Abstract
The history of contacts between East Africa and island South East Asia (henceforth ISEA) is a long one. Based on current research, this history is punctuated by at least three important events. The first of these is the beginning of any contacts between East Africa and ISEA, which dates from 300 BC or possibly earlier and involves the transfer of cultigens (including banana, yam, taro, and rice) as well as boat technology and several other elements. This transfer has usually been assumed to go from ISEA to East Africa, but it also went in opposite direction. A second event is the settlement of Madagascar by speakers of Austronesian languages. It covers a period probably beginning around the seventh-century CE, when people from the shores of the Barito River in South Borneo moved to East Africa, and ending with the settlement of Madagascar in the eighth century. A third event consists of contact that was maintained between ISEA and Madagascar after the latter’s settlement. It continued until after the arrival of Europeans in the Indian Ocean and brought about some important cultural influences on (at least) Madagascar’s southeast coast. In this chapter, I concentrate on the nature and extent of these influences in as far as they are reflected in the Malagasy language. More particularly, I critically evaluate the ideas of Paul Ottino and Philippe Beaujard, who both argue for a distinct Malay and Javanese influence leaving a heavy imprint on east and central Madagascar. Ottino uses evidence from origin myths and early literature to argue that the Malagasy descend from Sumatra Malays. Beaujard adduces linguistic and other evidence to claim that the Austronesian element in Malagasy culture is more multi-ethnic than previously assumed, involving a particularly strong Malay and Javanese influence, but also involving various elements from Sulawesi, Timor and the Philippines. It would also involve direct influence from South India. Here I use linguistic arguments to show that the sources of these influences were much less pluriform. Genetically, Malagasy clearly belongs to the South East Barito (henceforth SEB) subgroup of Austronesian languages in Borneo, and it also underwent significant influence from other Austronesian languages. However, these languages are few in number. These are Malay and Javanese (the hegemonic languages in ISEA at the time of the Malagasy migrations) as well as a few languages directly neighbouring the Malagasy homeland such as South Sulawesi languages and Ngaju (in Indonesian Borneo). It is obvious that contacts between Madagascar and the Malayo-Javanese world in Indonesia continued until the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. However, much of what Ottino attributes to Sumatran influence and Beaujard sees as general South East Asian and South Indian influence in Madagascar from between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries CE was in fact already part of the cultural make-up of the early Malagasy before they migrated to East Africa. They had already undergone Malay and Javanese influence while still in South Borneo, where a Hindu-Malay polity was established in or before the seventh century CE.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Adelaar, K.A. 1989. Malay Influence on Malagasy: Linguistic and Culture-Historical Implications. Oceanic Linguistics 28(1): 1–46.
———. 1995a. Asian Roots of Malagasy: A Linguistic Perspective. Bijdragen tot de het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 151(3): 325–357.
———. 1995b. L’importance du samihim (Bornéo du Sud) pour l’étymologie malgache. In L’étranger intime: Mélanges offerts à Paul Ottino, ed. B. Champion, 47–59. St. Denis: Océan Éditions.
———. 1996. Malagasy Culture-History: Some Linguistic Evidence. In The Indian Ocean in Antiquity, ed. J. Reade, 487–500. London: Kegan Paul International.
———. 2007. Language contact in the Austronesian Far West. Paper presented at the 3rd Conference on Austronesian Languages and Linguistics, SOAS, 21–22 September.
———. 2009. Towards an Integrated Theory About the Indonesian Migrations to Madagascar. In Ancient Human Migrations: A Multidisciplinary Approach, ed. P.N. Peregrine, I. Peiros, and M. Feldman, 149–172. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
———. 2012. Malagasy phonological history and Bantu Influence. Oceanic Linguistics 51(1): 124–160.
Adelaar, Alexander. 2010. The Amalgamation of Malagasy. In A Journey through Austronesian and Papuan Linguistic and Cultural Space: Papers in Honour of Andrew K Pawley, ed. J. Bowden, N.P. Himmelmann, and M.D. Ross, 161–178. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Aichele, Walther. 1936. Ein neu erschlossene frühindonesische Literatursprache in ihrem Einfluss auf das Altjavanische. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 90(back matter): 18–19.
Andaya, Leonard Y., and Barbara Watson Andaya. 2001. A History of Malaysia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Astuti, Rita. 1995. People of the Sea: Identity and Descent Among the People of Madagascar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beaujard, P. 2003. Les arrivées austronésiennes à Madagascar: vagues ou continuum? Études Océan Indien 35–36: 59–147.
———. 2011. The First Migrants to Madagascar and their Introduction of Plants: Linguistic and Ethnological Evidence. Azania 46(2): 169–189.
———. 2012. Les mondes de l’Océan Indien, vol 2. Paris: Armand Colin.
Blench, Roger. 2007. New Palaeozoogeographical Evidence for the Settlement of Madagascar. Azania 42(1): 69–82.
———. 2008. The Austronesians in Madagascar and Their Interaction with the Bantu of the East African Coast: Surveying the Linguistic Evidence for Domestic and Translocated Animals. Studies in Philippine Languages and Cultures 18: 18–43.
———. 2010. Evidence for the Austronesian Voyages in the Indian Ocean. In The Global Origins and Development of Seafaring, ed. A. Anderson, J.H. Barrett, and K.V. Boyle, 239–248. Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
———. 2014. Using Diverse Sources of Evidence for Reconstructing the Prehistory of Musical Exchanges in the Indian Ocean. African Archaeological Review 31: 675–703. doi:10.1007/s10437-014-9178-z.
