Malagasy
Malagasy: Online Study Resources
Verbal
17-Minute Languages
https://www.17-minute-languages.com/en/learn-malagasy/
This online language learning website’s course teaches ~450 words, pronunciation, and basic grammar in Malagasy, using an electronic flashcard and sound playback system. At $39.99 + sales tax, it is a relatively small financial investment, but also very concise in scope. While it will teach some vocabulary and phrases, it’s most useful as an online phrasebook and word-learning site.
Learn Malagasy: Lessons 0-14 for Beginners
This online resource is essentially an old-fashioned, 25-minute language lesson on audio tape that has been made available via YouTube. Its advantages are that it is free, accessible via a simple web browser, and that the pronunciation mostly follows Standard Malagasy. Its disadvantages are that the audio quality is poor and the there are no chapter divisions or other ways to easily jump between lessons, as no timestamps and list of contents are provided.
To get the most out of this resource, silence any electronic notifications and focus wholeheartedly on listening and repeating, rather than trying to multitask. The opening pronunciation section is tedious but important.
Mixed
Live Lingua: Malagasy
This free website’s content is derived from the U.S. Peace Corps’ language learning curriculum. Notably, it features two branches to choose from: learning Standard Malagasy, and learning the Sakalava dialect of Malagasy (very useful if preparing to visit the west or northwest regions). The content is divided into 14 downloadable audio language lessons, with a course text and online pronunciation tool.
Vocabulary
Les Curieux Fruits de Madagascar [in French]
This concise, French-language webpage introduces six fruit that are commonly found and eaten in Madagascar, including their Malagasy names, description of their taste, and culinary uses. The fruit pictures are suitably mouth-watering.
- Recommendation: Use this in combination with these PressBook pages:
My Languages: Malagasy Vocabulary
Partly a language learning book online and partly a set of very specific dictionaries, this free resource provides a wide array of content divided into 37 discrete pages, including an online quiz. This is a helpful review or brush-up resource if you are following up on a conversation topic or preparing to have a conversation on it.
