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The Tanala are a Malagasy ethnic group that inhabit a forested inland region of south-east Madagascar near Manakara . Their name means "people of the forest." Tanala people identify with one of two sub-groups: the southern Ikongo group, who managed to remain independent in the face of the expanding Kingdom of Imerina in the 19th century, or the northern Menabe group, who submitted to Merina rule. Both groups trace their origin back to a noble ancestor named Ralambo, who is believed to be of Arab descent. They were historically known to be great warriors, having led a successful conquest of the neighboring Antemoro people in the 18th century. They are also reputed to have particular talent in divination through reading seeds or through astrology, which was brought to Madagascar with the Arabs.

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51-462: Tanala social structure is characterized by a harmonious interrelationship between the nobles of the Tanala who migrated into the forest where they settled, and the commoner chiefs of the people who were already settled there. This relationship is traditionally reinforced through marriage between the groups and particular roles given to each in the governance of the community. The Tanala speak a dialect of

102-497: A Bantu influence or substratum in Malagasy phonotactics (Dahl 1988). There are some Sanskrit loanwords in Malagasy, which are said to have been borrowed via Malay and Javanese . Adelaar (1995) suggested that the vocabulary of Malagasy also contains many words that are of South Sulawesi origin. Further evidence for this suggestion was presented by Blench (2018). Malagasy is the demonym of Madagascar , from which it

153-404: A child was born on one of these days, it would be drowned by holding its head in a water-filled winnowing pan. The Tanala were known to be great warriors, and also had a reputation for divination using astronomy and the reading of seeds. In Tanala country, each village near a river would enclose a portion of the bank with stakes to protect women and children from crocodiles when fetching water. It

204-403: A king could carry a red parasol (a mark of nobility) and sat upon a throne made of several woven mats rolled together. Only he and his sons were allowed to wear silver bracelets around their wrists and ankles and silver necklaces, and these were only worn on festival days. When a nobleman fell sick, it was forbidden for anyone to enter the sick prince's home, and any medicines had to be slipped into

255-530: A particular location in the Sandrananta valley. The social structures of the two major Tanala sub-groups had minor variations. Among the Tanala-Zafirambo, society was divided into the privileged class ( fotsy , "white") and the commoners ( mainty , "black"). The fotsy practiced rice cultivation, whereas the mainty grew tubers. Traditionally, the Tanala adhered to trial by ordeal to determine

306-416: A short Malagasy-Dutch vocabulary from the early 17th century, which was first published in 1908 by Gabriel Ferrand though the script must have been introduced into the southeast area of Madagascar in the 15th century. The first bilingual renderings of religious texts are those by Étienne de Flacourt , who also published the first dictionary of the language. Radama I , the first literate representative of

357-633: A tomb, while among others, they are placed inside huts in a designated part of the forest, which is thereafter considered sacred and forbidden to visit. The Tanala speak a dialect of the Malagasy language , which is a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language group derived from the Barito languages , spoken in southern Borneo . The Tanala is close to the official dialect, spoken by the Merina of

408-403: Is also found in place names from other dialectical areas. /ai, au/ are diphthongs [ai̯, au̯] in careful speech, [e, o] or [ɛ, ɔ] in more casual speech. /ai/ , whichever way it is pronounced, affects following /k, ɡ/ as /i/ does. The alveolars /s ts z dz l/ are slightly palatalized . /ts, dz, s, z/ vary between [ts, dz, s, z] and [tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ] , and are especially likely to be

459-616: Is divided across its twelve dialects between two main dialect groups; Eastern and Western. The central plateau of the island, where the capital Antananarivo and the old heartland of the Merina Kingdom is located, speaks the Merina dialect. The Merina dialect is the basis of Standard Malagasy, which is used by the government and media in Madagascar. Standard Malagasy is one of two official languages of Madagascar alongside French, in

510-401: Is known that Ma'anyan people were brought as labourers and slaves by Malay and Javanese people in their trading fleets, which reached Madagascar by c.  50 –500 AD. 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

