Antaimoro or Antemoro is a dialect of Malagasy spoken by

Antemoro people The Antemoro (or Antaimoro, ) are an ethnic group of Madagascar living on the southeastern coast, mostly between Manakara and Farafangana. The name of tribe means From Imoro. Imoro is an historical name for the homeland of the Antemoro.Numberi ...

in the ex-region of

Vatovavy-Fitovinany Vatovavy-Fitovinany was a region of Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Afri ...

Classification

Antemoro is part of the Austronesian language family, within the Central-Eastern Malagasic branch. It is further classified under the Plateaux Malagasy alongside

Merina The Merina people (also known as the Imerina, Antimerina, Borizany or Ambaniandro) formerly called Amboalambo are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar.

Sihanaka The Sihanaka are a Malagasy ethnic group concentrated around Lake Alaotra and the town of Ambatondrazaka in central northeastern Madagascar. Their name means the "people of the swamps" in reference to the marshlands around Lake Alaotra that t ...

, Antambahoaka and

Antefasy The Antaifasy ("people of the sands") are an ethnic group of Madagascar inhabiting the southeast coastal region around Farafangana. Their homeland is historically called Ifasy between to Imoro to the North and Isaka to the South. Historically a ...

Geographical distribution

The Antemoro dialect is primarily spoken in the Fitovinany region of southeastern Madagascar, particularly in the districts of Manakara-Atsimo and

Vohipeno Vohipeno is a rural municipality in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Vohipeno, which is a part of the region of Fitovinany. The population of the commune was 14,751 in 2018. In addition to primary schooling the town offers secondary ed ...

. It is also spoken in the southern part of the neighboring Vatovavy region, including several communes such as Namorona, Sandrohy, and Vatohandrina.

Characteristics

The Antemoro dialect is closely related to the Antaifasy dialect, with only minor phonological and lexical differences. One distinctive feature is the use of suffixes such as -tra and -gna in Antemoro, compared to variations like -gny in Antefasy. For example, the verb "to talk" is rendered as mikoragna in Antemoro, while in Antefasy it appears as mikoragny. Additionally, certain vocabulary items differ; for instance, the word for "sword" is sabatry in Antefasy and sabatra in Antemoro. Despite these differences, the dialects remain mutually intelligible to a high degree.

Vocabulary

Numerals

Animals

Direction

Time

Writing System

The Antemoro dialect is one of the Malagasy varieties that were historically written using the Arabic-derived Arabico-Malagasy script, alongside that of the Antambahoaka and Tanosy. This script, known as *Sorabe* ("large writings"), was primarily used for magical and divinatory purposes. In the early 19th century, during the reign of King Andrianampoinimerina (c. 1800–1804), two Taimoro sages from the southeast, Andriamahazonoro (d. 1838) and Ratsilikaina, were summoned to the Merina capital to inaugurate a royal palace school. By 1817, they had introduced the Sorabe script to five or six royal children, including the future king Radama I. Before ultimately deciding to adopt the Latin alphabet for the translation of the Bible, the first English Protestant missionaries in Madagascar considered using the Arabico-Malagasy orthography of the Taimoro people. They studied the script and discussed this possibility with King Radama I, before jointly opting for the Latin alphabet as the basis of the new standardized writing system.

References

{{Languages of Madagascar Malagasy language Verb–object–subject languages Languages of Madagascar