Northern Sakalava dialect

Northern Sakalava
Native to	Madagascar
Ethnicity	Boina Sakalava
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Northern Malagasic Northern Sakalava
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	skg
Glottolog	maju1234
Linguasphere	31-LDA-dc

Northern Sakalava is a northern dialect of Malagasy spoken by Sakalava people especially in the region of Boeny and Sofia. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Classification

Northern Sakalava dialect belongs to the Austronesian language family. It is part of Northern Malagasy subgroup along with Tsimihety, Bushi, Northern Betsimisaraka and Antakarana. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

Territorial Range

Northern Sakalava is the primary dialect spoken in the former province of Mahajanga, and it is the primary dialect of the city of Mahajanga (Majunga). It is also spoken in parts of the Betsiboka Region. ^{[7] [8]} In addition, it is spoken in the Sofia Region, particularly in the Analalava District, and in the Diana Region, especially in the Ambanja District and on the island of Nosy Be. ^{[9] [10]}

Vocabulary

Northern Sakalava Vocabulary with Gloss and Standard Malagasy

#	Gloss	Standard Malagasy	Northern Sakalava
Numbers & Connectors
1	One	Iray	Araiky
2	And	Sy	Ndreky
3	All	Rehetra / Avy	Jiaby / Aby
4	So	Ka	Ke
Concepts & Abstracts
5	Thing	Zavatra	Raha
6	Mind	Saina	Jery
7	Difficulty	Fahasarotana	Sarotro
8	Wealth	Harena	Hariagna
Descriptions
9	Beautiful	Tsara	Meva
Nature
10	Sky / Heaven	Lanitra	Lagnitry
Verbs
11	To watch	Mijery	Mizaha
Possession & Qualities
12	His/Her goodness	Hatsarany	Hatsarananany
13	His/Her strength	Heriny	Angovonazy
14	His/Her student	Mpianany	Mpianatranany
Example Phrase
15	Henry arrived	Tonga i Henry	Navy i Henry

References

1. "Map of Malagasy Bible Translations". Islands Mission. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
2. Andriamise, L. "Le Vakinankaratra, parler hybride Merina-Betsileo" (PDF). Working Papers in Linguistics (in French). University of Western Ontario: 1. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
3. Frawley, William (2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (4-volume set ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 205.
4. "Majunga Malagasy". Glottolog 4.8. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
5. Laroussi, Foued; Groupe de recherche sur le plurilinguisme à Mayotte. Langues, identités et insularité : regards sur Mayotte (in French). Éditions L’Harmattan. p. 33.
6. Sambo, Clément; Gueunier, Noël Jacques (2001). Langages non conventionnels à Madagascar : argot des jeunes et proverbes gaillards (in French). Karthala. p. 304.
7. Dez, Jacques (1990). Cheminements linguistiques malgaches : au-delà des grammaires usuelles (in French). Éditions L’Harmattan. p. 111.
8. "Malagasy dialects in Mayotte" (PDF). OSF (Open Science Framework). p. 2. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
9. Thomas‑Fattier, Dominique (1982). Le dialecte sakalava du Nord‑Ouest de Madagascar : Phonologie, Grammaire, Lexique. Tome I (in French). Paris: Université de Paris. p. 4.
10. Molet, Louis (1957). Petit guide de toponymie malgache (PDF) (in French). Tananarive: Scientific Research Institute of Madagascar, Department of Human Sciences. pp. map (unnumbered) + p. 7. The map is placed before the numbered pages.