Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0228/02281.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 33KB | 506 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02281}
$Pretitle{354D}
$Title{Madagascar
Chapter 2B.   The Malagasy Language}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Frederica M. Bunge}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{malagasy
merina
tomb
dead
family
language
often
social
living
certain}
$Date{19}
$Log{}
Country:     Madagascar
Book:        Indian Ocean Countries, An Area Study: Madagascar
Author:      Frederica M. Bunge
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        19

Chapter 2B.   The Malagasy Language

     The Malagasy language is the only one in the African region that belongs
to the Malayo-Polynesian language family. Linguists believe that it shares
a common origin with, and is most closely related to, Maanyan, a
language spoken in southeast Borneo. Both Malagasy and Maanyan apparently bear
a close affinity with the languages of the western Indonesian archipelago,
such as Malay, Javanese, Balinese, and the Minangkabau language of Sumatra.
These languages share a number of common words and meanings. Thus the Malagasy
term Antalaotra, "people of the sea," echoes the Malay laut, "sea." Even more
geographically widespread and interesting affinities have been discovered.
Vahiny means "stranger" in Malagasy, while vahini means "girl" in Tahitian
Polynesian. Scholars suggest that the two words (assuming they share a common
origin) reveal that the first Malayo-Indonesian settlers along the African
coast, or Madagascar itself, were male and that women came later as guests or
strangers to settlements already established.

     Although there are dialect differences in Malagasy as spoken in the
different regions of the island, the dialects are mutually intelligible,
and the language is a significant basis of cultural unity. The spoken
language possesses great beauty and resonance, called by some the "Italian
of the Orient." Words are formed from roots with basic meanings, which are
combined with prefixes or suffixes to create derivatives. Many Malagasy words,
particularly names (such as that of the Merina king, Andrianampoinimerina),
are very long, but certain syllables, particularly the last, are lightly
accented or not at all.

     A number of foreign words are found in the Malagasy vocabulary. The
names of the days of the week and the months, for instance, are taken from
Arabic, and the names of animals are taken from a Swahili dialect of East
Africa. A number of English and French words entered the language in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Thus boky comes from "book" with the
"y" dropped and the "o" pronounced like" u," the sound is close to the
original English), and kadoa (gift) comes from the French cadeau.

     Before the nineteenth century the only Malagasy people to possess a
written language were the Antemoro, keepers of the sorabe. The written form
of Malagasy using Roman characters, which was developed by members of the
London Missionary Society working under the patronage of the Merina King
Radama I, however, is used throughout the island today. It was completed in
1824-25, and the king took an active interest in the proceedings. The result
was an almost perfectly consistent phonetic language; the consonants are
pronounced as in English and the vowels as in French, a compromise apparently
promoted by Radama. The completion of the alphabet enabled the missionaries
to publish a Malagasy Bible and other books for their schools, and the
possession of a modern written language was to prove decisive to the
development of the Merina-dominated portion of Madagascar.

     The colonial period saw French become the dominant language of the
island, and Malagasy was relegated to an inferior position, particularly
in official and academic circles. An important aspect of the government's
program of Malagasization in early 1982 was a stress on respecting and
developing the national language. Another important objective in 1982 was
the creation of a "common language" one that partakes of elements from all
the regions and peoples of the island rather than being primarily a Merina
dialect, as is the case with official Malagasy today. French remains
important, largely because of its international status and because most of
the leadership has been educated in French. Ratsiraka, in the Charter of the
Malagasy Socialist Revolution, while upholding the primacy of the national
language, describes French and English as "weapons" to be used to gain the
West's technical knowledge. He compares the use of French and English rather
colorfully to the arms taken by the Vietnamese revolutionaries from their
enemies for the purpose of national liberation. Both Malagasy and French are
used in government publications.

Traditional Beliefs and Institutions

     The most basic of all traditional beliefs and the foundation for
Malagasy religious and social values is the idea of the intimate
relatedness and interdependence of individual human beings and, most
significantly, the close ties between the living and the dead. This is
expressed in a Merina proverb quoted by the psychologist Octave Mannoni:
"the living are like the branches of a pumpkin stem; at the base there is
but one stalk." Although all the Malagasy peoples have traditionally
accepted the existence of a supreme God, known commonly as Zanahary (the
Creator) or Andriamanitra (the Sweet, or Fragrant, Lord), the dead have
been conceived as playing the role of intermediary between the supreme God
and man and have the power to affect the fortunes of the living for good or
evil. Although razana is often translated as "ancestor," this does not
convey the full meaning of the term, since razana is used to refer to all
dead persons-including children-who are related to the speaker.

     The dead are sometimes described as "gods on earth," who are considered
the most important and authoritative members of the family, intimately
involved in the daily life of the living members. At the same time, the
razana, as ancestors, are the source from which the life force flows and
the creators of Malagasy customs and ways of life. The living are merely
temporary extensions of the dead. Great hardship or trouble can result if
the dead are offended or neglected. The link between the living and the dead
among the Malagasy is the tomb, which is a prominent part of the island
landscape in all regions. It is built with great care and expense, reflecting
the privileged position of the dead, and is often more costly and substantial
than the houses of the living. The land upon which the tomb is situated is
inalienable, and social and economic practices are designed to guarantee that
tomb lands are kept within the family. Tanindrazana (the land of the
ancestors) is a term that refers broadly, in contemporary political
pronouncements especially, to the "fatherland" but means essentially the land
upon which the family tomb is built. The anthropologist Maurice Bloch
describes the Merina as living, in effect, in two localities: the place where
one happens to work and keep one's household, and the tanindrazana, a
locality of much deeper sentimental significance, the spiritual center where
the tomb is located. The two are usually located in places separated by a
considerable distance. Among some peoples, the choice of which tomb to be
buried in-that of the father's or mother's family-determines individual
descent-group allegiance.

     The tombs of the various peoples around the island differ somewhat in
form. Merina tombs tend to be solid, stone structures, built partially
underground, with a chamber in which the bodies of ancestors are kept on
shelves, wrapped in silk shrouds. The traditional tombs of the Mahafaly in
the Southwest were built of stone but surmounted by intricately carved
wooden posts depicting human and animal figures. More modern Mahafaly tombs,
particularly those built by rich families, are often made of concrete, with
glass windows, brightly painted designs, and often remarkable depictions of
airplanes, taxicabs, or other modern paraphernalia mounted on the roof. At one
time it was the custom of