Apr 11
The Malagasy words for “bedroom” and “desert” are the same (efitra), and you wouldn’t believe how confused I was as a kid when I was taught that Jesus once spent 40 days in the bedroom.
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The Malagasy words for “bedroom” and “desert” are the same (efitra), and you wouldn’t believe how confused I was as a kid when I was taught that Jesus once spent 40 days in the bedroom.
Someone shared this list of the most common surnames in Madagascar, and my father has decided that it has to be wrong because “Rabe” is not in it (despite my vain attempts to explain to him that every Rabe we know is not actually named Rabe, but Rabe-short-for-a-much-longer-name).
1. Rakotomalala (412104) 2. Rakotonirina (385717) 3. Rakotoarisoa (272020) 4. Rafanomezantsoa (204888) 5. Rakoto (192859) 6. Rakotoniaina (190530) 7. Randrianasolo (185098) 8. Razafindrakoto (184710) 9. Raharimalala (178501) 10. Rakotoarimanana (177725) 11. Ranaivoson (176949) 12. Ratsimbazafy (173068) 13. Randrianantenaina (171516) 14. Randrianarisoa (146293) 15. Rakotoarison (143965) 16. Randrianarison (131547) 17. Andrianantenaina (123010) 18. Rakotovao (121070) 19. Rakotoson (110593) 20. Rakotoarivelo (108653) 21. Nomenjanahary (107877)
(Also: I wasn’t kidding when I told y’all that most Malagasy surnames begin with Ra-, Andria-, or Randria-)
One Malagasy customary thank-you sentence goes:
“Dia saotra no atao anareo, mba tsy ho vaky lovia fararano, tsy ho banga nify voka-katsaka, tsy ho tapa-tsalaka vory vahoaka.”
(And thanks shall be given to you, so that your dishes won’t break in autumn, so that your teeth won’t go missing when the corn harvest has come, so that your loincloths won’t break amidst a gathered crowd.)
I know "masiso kely" mean "trop mignon" but I'm doubtful about "tay be!" meaning "trop genial!"
Does it really mean that?! (Also "tratry ny asaramanitra! " if you celebrate!)
Impromptu Malagasy lesson for everyone!
I can confirm that “masiso kely” (little stinker) is indeed used to describe incredibly cute kids and incredibly cute animals,
and “tay be” (big shit) is indeed used to express admiration.
I still like bringing up the fact that the Malagasy words for “bee” and “honey” are one and the same. You can try to tell which one it is through context, but it is absolutely NOT made easy by the fact that the language doesn’t really have a concept of plurals.
Anyway, here’s a bottle full of tantely. Enjoy!
The customary Malagasy new year’s greeting is “Arahabaina tratry ny taona” or “Arahaba tratry ny taona”, often shortened to “Tratry ny taona”,
meaning “Congratulations for living to see the new year”.
And the customary answer is “Dia samy ho tratry ny ho avy”,
meaning “And may we all live to see what is to come”.
Malagasy word of the day:
Tory (noun)
(Literary or obsolete) Sleep.
Preaching.
Denunciation, accusation.
Today I learned that, while “ovy” currently refers to the potato in most Malagasy dialects, it initially referred to tubers in general.
The potato, when first introduced to Madagascar, was instead named “ovimbazaha” — white people’s tuber.