus on unconscious motivation or obligation), pag-an (focus on location, static), -an (focus on location, directional), ka-in (focus on “partner”) Also, here are the case markers: Ang (si for people) - marks what is being focused on Ng (ni for people) - marks what is not being focused on, with the nuance of possession Sa (kay for people) - marks what is not being focused on, with the nuance of direction Word order is typically VSO, but the particle ay can be added to change it to SVO. The case markers also allow for some flexibility. Anyways, here is an example with the same meaning, just focusing on different parts of the sentence…: (Vocabulary: saing - the cooking of rice, kanin - rice, ama - father, ina - mother, bata - child, palayok - pot, sandok - ladle, sibsib - setting sun; kasama - together with, gamit - using, para sa - for, dahil sa - due to) “The father, together with the mother, cooked rice for the child, with the ladle, in the pot, because of the setting sun” 1. Focus on father (ama) Nagsaing ang ama ng kanin, kasama ang ina, para sa bata, gamit ang sandok, sa palayok, dahil sa sibsib. 2. Focus on rice (kanin) Isinaing ng ama ang kanin, kasama ang ina, para sa bata, gamit ang sandok, sa palayok, dahil sa sibsib. 3. Focus on mother (ina) Kinasaing ng ama ng kanin ang ama, para sa bata, gamit ang sandok, sa palayok, dahil sa sibsib. 4. Focus on child (bata) Ipinagsaing ng ama ng kanin ang bata, kasama ang ina, gamit ang sandok, sa palayok, dahil sa sibsib. 5. Focus on ladle (sandok) Ipinansaing ng ama ng kanin ang sandok, kasama ang ina, para sa bata, sa palayok, dahil sa sibsib. 6. Focus on pot (palayok) Pinagsaingan ng ama ng kanin ang palayok, kasama ang ina, para sa bata, gamit ang sandok, dahil sa sibsib. 7. Focus on setting sun (sibsib): Ikinasaing ng ama ng kanin ang sibsib, para sa bata, kasama ang ina, gamit ang sandok, sa palayok. I separated the components of the sentence so the main clause comes first. Everything after the first comma can be switched in order; only the first ang marks the actual focus of the sentence. Sorry for the super long comment! I just love Austronesian languages ❤️

[@seid3366]

Austronesian's conjugations are definitely a highlight in how agglutinative they can get within Asia and Madagascar.

[@gachi1297]

@@seid3366 Yes, they can get super long just by adding little parts. Have you seen Palauan verbs? They’re very unique

[@thevasvip]

wonderful explanation related to Malagasy language structure. the best one so far :) aren't polynesian languages very close to gasy in sound and meanings as well? like to Tahitian, Maori or Samoan language?

[@seid3366]

The Polynesian langs are indeed related to Malagasy, but most vocabulary when looking at each other is quite hard to decipher a lot.

[@thevasvip]

@@seid3366 i would like to know more about the similarities with polynesian langs and cultures as well, as for some reason the polynesian also made part of this ancient migration to Mada

[@seid3366]

I'm sure there should be papers about this subject

[@thevasvip]

@@seid3366 i would love to catch them

[@CorwinLovesLangauges]

Keep on going my man, this is awesome

[@seid3366]

Thx. Malagasy was a language I wouldn't've thought about doing a proper video until further down the line

[@RemiseRemise]

Is this a language course by lessons? Cause 1st time to see this. Tks.

[@seid3366]

It's a general overview of the language. I'm not sure if video-by-video lessons on Malagasy are a thing

[@mediocrity5693]

I think this sounds cool! I’ll probably try learning this in the future, I’m just trying to learn the languages I’m already working on for now. How many languages do you speak fluently?

[@seid3366]

Rn only English, but my knowledge pool of many languages is expanding

[@mediocrity5693]

@@seid3366 Cool! I am a native English speaker, and I’m learning French and Norwegian. I have a B1 in French, and around A2 in Norwegian I think. I also am kind of starting to learn Georgian, but I know I should wait until I get to at least B2 in both of the other languages before I start investing a lot of time into Georgian, because I don’t want to study too much at once. For now, I’m just learning bit by bit small things about how Georgian works, and eventually I’ll speed up the learning process for that language when the time is right. I’d love to just start investing lots of time into a bunch of new languages right now, but I know that I probably can’t handle that much information at once. I plan to learn Portuguese, Swahili, Malagasy, and Mongolian in the future.

[@seid3366]

@@mediocrity5693 I wish you the best of luck in your journey to learned those languages.

[@mediocrity5693]

@@seid3366 Tusen Takk! დიდი მადლობა

[@mediocrity5693]

@@seid3366 also, if you ever want to do a video about Georgian, I might be able to help you for some things!

[@LoveYouPlant]

It's great that you made this video, because so few accessible Malagasy resources exist for english speakers. Do you mind me asking, where did you get the grammatical information and sound recordings you used for this video? The explanations were wonderful and I appreciate the way you used color to clarify the translations.

[@seid3366]

I stumbled across a website for Malagasy grammar, and showed it to a Malagasy speaker that I'm friends with. They corrected it, then they asked someone else who could do it before emailing me the samples

[@LoveYouPlant]

@@seid3366 Oh that's awesome. I'm impressed that you're collaborating with native speakers for this series- it shows in the quality and nuance of your explanations. If you find or remember that site, let me know! I'm always collecting resources. Oddly some of the most helpful thusfar were pdf scans of booklets written in the 1800s by Christian Missionaries. They have some really in-depth analysis, but it is a bit hard to parse for the average non-linguist in the 21st century. And of course dated in notable ways.

[@seid3366]

@@LoveYouPlant thx. it was a bit of a newer step in incorporating help from native speakers. it was usually getting info from grammars and such from online and checking them with a native speaker. nowadays I get them on board with me to come up with ideas for what I should show in the examples

[@mediocrity5693]

What does your channel banner say? I understand the “eg forstår”, but nothing else (I’m learning Norwegian). Do the other ones say “I understand” too?

[@seid3366]

Encouragement phrases in Belarusian, Punjabi and Armenian i liked to include

[@mediocrity5693]

@@seid3366 Nice!

[@Sanzianabel]

very interesting language

[@seid3366]

Quite interesting I'd argue.

[@haideralie4]

Malagasy = Malaka