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48-577: 21, see text Tephrodornithidae The family Vangidae (from vanga , Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga , Vanga curvirostris ) comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family owes its name. Many species in this family were previously classified elsewhere in other families. Recent molecular techniques made it possible to assign these species to Vangidae, thereby solving several taxonomic enigmas. The family contains 40 species divided into 21 genera. In addition to

96-414: A verb–object–subject (VOS) word order : Mamaky reads boky book ny the mpianatra student Mamaky boky ny mpianatra reads book the student "The student reads the book" Nividy bought Casque (anatomy) A casque is an anatomical feature found in some species of birds, reptiles, and amphibians. In birds, it is an enlargement of the bones of the upper mandible or

144-665: A 70% similarity in lexicon with the Merina dialect. The Eastern dialects are: The Western dialects are: Additionally, the Bushi dialect (41,700 speakers) 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

192-444: A large nest of sticks. Some species of vanga are common such as the chabert vanga which can survive in secondary woodland and plantations of introduced trees. Several other species are threatened by loss of their forest habitat. Pollen's vanga is classed as near-threatened by BirdLife International and the red-shouldered vanga, Bernier's vanga, helmet vanga and red-tailed newtonia are regarded as vulnerable . Van Dam's vanga

240-411: A mated pair. Heat exchange is a primary function of cassowary casques. Studies have shown that the casques efficiently shed heat at high temperatures and help to restrict heat loss at lower temperatures. Cassowaries have been seen dunking their casques into water when temperatures were high. Some theories that have been advanced in the past for cassowary casques – that they provide a "helmet" to protect

288-399: A number of species, including most hornbills , all cassowaries , the maleo , the horned guan , the helmeted guineafowl and several species of curassow . In most of these species, the casque is a bony extension of the upper mandible or skull that is covered with a cornified layer of skin. However, in cassowaries, a foamy, elastic layer of collagen sits between the bone and

336-409: A particularly large bill with a casque on top. Other species, such as the newtonias , have a small, thin bill. The sickle-billed vanga is notable for its long, curved bill used to probe into holes and cracks. Most vangas are largely black, brown or grey above and white below. Exceptions include the blue and white blue vanga and the blue-grey nuthatch vanga . The helmet vanga is mostly black with

384-547: A phonological quality not unlike that of Portuguese . /o/ is marginal in Merina dialect, found in interjections and loan words, though it 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

432-539: A rufous back. Male Bernier's vangas are entirely black while the females are brown. It is one of several species with distinct male and female plumage while in other species the sexes are identical. Most vangas have whistling calls. They are native to Sub-Saharan Africa  and the Indomalayan realm , although most are endemic to Madagascar in a variety of forest and scrub habitats. Several species including Van Dam's vanga and sickle-billed vanga can be found in

480-408: A single founding population into a variety of forms adapted to various niches occupied by other bird families in other parts of the world. They differ in size, colour and bill shape but are similar in skull shape and bony palate structure. They are small to medium-sized birds, varying from 12 to 32 cm in length. Many have strong, hooked bills similar to those of shrikes. The helmet vanga has

528-493: A species are similarly sized, then they tend to be differently colored, and if they are similarly colored, they tend to be differently sized. Hornbill species that live in dry, open areas tend to have smaller casques than those that live in forested areas. Casques may serve different functions in different species, and may serve multiple functions in a single species. In the hornbills, the casques of males and females of each species differ in size, shape, structure, and color, and

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576-458: A stronger bite. The veiled chameleon of the arid stretches of southern Saudi Arabia and Yemen has a particularly large casque, which scientists have theorised may be used to collect moisture or store fat. Casqueheaded lizards in the family Corytophanidae have expanded parietal bones . In the genera Corytophanes and Laemanctus , these modifications are present in both sexes; the thickened bones allow for greater bite strength as there

624-652: A variety of different foraging strategies. Many species glean food as they move through the branches. The nuthatch vanga climbs up trunks and branches like a nuthatch but does not climb downwards as nuthatches do. Crossley's babbler forages by walking along the forest floor amongst the leaf litter . The chabert vanga and the tylas vanga often fly into the air to catch prey. The three Xenopirostris vangas use their laterally flattened bills to strip bark off trees to search for food underneath. Most species nest in pairs, building cup-shaped nests using twigs, bark, roots and leaves. The sickle-billed vanga nests in groups and builds

672-650: 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 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

720-417: 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 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

768-852: Is a common issue, particularly in the great hornbill . Rhinoceros hornbills and helmeted hornbills have long been hunted for their casques, which are used for carvings. Items made from hornbill ivory date back more than 2000 years in Borneo and more than 1000 years in China . Helmeted hornbills are particularly sought, as their casques are densely solid. Although they are protected by law throughout their range, they are killed at unsustainable rates; between 2011 and 2014, for example, more than 1100 skulls were seized from poachers in Indonesia's Kalimantan region alone. A number of chameleon species have casques, which in these reptiles are bony protrusions on

816-425: Is classed as endangered because it is restricted to a small area of north-west Madagascar where the forest is rapidly disappearing due to clearance for agriculture and uncontrolled bushfires. The family contains 21 genera and 40 species. FAMILY: VANGIDAE Malagasy language Malagasy is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language , brought to Madagascar with the settlement of Austronesian speakers from

864-506: Is considered the national language of Madagascar. It is one of two official languages alongside French in the 2010 constitution put in place 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

912-462: Is evidence that the predecessors of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of 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

960-740: 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

1008-434: 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

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1056-692: 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 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

1104-456: Is the national epic, Ibonia , about a Malagasy folk hero of the same name. Malagasy is the principal language spoken on 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

1152-918: 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 , the Philippines and the Pacific Islands . In fact, Malagasy's relation with other Austronesian languages had already been noted by early scholars, such as

