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3	Why isn’t Malagasy regarded as an African language? Malagasy is a major Austronesian language spoken on a large island just off the African coast. However, linguists concerned with Malagasy attend Austronesianist conferences As a consequence, understanding of the processes that led to the evolution of Malagasy are limited by a lack of knowledge of Bantu etc. Yet Malagasy is; Shot through with African loanwords and with non-Austronesian words that may be of African origin Has partially restructured its grammar on what are presumably African models This paper is a brief overview of recent research in this area
4	Introduction I The island of Madagascar split from the African mainland some 50 million years ago, considerably prior to the evolution of humans and indeed primates. Its isolation permitted the evolution of a complex endemic flora and a fauna dominated by lemurs. Late human impact was massive, with large-scale extinctions But humans also had to devise names for the unfamiliar species they encountered
5	Introduction II It has been claimed since the 1950s that the primary settlement of Madagascar was by Austronesians from SE Borneo, although the exact dates and circumstances of this transoceanic movement remain to be settled. However, both the earliest settlement and the source of the migrants has been called into question in recent times. The following speculative scenario provides a more nuanced history of both the coast and the islands
6	Introduction III It now seems likely that; a) Madagascar was first settled, not by Austronesians, but by hunter-gatherers migrating from the East African mainland prior to 300 BC. b) Madagascar was also reached by Graeco-Roman trading ships, which may have been trading tortoiseshell with the resident foragers and were responsible for the translocation of commensal murids c) There was regular contact between island SE Asia and the East African coast prior to 0 AD by an unknown people using outriggers and trading in spices d) After a gap, precursors of the modern Malay established a ‘raiding and trading’ culture based in settlements along the East African coast from the 5th century onwards
7	Introduction IV e) Malay ships had pressed crews of non-maritime origin from the Barito-speaking area of SE Borneo f) The Malay settlements on the East African coast transported captured mainland African populations from the Sabaki-speaking area to Madagascar, primarily for agricultural labour, between the 5th and 7th centuries AD g) That other SE Asian island peoples may also have followed these established trade routes to East Africa, accounting for a residue of non-Malay Austronesian items in the Malagasy lexicon h) That the Malay impact on Barito society was indirectly responsible for the evolution of the Samalic peoples, the ‘sea nomads’ of the region between Borneo and the SW Philippines
8	Introduction V i) That similarly, on the East African coast, the transfer of nautical technology to coastal Iron Age cultivators stimulated the development of Swahili maritime culture j) That the expansion of Arab shipping in the Indian Ocean from the 10th century onwards obscured the Austronesian origins of local seafaring through the replacement of boat types and maritime terminology k) Finally, if the Indian Ocean was criss-crossed by experienced Austronesian navigators from an early period, then settlement would be expected on many Indian Ocean islands. Although most islands were apparently unoccupied at first European contact, they may still have been reached by Austronesians and that more extensive archaeology will reveal this
9	Who might the earliest migrants be? I The evidence points to sparse hunter-gatherers reaching Madagascar from the African mainland Scattered among the Malagasy live groups of hunter-gatherers variously known as the Mikea or Vazimba. These peoples are small in stature, and darker than the neighbouring farmers and herders (although this may be simply the consequence of their way of life). The literature is confusing on the name of these people. In some sources they are treated as the same, in other they are distinguished, the Vazimba being the semi-mythical inhabitants of the island and the Mikea their present-day descendants In general they have a tendency to assimilate to agricultural communities, and all speak varieties of Malagasy. However, there is some evidence for a lexical substrate distinct from both Bantu and Austronesian. Birkeli (1936) describe some groups and give samples of the unusual words, names, toponyms and song texts in the languages of the Vazimba and Baūsi [=Beosy] languages. Stiles (1991, 1998) was later able to confirm at least some of the Birkeli material.
10	Who might the earliest migrants be? II The standard anthropological view is that the Mikea are simply transformed refugees in the forest of neighbouring populations such as the Vezo and Masikoro (Tucker 2001 & Mikea website) The evidence is that they have similar rituals, social organisation Indeed there is no doubt that the Mikea lifestyle incorporates such individuals, just as the gypsies of Europe incorporate travellers. Nonetheless, note the location of the Mikea, exactly where the migrants form the African mainland landed and the persistence of unetymologisable vocabulary Some of this is ‘avoidance’ vocabulary, i.e. manipulated speech, but there are words that seem to have mainland cognates
11	Who might the earliest migrants be? III Hunter-gatherers do still survive on the African mainland, though not opposite the proposed crossing point Typical populations are the Kenyan Dahalo, the Hadza and the South Cushitic-speaking peoples such as the Aasax and the Qwadza Unfortunately, none of their languages are perfectly described, but it is possible to make comparisons with unpublished materials Hadza and Dahalo produced no results at all, but there are a few promising comparisons with Southern Cushitic Southern Cushitic is a group of languages described by first by Ehret and later (and much more reliably) by Mous and Kiessling
12	Who might the earliest migrants be? IV Southern Cushitic consists of four languages spoken by pastoral-type peoples, Iraqw, Burunge, Goroa and Alagwa Two other languages for which only fragmentary records survive are Aasax and Qwadza (these were almost certainly Southern Cushitic) Ehret claimed Dahalo and Ma’a (the famous mixed language) were also Southern Cushitic but this is not generally believed Aasax probably died out as a living language at least thirty years ago and today there are only ‘rememberers’ These were recently interviewed by Maarten Mous and some additional vocabulary recovered We can’t make any conclusive link with the residual Mikea vocabulary but..
13	Some Southern Cushitic parallels I
14	Some Southern Cushitic parallels II
15	Aasax rememberers
16	Swahili maritime terms of Malay origin
17	Sabaki origins of animal names
18	Sabaki origins of animal names
19	Austronesian origins of animal names
20	Austronesian origins of animal names II
21	Curiously…. dahalo, dahalu inhabitants of the forest cf. N. Swahili mdahalo 1/2 ‘Dahalo people’ The Dahalo are foragers living in the interior of the Kenya coast, who speak a Cushitic language which includes click in its phonology. The possible etymology may be da- element is related to bada ‘person’ and halo is *haolo ‘forest’ in Malagasy.
22	THANKS To Kay Williamson Educational Foundation for supporting the fieldwork To Martin Walsh, Sander Adelaar and Thilo Schadeberg for discussions and comment
23	SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To the staff at Langley, Va. who have asked not to be named.