561-740: Is not clear if they are actually trilled, or are simply non- sibilant affricates [ʈɻ̊˔ ᶯʈɻ̊˔ ɖɻ˔ ᶯɖɻ˔] . However, in another Austronesian language with a claimed trilled affricate, Fijian , trilling occurs but is rare, and the primary distinguishing feature is that it is postalveolar. The Malagasy sounds are frequently transcribed [ ʈʂ ᶯʈʂ ɖʐ ᶯɖʐ ], and that is the convention used in this article. In reduplication, compounding, possessive and verbal constructions, as well as after nasals, fricatives and liquids, 'spirants' become stops, as follows: Here, stressed syllables are indicated by grave diacritics ⟨à⟩ , although these diacritics are normally not used. Words are generally accented on

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612-435: Is often silent. All other letters have essentially their IPA values. The letters c, q, u, w and x are all not used in native Malagasy words. Mp and occasionally nt may begin a word, but they are pronounced /p, t/ . @ is used informally as a short form for amin'ny , which is a preposition followed by the definite form, meaning for instance with the . Diacritics are not obligatory in standard Malagasy, except in

663-434: Is pronounced [fə̥ˈnurnə̥] . According to Penelope Howe in 2019, Central Malagasy is undergoing tonogenesis , with syllables containing voiced consonants are "fully devoiced" and acquire a low tone ( /ba/ → [b̥à] ), while those containing unvoiced consonants acquire a high tone ( /pa/ → [pá] ). However, this development appears to not occur in posttonic syllables, and she called it " pitch accent " instead. Malagasy has

714-404: Is pronounced as a full [i] .) Final /a/ , and sometimes final syllables, are devoiced at the end of an utterance . /e/ and /o/ are never reduced or devoiced. The large number of reduced vowels, and their effect on neighbouring consonants, give Malagasy a phonological quality not unlike that of Portuguese . /o/ is marginal in Merina dialect, found in interjections and loan words, though it

765-714: Is spoken on the French overseas territory of Mayotte , which is part of the Comoro island chain situated northwest of Madagascar. The two main dialects of Malagasy are easily distinguished by several phonological features. Sakalava lost final nasal consonants, whereas Merina added a voiceless [ə̥] : Final *t became -[tse] in the one but -[ʈʂə̥] in the other: Sakalava retains ancestral *li and *ti, whereas in Merina these become [di] (as in huditra 'skin' above) and [tsi] : However, these last changes started in Borneo before

816-739: Is taken to refer to the people of Madagascar in addition to their language. Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia from the Sunda Islands ( Malay archipelago ). As for their route, one possibility is that the Indonesian Austronesian came directly across the Indian Ocean from Java to Madagascar. It is likely that they went through the Maldives , where evidence of old Indonesian boat design and fishing technology persists until

867-503: Is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language , brought to Madagascar with the settlement of Austronesian speakers from the Sunda Islands (about 7,300 kilometres or 4,500 miles away) around the 5th century AD or perhaps between the 7th and 13th centuries. The Malagasy language is one of the Barito languages and is most closely related to the Ma'anyan language , still spoken on Borneo . Malagasy also includes numerous Malay loanwords, from

918-411: Is traditional to close the door to the house during mealtimes to prevent outsiders from seeing the family eat. Traditionally, all Tanala men and women regardless of social class wore clothing made from woven or beaten mats made from harefo reeds ( Eleocharis plantagines ). Mat clothing ( tafitsihy ) for women consisted of several rectangular pieces stitched together into a tube that was worn drawn up at

969-535: The Indri lemur ( babakoto ) is considered sacred and is protected by a range of fady . For instance, they cannot be killed or eaten, and if captured they must be set free; if they are found dead or inadvertently killed, they must be buried like a person. Pigs are also considered fady and Tanala people cannot have any contact with them, a taboo most likely originating in Islamic influences. The mountain of Ambondrombe

