Zafisoro dialect

Zafisoro
Native to	Madagascar
Ethnicity	Zafisoro people
Native speakers	146,000 (2025) [1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo‑Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Central-Eastern Malagasic Plateau Malagasy Antemoro–Antefasy Zafisoro
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	Mg
ISO 639-3	Plt
Glottolog	zafi1234
Linguasphere	31-LDA-bc

Zafisoro is a coastal dialect of the Malagasy language spoken by the Zafisoro people in the northwestern part of the Farafangana District in southeastern Madagascar. ^[2]

Classification

Zafisoro belongs to the Austronesian languages family, under the Malayo-Polynesian languages branch. It is part of the Western Indonesian languages, specifically the Barito languages group and its Eastern Barito subgroup.

Within Malagasy, Zafisoro falls under the Central-Eastern Malagasic cluster, more precisely in the Plateau Malagasy division and the Antemoro–Antefasy subgroup.

Geographic distribution

The dialect is spoken in and around the localities of Evato, Mahafasa Afovoany, Amporoforo, and Ambalatany. These areas represent the core territory of the Zafisoro within the Farafangana District. ^[3]

References

1. "Zafisoro in Madagascar". Joshua Project. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
2. 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.
3. "Prime Magazine, March 2020 (PDF)" (PDF). Prime Media International. Retrieved 1 July 2025.