Betsimisaraka language

Malagasy
Native to	Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte
Native speakers	18 million (2007)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian East Barito Malagasy
Writing system	Latin script (Malagasy alphabet) Malagasy Braille
Official status
Official language in	Madagascar
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mg
ISO 639-2	mlg (B) mlg (T)
ISO 639-3	– inclusive code Individual codes:  – Antankarana  – Bara  – Bushi  – Masikoro  – Northern Betsimisaraka  – Plateau Malagasy  – Sakalava  – Southern Betsimisaraka  – Tandroy-Mafahaly  – Tanosy  – Tesaka  – Tsimihety
Glottolog	mala1537
Linguasphere	31-LDA-a
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Malagasy (/mæləˈɡæsi/;Malagasy: [ˌmalaˈɡasʲ]) is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.

The Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Its distinctiveness from nearby African languages was noted in 1708 by the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland. It is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and more closely to the East Barito languages spoken in Borneo except for its Polynesian morphophonemics. According to Roger Blench (2010), the earliest form of language spoken on Madagascar could have had some non-Austronesian substrata.

Malagasy is the demonym of Madagascar from which it is taken ro refer to the people of Madagascar in addition to their language.

Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia who had passed through Borneo. The migrations continued along the first millennium, as confirmed by linguistic researchers who showed the close relationship between the Malagasy language and Old Malay and Old Javanese languages of this period. Far later, c. 1000, the original Austronesian settlers mixed with Bantus and Arabs, amongst others. There is evidence that the predecessors of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar.