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A Word on the Orthography and Pronunciation
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
a word on the orthography and pronunciation The Malagasy language has dialectical variation throughout the island. In the book, Malagasy words reflect either the standard Merina spelling (“official Malagasy”) or the Betsimisaraka pronunciation, depending on the context. In the Merina dialect, the letter o is pronounced like the English oo (as in “zoom”). In the northern Betsimisaraka dialect, o is frequently pronounced long (as in the English “oh”). When I cite a Betsimisaraka speaker, I use the diacritical ô. Thus the Merina word vola (money) becomes vôla in Betsimisaraka, for example. In Merina, the letter n is pronounced as in English, but the Betsimisaraka dialect frequently employs the velar nasal (the ng sound in “sing”) where Merina does not. The velar nasal is conventionally written as ñ in the ethnographic literature of Madagascar. Thus razana (ancestor) in Merina becomes razaña in Betsimisaraka. When citing the work of other Madagascar scholars, I copy the spelling they use for Malagasy vocabulary. xix [3.238.195.81] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:24 GMT) Forest and Labor in Madagascar ...