Sahavoay dialect

Sahavoay
Native to	Madagascar
Ethnicity	Sahavoay
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Central-Eastern Malagasic Plateaux Malagasy Antefasy–Antemoro Sahavoay
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Sahavoay is a dialect of the Malagasy language spoken by the Sahavoay ethnic group in Atsimo Atsinanana, Madagascar. ^[1]

Classification

Sahavoay is part of the Austronesian language family, within the Central-Eastern Malagasic branch. It is further classified under the Plateaux Malagasy and Antefasy–Antemoro subgroups. ^[2]

Geographical distribution

The Sahavoay dialect is spoken in the communes of Bevoay, Ambohigogo, Maheriraty and Ambohimandroso in the Farafangana district.

Characteristics

Sahavoay is most similar to the Antaifasy dialect, with which it shares many phonological and lexical features.

Comparison of Selected Vocabulary in Standard Malagasy and Sahavoay Dialect

#	Gloss	Standard Malagasy	Sahavoay
Vocabulary
1	One	Iray	Raiky
2	I	Aho	Iaho
3	We (exclusive)	Izahay	Ahay
4	We (inclusive)	Isika	Atsika
5	They	Izy ireo	Indreo
6	Rice	Vary	Vary
7	Cow	Omby	Aomby
8	Mountain	Tendrombohitra	Vohitry
9	To climb	Miakatra	Magnaniky
10	House	Trano	Tragno
11	Since	Hatramin’ny	Lahata
12	If	Raha	Laha

References

1. 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.
2. "—". The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society. London Missionary Society: 40. 1890.