Tsimihety dialect

Tsimihety
Native to	Madagascar
Ethnicity	Tsimihety people
Native speakers	2,475,000 [1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Northern Malagasic Tsimihety
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xmw
Glottolog	tsim1257
Linguasphere	31-LDA-ec

Tsimihety is a northern dialect of Malagasy spoken by Tsimihety people in the region of Sofia. ^[2]

Classification

Tsimihety dialect belongs to the Austronesian language family. It is part of Northern Malagasy subgroup along with Northern Sakalava, Bushi, Northern Betsimisaraka and Antakarana. ^[3]

Geographic distribution

The Tsimihety dialect is predominantly spoken in the Sofia Region of Madagascar. Additionally, it is used by Tsimihety diaspora communities in the cities of Mahajanga and Antananarivo. It is also spoken in the Sava Region, particularly in the Andapa District. ^{[4] [5]}

Vocabulary

Tsimihety Vocabulary

#	Gloss	Standard Malagasy	Tsimihety
Family & People
1	Father	Ray	Ada
2	People	Olona	Ologno
Time & Modality
3	Now	Izao	Izy ke
4	When	Rehefa	Izy koa
5	Only	Ihany	Fô / Fôgna
6	Even	Na	Ndre
7	Really	Tokoa	Tatô
8	Yet	Mbola	Apôla
Space & Place
9	In	Any	Akagny
10	On	Eo / Teo	Akeo / Takeo
11	Here	Ato	Akato
12	Near	Akaiky	Mariny
13	Then	Avy eo	Avy akeo
14	So	Ka	Ke
Conditions & Life
15	Suffering	Fijaliana	Fijaliagna
16	Alive	Velona	Velogno
17	Spring (Water)	Loharano	Lôharano
18	Clean	Madio	Madi
Verbs & Actions
19	To show	Aseho	Abôla
20	To hide	Afenina	Avôny
21	To listen	Mihaino	Mitandregny

References

1. https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15593/MA
2. https://islands-mission.org/translations/
3. https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/nort3207
4. Les cultures commerciales dans un milieu géographique original : la cuvette d'Andapa (Madagascar) (PDF) (in French). Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). p. 341. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
5. 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. 8. The map is placed before the numbered pages.