Malagasy is spoken by approximately 29 million people, primarily in Madagascar, where it is the official language, and in communities in the French overseas territory of Mayotte. Originating from the Austronesian family, it uses the Latin alphabet and features an agglutinative structure with a verb-object-subject (VOS) word order, a rarity among world languages. Malagasy culture is deeply connected to oral storytelling and music, with the language acting as a unifying force for the island’s diverse population.
Stats
Language Family: Austronesian
Writing System: Latin
Writing System Type: Alphabet
Writing Direction: L to R
Tones / Pitch Accent: None
Morphology: Agglutinative
Cases: 0
Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: None
Number of Verb Tenses: 3
Word Order: VOS
Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 5
Number of Consonants: 30
Areas Where Spoken
Madagascar (official) (95.4%) (28.9 mil)
Mayotte (France) (16.1%) (52 k)
Resources
Books
A concise grammar of the Malagasy language: Google Book
Dictionary
A dictionary of the Malagasy language: Google Book
Lessons
Live Lingua: 3 language lessons
Dominic Web: Beginner short grammar lessons
mylanguages.org - Malagasy alphabet and pronunciation
learn101: Vocab, phrases, numbers, grammar
Podcasts
Radio
Taratra FM - FM 106.2: Internet radio station from Madagascar
RadioMADA - Antananarivo: Music, reportings, interviews, current events
YouTube Videos
Learn Malagasy : Lessons 0-14 for Beginners: Audio Lesson
Websites
University of Wisconsin Malagasy: Brief lessons and Culture
Peace Corps: Vocab list
101languages.net: Vocab list
Forvo: Collection of Malagasy words pronounced by native speakers