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Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 An ethnic group 🏰 A former kingdom 🗣️ A language variety
Merina

Merina

9.9
The main Malagasy dialect spoken in Madagascar's central highlands and used in schools
  • proper noun
: merina
  • The Merina language has many unique expressions that reflect the history of Madagascar.

Examples

  • Many tourists try to learn basic phrases in Merina before visiting the highlands.

  • The Merina dialect is essential for understanding the local culture in Madagascar.

  • By the 1820s, as increasing numbers of Europeans settled in the highlands, Western "landscape models" were superimposed onto Merina ones.

    Academic text (2005)

Surface Forms

Merina main

Etymology

Merina comes from Imerina, the name for Madagascar's central 'highlands', and it named the way the people there spoke. That's why the Merina dialect is the main form of speech from the highlands and the basis of standard Malagasy.