Page:A Concise Grammar of the Malagasy Language.djvu/23

 b. If the root begins with any consonant except one of these three:—

But sometimes v is changed into b, or b itself is kept.

Before m or n, the prefix is contracted into ma-.

Ma- (or M- before vowels) is a shorter form of Man-, which forms a few transitive verbs, but a large number of adjectives usable as verbs.

(3) Sometimes also one or other of the following changes are necessary:—

Change of a consonant preceding the final a: this occurs only in roots ending in -ka, -na, or -tra, where k becomes h or f, tr becomes t, r, or f, and n becomes m.