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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV
(Section on Arabic Alphabet) Malagasy Scripts-Problems Awaiting Solution I am very grateful to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Ronald O'Ferrall, Bishop of Madagascar for the following information. My thanks are also due to Canon Dr. H. Danby, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford, for having me introduced to Bishop O'Ferrall.
Extract from Bishop O'Ferrall's letter, dated 3-4.1940:
In Madagascar, the earliest form of writing the Malagasy language (Malayo-Polynesian) was in Arabic character, similar though not quite identical with the modern Arabic characters. This is supposed to have been introduced by Arab traders (from Mecca.) between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The writings extant are concerned with religion (extracts of the Koran and explanations), ditination, and tribal history. One day I noticed one of my old clergymen use this script and he wrote vertically, from top to bottom, beginning at the left top corner of the pages. I have wondered
ther this custom might in any way date the arrival of the Arabs-date still quite uncertain or give any idea of where they came from. The actual Malagasy tribe proper, the Hova, are straight-haired, and are supposed to have come from the direction of S.E. of Madagascar. The language is certainly Malayo-Polynesian, and it has spread all over the island, and there are hardly any remains of Bantu words except perhaps in place names. This points to the arrival of the Malay type having been very early.
Now, did these Malayan Malagasy perhaps bring in the writing at a very early date-i.e. before the Arabs came? If so, it is strange there are no inscriptions surviving, though as roood is the medium, they might have all perished.
I myself think it is unlikely that the writing came before the Arabs, but that the arrival of the Arabs may be much earlier than generally supposed.
The Latin script introduced by missionaries early in the nineteenth century soon drove out the Arabic script, and it is not only used in a feto out-of-the-way villages, though the books are still used by diviners.
The problem mentioned by the Bishop of Madagascar is much more complicated than it appears to a layman. Malagasy, the native language of Madagascar, is, as we know, quite different from all the other African languages; it belongs to one of the most widespread linguistic families in the world, Malayo-Polynesian. But we don't know either when this form of speech was introduced into Madagascar, or whether successively there was any direct relationship between the Malagasy-speaking population and the other groups of the family. What we do know, or rather we think we know, is that the natives of Madagascar, the only one of the main branches of that linguistic family, had no script before the invasion of the Arabs. Have we now to revise our opinion? Besides, it is perhaps not generally known that various Malayo-Polynesian peoples employed vertical systems of writing.
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