Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
emblematic criteria
Alexander Adelaar
Asia Institute, University of Melbourne
Jacques Dez, the father of modern Malagasy dialectology, believed that a basic criterion
for a genetic division of Malagasy dialects is the way they reflect Proto Austronesian *li
and *ti. These phoneme sequences became respectively li and ti in south‐western
dialects (including South Sakalava), and di and tsi in other dialects (including the
dominant Merina dialect). For instance, PMP *lima 'five' became South Sakalava lime
and Merina dimi; PMP *putiq 'white' became South Sakalava futi, Merina futsi (cf. Dez
1963).
According to Pierre Simon (1988), this criterion does not hold because the
distinctions in question also exist among the various South East Barito varieties in
Central and South Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), which are directly related to
Malagasy. He argues that these distinctions must already have existed at the time of the
Malagasy migrations to East Africa and are therefore not the result of a split that took
place in Madagascar itself. Simon's argument can also be interpreted in other ways and
is not necessarily irreconcilable with Dez' theory. However, it is strengthened by some
additional factors, which clearly demonstrate that the changes from *li to di and from
*ti to tsi are no evidence for a genetic division between south‐western/non‐south‐
western dialects. Rather, these changes must have spread from the centre of
Madagascar towards the East coast and other parts of the island, conforming to a wave
model.
It is still quite possible that the south‐western dialects form a separate branch
that split off from Proto Malagasy at an early stage, but further evidence is required to
demonstrate this beyond reasonable doubt. Such evidence can be gleaned from the
development of personal pronouns in the various dialects, for example.
Classifying Malagasy dialects is not a sheer heuristic exercise but has a direct
bearing on theories about the settlement of Madagascar by Austronesian speakers: was
there one migration wave, or were there several?
References
Dez, Jacques, 1963, Aperçu pour une dialectologie de la langue malgache. Bulletin de
Madagascar 204:441–451; 205:507–520; 206:581–607; 210:973–994.
Simon, Pierre, 1988, Ny fiteny fahizahy. reconstitution et periodisation du malgache
ancient jusqu’au XIVe siecle. Travaux et documents 5 du CEROI. Paris: Institut
des Langues et Civilisations Orientales.