1020-412: The Malagasy language and adhere to numerous fady such as a prohibition against visiting a nobleman when he is ill, or closing the door to the house during mealtimes to prevent others from watching one eat. Their main livelihoods are the cultivation of coffee and rice. The Tanala are a Malagasy ethnic group that inhabit a forested inland region of south-east Madagascar near Manakara bounded on

1071-617: The Merina monarchy , though extensively versed in the Arabico-Malagasy tradition, opted in 1823 for a Latin system derived by David Jones and invited the Protestant London Missionary Society to establish schools and churches. The first book to be printed in Malagasy using Latin characters was the Bible , which was translated into Malagasy in 1835 by British Protestant missionaries working in

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1122-769: The Philippines and the Pacific Islands . In fact, Malagasy's relation with other Austronesian languages had already been noted by early scholars, such as the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland in 1708. Among all Austronesian languages, Dahl (1951) demonstrated that Malagasy and Ma'anyan – an East Barito language spoken in Central Kalimantan , Indonesia, on the island of Borneo – were particularly closely related. The language also has apparent influence from early Old Malay . Furthermore, there appears to be

1173-466: The isogloss running down the spine of the island, the south being western, and the central plateau and much of the north (apart from the very tip) being eastern. Ethnologue encodes 12 variants of Malagasy as distinct languages. They have about a 70% similarity in lexicon with the Merina dialect. The Eastern dialects are: The Western dialects are: Additionally, the Bushi dialect (41,700 speakers)

1224-637: The 19th century, or the northern Menabe group, who submitted to Merina rule. The Ikongo group live in the southernmost portion of the massif on fertile land that is easily accessible to neighboring ethnic groups and so has historically been a crossroads of cultures. The Menabe group just north of Ikongo live in the more rocky and mountainous area and have been largely isolated. Most people living in this area are descended from members of other groups who were defeated in local conflicts and were pushed from more desirable land into this inaccessible area, where they could take refuge. Recently, researchers have suggested that

1275-720: The 2010 constitution of the Fourth Republic of Madagascar. Malagasy is written in the Latin script introduced by Western missionaries in the early 19th century. Previously, the Sorabe script was used, a local development of the Arabic script . The Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family , a grouping that includes languages from Indonesia , Malaysia ,

1326-588: The Anteony on the paternal side and the Zafiraminia on the maternal side. The Zafirambo relate that Rambo left Mananjary in the late 16th or early 17th century to settle near Ambositra . Rambo's descendants gradually moved south and then crossed the eastern ridge to settle near Manambondro. In the 18th century groups of Betsileo moved into this territory, including a group of blacksmiths (the Antamby) with whom

1377-470: The Faraony and Matetana rivers) in the mid-18th century under King Andriamatahetany. Shortly afterward, the kingdom split into two Tanala kingdoms clustered around Manambondro and Sandrananta. Tanala society was historically divided into nobles, free people and slaves. Although Tanala nobles ( mpanjaka ) ruled the commoners, they were assisted by an advisor ( anakandriana ) who was a commoner, and consulted

1428-464: The Fourth Republic. Previously, under the 2007 constitution, Malagasy was one of three official languages alongside French and English. Malagasy is the language of instruction in all public schools through grade five for all subjects, and remains the language of instruction through high school for the subjects of history and Malagasy language. There are two principal dialects of Malagasy: Eastern (including Merina ) and Western (including Sakalava ), with

1479-453: The Malagasy arrived in Madagascar. The language has a written literature going back presumably to the 15th century. When the French established Fort-Dauphin in the 17th century, they found an Arabico-Malagasy script in use, known as Sorabe ("large writings"). This Arabic-derived Sorabe alphabet was mainly used for astrological and magical texts. The oldest known manuscript in that script is

1530-586: The Tanala are not truly a separate ethnic group. They have never been united as a single ethnic nation. The first settlers of Tanala country were the Vazimba , the island's earliest inhabitants. In the 17th century, the Zafirambo clan migrated into the territory from the southeastern coast. These newcomers traced their origins back to a leader called Rambo, whose gender is disputed in the oral histories. Rambo's parents both belonged to noble clans with Arab origins -

