APPENDIX. 
4G9 
Most of the words are compound words, but some are roots, and 
exist in no simpler form. The roots generally consist of words 
of two or three syllables, but in some cases of only one, and for 
the most part they are nouns, or passive participles. Most of the 
roots and compound words are occasionally doubled, which in¬ 
creases or diminishes the force of the original word. 
To the language of Madagascar, as well as to those of Poly¬ 
nesia, the missionaries have judiciously adapted the Roman cha¬ 
racter ; and though there are a few sounds which seem to be inter¬ 
mediate between those expressed by two consonants in European 
languages, or to blend two consonants in one sound, this apparent 
inconvenience is of little consequence when compared with the 
obvious advantages of the Roman letters. 
The Malagasy alphabet consists of twenty-one letters, sixteen 
consonants, and five vowels. The i and y have the same sound, 
but the latter is uniformly the terminal vowel. The letters 
omitted from the English alphabet are, C, Q, U, W, and Z. G is 
always pronounced hard, as in go. C is expressed by S or K. 
U is expressed by io. The Continental pronunciation is given to 
the vowels. The sound usually attached to the letter u in French, 
and in the English word rule, is of very frequent occurrence; but 
the letter u is omitted in the Malagasy alphabet, and the sound 
usually expressed by u is signified by o. This causes different 
sounds to be represented by the same letter, and presents also to 
the eye of the European reader the sign of a sound which is not 
pronounced, and would also seem likely to increase the difficulty 
of teaching European languages to the natives; but the letter u 
may easily be added to the Malagasy alphabet whenever the 
requirements of the people render it desirable, and the letter o be 
then employed only to express its usual sound in other languages. 
The sounds of the Malagasy language are more masculine and 
forcible than those of Polynesia, but scarcely less harmonious. 
Consonants occur much more frequently in the former; and though, 
as a general rule, each syllable consists of a consonant and vowel, 
a number of double consonants, which readily coalesce in one 
sound, and allow of easy articulation, are admitted; such as, dr, 
tr, mb, mp, nd, ndr, ng, nj, nk, nt, and nts. Hence, also, for the 
H H 3 