1200-575: 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 the time of the early Austronesian settlement and trading between Madagascar and

1248-597: The dry deciduous forests in the west of the island. Some such as Crossley's babbler, helmet vanga and Bernier's vanga are restricted to rainforest in the east of the island. Lafresnaye's vanga and the recently discovered red-shouldered vanga occur in subarid thorn scrub in the south-west. Their diet can include insects, earthworms, millipedes, lizards and amphibians. The blue vanga and chabert vanga occasionally eat fruit. Many species feed in small groups, often in mixed-species foraging flocks . The hook-billed vanga and Lafresnaye's vanga tend to forage alone. Vangas have

1296-401: 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 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

1344-709: 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 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

1392-602: 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 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

1440-504: The Southeast Barito languages , and the Ma'anyan language is its closest relative, with numerous Malay and Javanese loanwords. It 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

1488-583: 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 is divided across its twelve dialects between two main dialect groups; Eastern and Western. The central plateau of

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1536-423: The birds' heads as they move through the forest, that they serve as a "shovel" during foraging, or that they are used during fights with conspecifics – have now been largely discounted due to a lack of field observations confirming those uses. Casques are regularly subject to injury and disease. Injury can be either self-induced, or caused by conspecifics or environmental factors. Invasive squamous cell carcinoma

1584-430: The casques of young birds are different than those of adults. These various differences may aid in the recognition of potential mates or competitors. Casques on the bill , particularly those that run the length, or nearly the length, of the culmen , may help to strengthen a long, curved beak, which can allow a stronger bite force at the bill's tip. Some species use their casques for fighting with other members of

1632-539: 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⟩ 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

1680-474: 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 the 2010 constitution of the Fourth Republic of Madagascar. Malagasy is written in

1728-412: 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

1776-528: 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

1824-480: 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 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

1872-464: The same species. Male helmeted hornbills , for example, clash their casques together in mid-air combats that can last up to two hours. Male great hornbills also bash their casques together, sometimes in aerial combat, sometimes while one of the two birds is perched. Indian grey hornbills casque-butt both in aerial battles, and in clashes between perched and flying birds. While most instances involve two males, clashes can also occur between members of

1920-465: The skin. Hornbill casques grow from an area of vascularized tissue at the front of the skull. In most species, the casque is primarily hollow, with a network of bony filaments at the posterior end. The structure starts small in youngsters and develops over time, and at maturity is typically larger in males than in females. For larger species with larger casques, the growth process may take as long as six years. In general, if male and female casques of

1968-432: The skull, either on the front of the face, or the top of the head, or both. The casque has been hypothesized to serve as a visual cue to a bird's sex, state of maturity, or social status; as reinforcement to the beak 's structure; or as a resonance chamber, enhancing calls. In addition, they may be used in combat with other members of the same species, in the gathering of food, or in thermoregulation . Casques are found in

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2016-499: The small set of Malagasy species traditionally called the vangas, Vangidae includes some Asian groups: the woodshrikes ( Tephrodornis ), flycatcher-shrikes ( Hemipus ) and philentomas . Vangidae belongs to a clade of corvid birds that also includes bushshrikes (Malaconotidae), ioras (Aegithinidae) and the Australian butcherbirds, magpies and currawongs ( Cracticidae ) and woodswallows ( Artamidae ), which has been defined as

2064-524: 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 the Merina monarchy , though extensively versed in the Arabico-Malagasy tradition, opted in 1823 for a Latin system derived by David Jones and invited

2112-415: The subjects of history and Malagasy language. There are two principal dialects of Malagasy: Eastern (including Merina ) and Western (including Sakalava ), with 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

2160-556: The superfamily Malaconotoidea . They seem closely related to some enigmatic African groups: the helmetshrikes ( Prionops ) and the shrike-flycatchers ( Bias and Megabyas ). On Madagascar, vangas were traditionally believed to be a small family of shrike-like birds. Recent research suggests that several Madagascan taxa most similar in appearance and habits (and formerly considered to be) Old World warblers, Old World flycatchers or Old World babblers may be vangas. Yamagishi et al. found in 2001 that Newtonia appeared to belong with

2208-449: The top of the head. In species which have casques, males tend to have significantly larger casques than females. Studies have shown that casques are used for communication, including the indication of fighting ability. In some species, the size of the casque accurately predicts the bite strength of the individual. The casques form an attachment point for musculature; bigger casques have a larger area for muscle attachment, which can result in

2256-1280: The vangas rather than the warblers and also that Tylas was a vanga and not a bulbul . It also appears that Ward's flycatcher and Crossley's babbler belong with the vangas. The phylogenetic relationships between the genera are shown below. The cladogram is based on a study by Sushma Reddy and collaborators that was published in 2012. The species in the subfamily Vanginae are endemic to Madagascar. Prionops – helmetshrikes (8 species) Megabyas – African shrike-flycatcher Bias – black-and-white shrike-flycatcher Hemipus – flycatcher-shrikes (2 species) Tephrodornis – woodshrikes (4 species) Philentoma – philentomas (2 species) Newtonia – newtonias (4 species) Tylas – tylas vanga Calicalicus – vangas (2 species) Hypositta – nuthatch vanga Mystacornis – Crossley's vanga Leptopterus – Chabert vanga Cyanolanius – blue vangas (2 species) Vanga – hook-billed vanga Pseudobias – Ward's flycatcher Schetba – rufous vanga Euryceros – helmet vanga Xenopirostris – vangas (3 species) Oriolia – Bernier's vanga Falculea – sickle-billed vanga Artamella – white-headed vanga The vangas are an example of adaptive radiation , having evolved from

2304-472: 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 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

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