1581-437: The Tanala. In the past, after delivery of a baby the mother would wash her hands in the blood of a freshly sacrificed chicken, bathe herself in hot water, and then rest upright beside a fire to make her sweat out impurities. The period that she needed to stay beside the fire varied; noblewomen might stay beside the fire for as long as several months, but more commonly the duration was eight days. Immediately after this period beside

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1632-532: The Zafirambo formed an alliance. Over the next 50 years, the Zafirambo expelled the ruling Antemahafaly clan from the Sandrananta and Manambondro valleys and united the commoners of the area under Zafirambo authority. Over much of the 18th century the Tanala were engaged in conflict with the Antemoro , which concluded near the end of the century in a bloody Tanala conquest of the eastern coast. The kingdom achieved its maximum extent (a span of 100 kilometers between

1683-444: The case where its absence leads to an ambiguity: tanàna ("city") must have the diacritic to discriminate itself from tanana ("hand"). They may however be used in the following ways: After a stressed syllable, as at the end of most words and in the final two syllables of some, /a, u, i/ are reduced to [ə, ʷ, ʲ] . ( /i/ is spelled ⟨y⟩ in such cases, though in monosyllabic words like ny and vy , ⟨y⟩

1734-495: The central highlands, with some minor pronunciation differences. The major crops of the Tanala are coffee and rice. They also engage in harvesting wild foods such as honey from the nearby forests but it is taboo for them to consume it themselves because it is often harvested from hives that bees have formed inside Tanala coffins that have been suspended in trees. This product is instead traded or sold to others. The northern Tanala have historically engaged very little in trade owing to

1785-403: The coastal rainforest. In 2013, the Tanala numbered around 400,000 people. Their name means "people of the forest." Several Tanala rulers trace their lineage back to Antaimoro ombiasy (wisemen) who migrated to the area after 1550. Tanala people identify with one of two sub-groups: the southern Ikongo group, who managed to remain independent in the face of the expanding Kingdom of Imerina in

1836-469: The commoners' elders ( zoky olo ). The king was accountable to his people, who had the power to remove him from his position of leadership. In addition, members of Tanala communities regardless of class consulted ombiasy (wise men) of the Antemoro tribe who served as diviners, holders of arcane knowledge and advisers to the noble class across the island. Kings and their sons enjoyed certain privileges; only

1887-489: The east coast of Madagascar. Adelaar (2017) proposes that a distinct Malagasy speech community had already been established in South Borneo before the early Malagasy speakers migrated to East Africa. Malagasy has a tradition of oratory arts and poetic histories and legends. The most well-known is the national epic, Ibonia , about a Malagasy folk hero of the same name. Malagasy is the principal language spoken on

1938-491: The fire was concluded, a party was held, which the mother had to attend regardless of her condition; the event was marked by the slaughter of zebu. Immediately after birth, the baby would be bathed in cold water, and a sorcerer would declare certain days to be lifelong fady (taboo days); if a baby was born on a day that was fady for both the mother and father, the child would be abandoned to die. In addition, there are eight fady days per month for all Tanala, and historically if

1989-447: The guilt or innocence of an accused party. This typically consisted of requiring the accused to swim from one bank of a river to the other and back; if attacked by a crocodile, the party was considered guilty. If found innocent, the accuser was forced to pay a fine of four zebu, of which two were given to the accused and the two others went to the king and his advisor. A number of ritual practices and beliefs are associated with birth among

2040-501: The highlands area of Madagascar. The current Malagasy alphabet consists of 21 letters: a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, v, y, z. The orthography maps rather straightforwardly to the phonemic inventory. The letters i and y both represent the /i/ sound ( y is used word-finally, and i elsewhere), while o is pronounced /u/ . The affricates /ʈʂ/ and /ɖʐ/ are written tr and dr , respectively, while /ts/ and /dz/ are written ts and j . The letter h