Blust, R.A. 2006. The Linguistic Macrohistory of the Philippines: Some Speculations. In Current Issues in Philippine Linguistics and Anthropology: Parangal Kay Lawrence A. Reid, ed. H.-C. Liao and C.R.G. Rubino, 31–68. Manila: The Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines.
———. 2009. The Austronesian Languages. Canberra: Australian National University.
Bulbeck, D., and I. Caldwell. 2000. Land of Iron: The Historical Archaeology of Luwu and the Cenrana Valley: Results of the Origin of Complex Society in South Sulawesi Project (OXIS). Hull: Centre for South-East Asian Studies.
Caldwell, I. 1988. South Sulawesi A.D. 1300–1600: Ten Buginese Texts. PhD Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Dahl, O.Ch. 1951. Malgache et Maanjan. Une comparaison linguistique. Oslo: Egede-Instituttet.
———. 1983. Sorabe révélant l’évolution du dialecte antemoro. Antananarivo: Trano Printy Loterana.
———. 1991. Migration from Kalimantan to Madagascar. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.
Deschamps, H. 1960/1972. Histoire de Madagascar. Paris: Berger-Levrault.
English, L.J. 1986. Tagalog—English Dictionary. Manila: National Bookstore.
Favre, P. 1875. Dictionnaire français—malais. Vienne: Imprimerie Impériale et Royale.
Gonda, Jan. 1973. Sanskrit in Indonesia. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture.
Heyne, K. 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië, vol 2. Batavia: Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel.
Hudson, Alfred B. 1967a. The Barito Isolects of Borneo. Southeast Asia Program, Data Paper No. 68. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
———. 1967b. The Padju Epat Ma’anjan Dajak in Historical Perspective. Indonesia 4: 8–42.
Hurles, M.E., et al. 2005. The Dual Origin of the Malagasy in Island Southeast Asia and East Africa: Evidence from Maternal and Paternal Lineages. American Journal of Human Genetics 76(5): 894–901.
Mahdi, Waruno. 1988. Morphophonologische Besonderheiten und historische Phonologie des Malagasy. Veröffentlichungen des Seminars für Indonesische und Südseesprachen der Universität Hamburg 20. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
———. 1998. Linguistic Data on Transmission of Southeast Asian Cultigens to India and Sri Lanka. In Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data and Linguistic Hypotheses, ed. R. Blench and M. Spriggs, 390–415. London: Routledge.
Murdock, George Peter. 1959. Africa: Its Peoples and their Culture History. New York; Toronto; London: McGraw-Hill.
Nothofer, Bernd. 1995. “Bahasa Lom”—Dari mana asalnya? In Bahasawan Cendekia: Seuntai karangan untuk Anton M. Moeliono, ed. L.P. Sihombing et al., 193–208. Jakarta: P.T. Intermasa [Fakultas Sastra Universitas Indonesia].
Ottino, P. 1986. L’Étrangère intime. Essai d’anthropologie de la civilisation de l’ancien Madagascar, vol 2. Paris: Éditions des Archives contemporaines.
Pallesen, A.K. 1977. Culture Contact and Language Convergence. PhD, University of California, Berkeley.
Parker Pearson, M., et al. 2010. Pastoralists, Warriors and Colonists: The Archaeology of Southern Madagascar. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Pelras, Christian. 1996. The Bugis. (The Peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific Series). Oxford: Blackwell.
Ras, J.J. 1968. Hikajat Banjar. A Study in Malay Historiography. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Razafindrazaka, H., et al. 2010. Complete Mitochondrial DNA Sequences Provide New Insights into the Polynesian Motif and the Peopling of Madagascar. European Journal of Human Genetics 18: 575–581.
Sather, C. 1997. The Bajau Laut. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Saunders, G. 2002–2003. Comparative Vocabulary of the Naueti Dialects. Studies in Languages and Cultures in East Timor 5: 79–106.
Simon, P. 2006. La langue des ancêtres. (Ny fitenin’dRazana). Une périodisation du malgache de l’origine au XVe siècle. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Vérin, P., and H.T. Wright. 1999. Madagascar and Indonesia: New evidence from Archaeology and Linguistics. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 18: 35–42.
Webber, J. 1853. Dictionnaire malgache-français [Malagasy-French dictionary]. Île Bourbon: Établissement Malgache de Notre-Dame de la Ressource.
Wolff, J.U. 1972. Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Additional information
My research into Malagasy linguistic history is sponsored with a Discovery Grant (DP120100390) from the Australian Research Council. I wrote this chapter in 2013 as a Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. I would like to thank Kenda Mutongi (Williams College, Massachusetts), Martin van Bruinessen (Utrecht University, Neth.), Sirtjo Koolhof (private scholar, Neth.), Tom Hoogervorst (Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden), and Waruno Mahdi (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin) for their invaluable editorial comments, and Chandra Jayasuriya (cartographer at Melbourne University) for providing maps. The usual disclaimers apply.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adelaar, A. (2016). Austronesians in Madagascar: A Critical Assessment of the Works of Paul Ottino and Philippe Beaujard. In: Campbell, G. (eds) Early Exchange between Africa and the Wider Indian Ocean World . Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33822-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33822-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33821-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33822-4
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)