Page:A Concise Grammar of the Malagasy Language.djvu/15



In any language the study of the roots of the words is important, but this is more especially the case with the Malagasy language, because the derivatives, though regular, are very varied. These roots are chiefly verbs (active and passive), nouns, and adjectives; but some of the pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections may also be considered as roots, as they have not yet been traced to simpler forms.

The two classes of Malagasy roots are as follows:—

Primary roots; consisting of one, two, or three syllables; with the accent on the first syllable. The few apparent exceptions to this rule about accentuation (as lalàna, from the French la loi; mizàna, from the Arabic mizân, &c.) are explainable by a foreign derivation, or by assuming that the syllable preceding that which is accented was originally a monosyllabic primary root: ex. lalaò (i.e. lao reduplicated, 'play, playthings').

Secondary roots; formed from primary roots by the addition of a class of special monosyllabic prefixes, which differ from all the prefixes and aflixes used in the formation of other words. These secondary roots are treated exactly like the primary roots in making verbs, &c. from them; and their accent is always on the second syllable.

Of these prefixes, kan-, san-, and tan- are treated like the active prefix man-; q.v. Besides these, we find an infixed syllable om inserted into a root of either kind immediately after the first consonant, apparently only the transposed form of a prefix mo (=ma); thus, tàny, tomàny.