2091-486: The house by a messenger. The homes of nobles were distinguished by affixing zebu horns or crossed and carved wooden stakes in the shape of zebu horns to both ends of the roof peak. Nobles frequently married with powerful commoner families to establish political alliances for greater influence and the stability and security of their territory. After their death, relics ( lambohamba ) of nobles were sometimes kept and would be ritually bathed as part of an annual celebration held at

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2142-499: The inaccessibility of their communities and difficult terrain. Malagasy language Malagasy ( / ˌ m æ l ə ˈ ɡ æ s i / MAL -ə- GASS -ee ; Malagasy pronunciation: [malaˈɡasʲ] ; Sorabe : مَلَغَسِ ) is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar . The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French . Malagasy

2193-471: The island of Madagascar. It is also spoken by Malagasy communities on neighboring Indian Ocean islands such as Réunion , Mayotte and Mauritius . Expatriate Malagasy communities speaking the language also exist in Europe and North America. The Merina dialect of Malagasy is considered the national language of Madagascar. It is one of two official languages alongside French in the 2010 constitution put in place

2244-412: The latter when followed by unstressed /i/ : Thus French malgache [malɡaʃ] 'Malagasy'. The velars /k ɡ ᵑk ᵑɡ h/ are palatalized after /i/ (e.g. alika /alikʲa/ 'dog'). /h/ is frequently elided in casual speech. The reported postalveolar trilled affricates /ʈʳ ᶯʈʳ ɖʳ ᶯɖʳ/ are sometimes simple stops, [ʈ ᶯʈ ɖ ᶯɖ] , but they often have a rhotic release, [ʈɽ̊˔ ᶯʈɽ̊˔ ɖɽ˔ ᶯɖɽ˔] . It

2295-470: The north by the Faraony river to the north and the Matitanana river to the south. To the east it is cut off 40 km from the coast by a band of Antemoro villages. The altitude in Tanala territory varies between 250-600 meters in elevation, except on Mount Ikongo (1,200 meters) in the middle of the territory. They inhabit the southern portion of a massif that abruptly drops along a steep cliff to its east into

2346-528: The penultimate syllable, unless the word ends in ka , tra and often na , in which case they are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Secondary stresses exist in even-numbered syllables from the last stressed syllable, when the word has more than four syllables ( fàmantàranàndro [ˌfamˌtarˈnandʐʷ] "watch, clock"). Neither prefixation nor suffixation affect the placement of stress. In many dialects, unstressed vowels (except /e/ ) are devoiced, and in some cases almost completely elided ; thus fanòrona

2397-469: The present. 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. The Malagasy language originates from the Southeast Barito languages , and the Ma'anyan language is its closest relative, with numerous Malay and Javanese loanwords. It

2448-409: The shoulder or belted at the waist, while men wore a beaten bark loincloth and a mat jacket or tunic with longer sleeves for older men. Circumcision is an important ritual among the Tanala, as in many other Malagasy ethnic groups. A range of fady are associated with the practice, particularly for nobles. A noble Tanala mother became subject to a new range of fady after the circumcision of her son. She

2499-549: The time of the early Austronesian settlement and trading between Madagascar and the Sunda Islands. After c.  1000 AD , Malagasy incorporated numerous Bantu and Arabic loanwords brought over by traders and new settlers. Malagasy is spoken by around 25 million people in Madagascar and the Comoros . Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language, as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere. Malagasy

2550-415: Was also fady for the Tanala and none were allowed to travel there. Among the Tanala it is traditional to keep the body of a deceased individual for a month or more; the dead are then buried in the forest in coffins carved from large logs, with sacrifices to mark the cutting of the log and indications carved into a tree to indicate the location of the burial. In certain Tanala communities, bodies are buried in

2601-476: Was thereafter forbidden to take her son for a walk, eat on her own bed or in secret, or consume dried meat of any kind or the meat of a zebu that had been slaughtered (as opposed to having died of natural causes). If she broke any of these taboos, or if the child urinated or defecated during the circumcision ceremony, the child would lose his noble status (an older fady previously required that the child be put to death in such cases). Among certain Tanala communities,

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