498 
APPENDIX. 
between the above ,divisions, relate more to pronunciation and 
a few changes of letters, than to any radical changes in the 
words themselves, or in the structure of the sentences. The 
letter l , for example, is frequently used on the coast where d is 
employed in Imerina, as in oly , a charm ; in Imerina, it is ody. 
The terminational tz on the coast is expressed by tr or tra in 
the interior. The letter n in the interior, assumes the nasal 
sound of ng or ngn on the coast; as, manana of the former 
would be enunciated mangnana by the latter. 
Few and simple as these varieties may seem, yet, added to 
the introduction of some new words, and a few others used in 
a peculiar and altered sense, they render it somewhat difficult 
to a foreigner, familiar with one of the above divisions only, to 
comprehend readily, or to converse fluently in, the other; and 
even natives themselves require a little practice in such cases, 
before they can easily sustain a conversation with their fellow- 
countrymen. 
The outlines of the Grammar which accompany these pages 
refer more particularly to what is termed the Hova* dialect, 
though, from what has been already remarked, they may be 
applied very generally to the language of the whole island. In 
truth, all general remarks on the Malagasy language must have 
this universality of application, since there is nothing so pecu¬ 
liar, so characteristic of any one portion of it, as to limit and 
restrict the observation to one section more than to another. 
Describe the genius of the Hova dialect, and you describe the 
genius of the Malagasy language on the broad scale. Exhibit 
the leading features of the Malagasy language, without parti¬ 
cular reference to any one section of the country, and you 
include all that you would wish to state, of a general kind, 
respecting the Hova dialect. But descend to minutiae, and 
you then have to exhibit the verbal peculiarities, and terms, 
and enunciation found in the great divisions of the island 
respectively. 
From all this, two things are obvious, which, in the infant 
state of society in Madagascar, are of no small importance. 
First, That a person who has acquired the language used in any 
one part of the island, will find little difficulty in travelling over 
all the rest, so far as intercourse with the natives is concerned : 
and, secondly, That books printed in either dialect may be 
read by natives residing where the other dialect is used, allow¬ 
ing each to retain his own mode of pronouncing letters, parti¬ 
cularly that already noticed, of the interchange between n and 
* Hova is the name of the people; Imerina is the name of the district they 
occupy, or, as embracing a somewhat larger territory, An-Kova, the Hova 
country, (h being changed into k after n.) 
