A unified English term that best reflect the people, the culture, and other things from Madagascar: 'Malagasy' instead of 'Madagascan'

Ny Riavo G. Voarintsoa (1) , Andriamiranto Raveloson (2) , Rondrotiana Barimalala (3) , Onja H Razafindratsima (4)

1 HUJ - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2 WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]
3 Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, South Africa
4 College of Charleston

Two words, Malagasy and Madagascan, have emerged in the literature as an English term to refer to the people, the culture, and other animate and inanimate objects from Madagascar, the choice of which has left room for confusions for users. This article has two aims: (1) understanding the sources of such confusions, and (2) subsequently proposing a unified English term (noun and adjective) that will avoid further misperceptions in written and verbal communications accounting for Madagascar. The results from investigating the Web of Science, from historical documents, and from viewpoints from online survey combine to suggest that the term 'Malagasy' must have unintentionally been substituted by the term 'Madagascan' from the earliest documented usage until now. These two words have been used interchangeably, and the usage has never been applied consistently. This could have been influenced by the simple assumption that 'Madagascan' is an intuitive form, derivative of Madagascar. However, 'Malagasy' is an irregular word and is unique to Madagascar, thus its usage as a word qualifier for different objects, animals, plants, and the people of Madagascar in the English language would suffice.

Mots clés: Malagasy; Madagascan; Madagascar; terminology misconception

Domaines: Sciences de l'information et de la communication; Sciences de l'environnement; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Ny Riavo G. Voarintsoa, Andriamiranto Raveloson, Rondrotiana Barimalala, Onja H Razafindratsima. A unified English term that best reflect the people, the culture, and other things from Madagascar: 'Malagasy' instead of 'Madagascan'. 2018. ⟨hal-01956595⟩