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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Malagasy-English, dictionary, archaic definitions, text

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics and English Language

Abstract

Since Madagascar gained its independence from France in 1960, the country’s leaders have tried to promote a unique sense of identity for the Malagasy people and culture. Part of this effort has been spent in preserving the Malagasy language. However, due to the limited extent of vocabulary in the Malagasy language, a high demand for English arose, resulting in English becoming an official language in 2007. Since the first Malagasy-English dictionary was published by British missionaries in 1835, there have been attempts to fabricate a modernized Malagasy-English dictionary, but these efforts have by no means been comprehensive and are often mistranslated with archaic definitions. Those seeking to learn Malagasy were left with inadequate and inaccurate materials.

Included in

Linguistics Commons

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