COAST AND HOVA FORMS. 149 



others) of the mental capabilities of the people using it. 

 The word for million is tdpitrisa, literally " the finishing of 

 counting ; " the word for ten thousand is the same as that 

 for night, dlina. 



The preference for the passive instead of the active form of 

 verb is also a marked feature in Malagasy ; so that instead of 

 saying, " I see it," a native would, nine times out of ten, say, 

 " Seen by me it " {hitalco izy). There is thus, as in Hebrew, 

 the constant use of the suffix pronoun, both with nouns and 

 participles ; and in the terseness and elliptical character of 

 the language it has also several points of analogy with that 

 ancient tongue. 



Only two or three of the dialects spoken among the 

 numerous tribes of Madagascar have as yet been carefully 

 investigated, but collections of words are now being made 

 and materials gathered for comparison. But there are quite 

 enough differences both in vocabulary and pronunciation to 

 make it difficult for natives from distant portions of the island 

 to understand one another at first, for not only are many of 

 the words themselves different in different places, but the 

 style of speaking and pronunciation also varies very much, 

 the vowel sounds being much more open and broad on the 

 coast than amongst the Hovas. "While there appears at first 

 sight to be at least three clearly-marked groups of dialect, 

 viz., the Hova, or speech of the central province ; the Saka- 

 lava, or dialect of the western side of the island ; and that of 

 the Betsimisaraka and allied tribes on its eastern side, closer 

 examination seems to reduce their number to two, as the 

 two latter have many points of similarity with each other and 

 common differences from the Hova. As the Hova people 

 are the ruling tribe of Madagascar, and all native literature 

 is printed in their dialect, it may be regarded as the normal 

 form of the language, and probably will eventually become 

 the standard of the Malagasy tongue, especially as the Hovas 

 are scattered over a great many military posts in the island, 

 as well as at the ports, and, of course, take with them their 

 books as well as their own style of speaking. 



It is very interesting to observe that all the coast dialects, 

 in other words, those spoken in the warmer regions of Mada- 



