Malagasy is the official language of Madagascar, a large island nation off the coast of Africa. However, the five most similar languages to it are all spoken in Southeast Asia. This is because Malagasy is a member of the Austronesian language family. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Malagasy are Javanese, Tagalog, Iloncano, Kinaray-a, and Sundanese.
- Javanese (50.6)
Javanese, spoken on the island of Java in Indonesia, is closely related to Malagasy due to their shared Austronesian roots. Both languages have inherited many common linguistic features, such as vocabulary, phonology, and grammatical structures. These similarities can be traced back to ancient migrations of Austronesian-speaking peoples from what is now Indonesia to Madagascar over a thousand years ago. - Tagalog (47.7)
Tagalog, the basis for the Filipino national language, shares many phonological and lexical similarities with Malagasy. As Austronesian languages, both Tagalog and Malagasy contain words that sound strikingly similar, even if some of their meanings have shifted over time. While Malagasy has adopted more African loanwords over time, the underlying Austronesian structure remains intact. - Iloncano (44.8)
Ilocano is another language primarily spoken in the Philippines, specifically northern Luzon. It shares linguistic ancestry with Malagasy, due to their common Austronesian roots. Cognates between Ilocano and Malagasy are also notable. For instance, the Ilocano word for “eye” is mata, while in Malagasy, it is maso. - Kinaray-a (43.7)
Kinaray-a, spoken in the Visayas region of the Philippines, is yet another language that shares Austronesian roots with Malagasy. The two languages are part of the broader Malayo-Polynesian branch, which explains why they have so many linguistic similarities. As a result, they share basic vocabulary words. - Sundanese (43.1)
Sundanese is another language spoken on the island of Java, is particularly similar to Malagasy due to its Austronesian heritage. As with Javanese, Sundanese shares many cognates with Malagasy, along with comparable phonetic patterns. Historical migrations of Austronesian-speaking seafarers likely facilitated the spread of similar linguistic features across Southeast Asia and into Madagascar.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)