Southern Sakalava dialect

Southern Sakalava
Native to	Madagascar
Ethnicity	Sakalava
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Southern Malagasic Southern Sakalava
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	saka1291
Linguasphere	31-LDA-da
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Southern Sakalava is a dialect of Malagasy ^[1] spoken by the Sakalava from the region of Melaky to Atsimo Andrefana. ^[2]

Classification

Southern Sakalava belongs to the Austronesian language family and part of the Southern Malagasic subgroup alongside Bara,Tanosy,Masikoro,Tandroy,Mahafaly and Karimbola. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

Characteristics

The Southern Sakalava dialect displays several phonological and lexical characteristics that distinguish it from the Merina-based Standard Malagasy. These features are also shared with other southern Malagasy dialects such as Tandroy, Tanosy, Vezo, Mahafaly, and Bara.

One notable feature is the dropping of the final -na in trisyllabic words. For example, tana is used instead of tànana (hand), tanà for tanàna (village), sofy for sofina (ear), and antety for antanety (field), the latter also common in Southern Sakalava.

There is also a tendency to substitute l for d, as in valy for vady (spouse), lily for didy (law, order), and malio for madio (clean). This phonological change is a hallmark of Southern Sakalava and other southern dialects. However, in the Northern Sakalava dialect, the consonant d is retained, and this shift to l does not occur, despite both varieties being spoken by groups identified as Sakalava.

The s following a t is often omitted, producing forms like raty instead of ratsy (bad).

The consonant v may be replaced by b, for example, abo for avo (high).

The consonant z is frequently dropped. Aiza (where) becomes aia. The pronoun izy (he/she) becomes ihy, a form typical of southern dialects such as Mahafaly, Vezo, and Bara.

Words ending in -tra often become -tsy, such as hafatra becoming hafatsy (message), and mandefitra becoming mandefitsy (to tolerate), a pattern consistent with southern Malagasy varieties.

The form anakahy is used for "mine", a feature found in both northern and southern Malagasy dialects.

The Southern Sakalava spoken in Besalampy is transitional between Northern Sakalava and the more southern varieties of Menabe and Atsimo Andrefana. It shares some northern features like the use of ndreky for "and", but is mostly aligned with southern vocabulary.

Comparative Vocabulary of Northern and Southern Sakalava

#	Gloss	Northern Sakalava	Southern Sakalava
1	One	Araiky	Raiky
2	I / Me	I	Izaho
3	All	Jiaby	Iaby
4	You	Anao / Anô	Iha
5	Only / Also / Just	Fôna	Avao
6	If	Raha	Laha
7	And	Ndreky	No
8	Face	Sôra	Tarehy
9	She/He	Izy	Ihy
10	Message	Hafatra	Hafatsy
11	To tolerate	Mandefitra	Mandefitsy
12	Bird	Vorogno	Voro
13	Woman	Manangy	Ampela
14	When	Rehefa	Lafa

Geographic distribution

Southern Sakalava is primarily spoken in the regions of Melaky (also known as Ambongo), Menabe, and northern Atsimo Andrefana. It is the primary dialect of the cities of Morondava, Maintirano, and Besalampy, as well as in the area surrounding the Tsingy de Bemaraha and the Avenue of the Baobabs. ^{[6] [7]}

Vocabulary

Southern Sakalava Vocabulary with Standard Malagasy comparison

#	Gloss	Standard Malagasy	Southern Sakalava
Conjunctions & Connectors
1	And	Sy	No
Qualities & Descriptions
2	Beautiful	Tsara	Soa
Articles
3	The	Ny	Ty
Prepositions
4	From	Avy	Baka
Actions & Verbs
5	To watch	Mijery	Manenty
Natural World
6	Sky	Lanitra	Lanitry
Time
7	Year	Taona	Tao
People
8	Woman	Vehivavy	Ampela
9	Dear	Ry	Lehy
Adverbs
10	Only / Also	Ihany / Foana	Avao
11	Here	Eto	Etoy / Eto

See also

• Northern Sakalava
• Sakalava people

References

1. The Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine. Vol. 3, nos. 9–12. 1885. p. 90.
2. Ferrand, Gabriel (1903). Essai de phonétique comparée du malais et des dialectes malgaches : thèse pour le doctorat d'université (in French). Paris: Ernest Leroux, Libraire-Éditeur. p. XL.
3. Turcotte, Denis (1981). La politique linguistique en Afrique francophone: une étude comparative de la Côte d’Ivoire et de Madagascar (in French). Presses de l’Université Laval. p. 57.
4. Sambo, Clément; Gueunier, Noël Jacques (2001). Langages non conventionnels à Madagascar : argot des jeunes et proverbes gaillards (in French). Karthala. p. 304.
5. Bright, William (1992). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. p. 205. ISBN   9780195051964.
6. "Translations - Islands Mission" . Retrieved 2025-05-13.
7. 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.