Malagasy is an Austronesian language spoken in Madagascar, just off the African coast, and is related to Malayo-Polynesian languages such as Tagalog (Philippines), Malay (Malaysia), Maori (New Zealand) and Fijian (Fiji).
The national language of Madagascar is the Merina dialect of Malagasy, which is one of the two official languages of Madagascar alongside French. Until 2007, English was the third national language. The second most common dialect, alongside Merina, is Sakalava which shares a 70% similarity in vocabulary.
