Malagasy is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French.
Sorabe Malagasy Arabic script
Malagasy version of the Book of Mormon, in Latin script with the letter ô
Malagasy lexicon (1773) (Collection BULAC Paris)
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan. They are spoken by about 386 million people. This makes it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages include Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Tagalog, Malagasy and Cebuano. According to some estimates, the family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.
The distribution of Austronesian languages
A 5 dollar banknote, Hawaii, c. 1839, using Hawaiian language
A sign in Balinese and Latin script at a Hindu temple in Bali
A manuscript from the early 1800s using the Batak script