Learn Gasy 101!

Topic 1: Malagasy has 18 dialects; I speak Sakalava.
First things first, the Malagasy language has 18 different dialects.
I speak Sakalava, which has completely different verbs and pronouns
compared to the official dialect of the capital. I can get by
speaking the official dialect after living near the capital for the
two months of training, but other volunteers have more trouble coming
to the North if they normally speak the official dialect.

Topic 2: Say hello!
Sakalava has a call-and-response greeting culture. Here it is:

Mbalatsara (ba-lot-tsar-a)
Mbalatsara mbalatsara, akory o (a-kory-o)
Tsar-é (tsar-ayyyyyyyy)
é (ayyyyyyyyy)

Ino vaovao? (Een-vo-vo)
Tsis-é, ino mareska? (tsee-sayyyyyy, een-nu-ma-ray-sa-ka)
Tsis-mareska, mangino fo é (tsees-ma-ray-sa-ka, man-geen-foo ayyyyyy)

I live in a town of 800 people. Most days, I'm just chilling in front
of my town talking with people as they came into the clinic or pass by
or on the road. There aren't a lot of distractions, so people say hi
to everybody, and have a blast doing it.

You'll notice a lot of "y's" in the pronunciation parentheticals, so
hold those syllables. This brings us to our next topic.

Topic 3: Sakalava is singsongy, or "saucy" as they call it. So, have
fun with it.
In the United States, if you started yelling "ayyyyy" at someone 100
meters away, that'd be weird (unless culture norms have changed since
July 2010). It'd probably also be weird to yell, "Tired!" or
"Hungry!" or "It's Raining!" Here, if someone is tired or hungry or
if it starts to rain, that information is not assumed to be knowledge
that can be kept to one's self. You must say, "ka-ju-ayyyyyyy!" or
"moo-sar-ayyyyy!" or "av-ma-lay-nayyyy!", respectively. So, shout it
out, have fun with it, and let everyone know that those little drops
of water making them wet is rain and not some lizard peeing on you
(yeah, beware).

Topic 4: Using verbs is easy!
All Malagasy verbs start with the letter "M." Example: Miteny (to
speak). Better yet, you don't have to conjugate them. Example: I
speak English, but he speaks French is simply "Zaho miteny English,
fa izy miteny français" (za mi-ten-y on-glease, fa i-zee mi-ten-y
fron-say). But better still, putting verbs in the past and future
tenses is super simple, just change the "M" to an "N" or an "H."
Example: To speak is "miteny" in the present tense, "Niteny" in the
past, and "Hiteny" in the future. Not too bad.

Topic: If you know the verb, you know the noun too
You know how in English a builder builds and a writer writes? Well,
it is the same concept in Malagasy. A "mpanamboatra manamboatra"
(builder builds). All you do if you know the verb is add a "p" as the
second letter in the word and make the first "m" silent. For example,
the verb for to wash is "manasa" (ma-na-sa). Therefore, the noun for
someone who washes is "mpanasa" (pa-na-sa). Another cool note, some
other nouns follow a different association with the verb as well. For
example, "misoma" (mi-so-ma) means to play. So, "mpisoma" (pi-so-ma)
is someone who plays. But also, "soma" (so-ma) is the word for a
game. Pretty cool, huh?

Topic 6: If you don't know a vocabulary word, use the French one with
some sort of Malagasification.

Example: Don't know what tomatoes are, but know they are tomates in
French, call them "tomate-y." Don't know chair, but know chaise, use
"chaise-y." You will be correct 90% of the time. Guaranteed.

Topic 7: Double words when you're not entirely certain the exact word to use
When you're new to a language, your vocabulary is relatively sparse.
So, it helps to describe things like things you know. For example, if
I am trying to describe a banjo, I don't know the word. But, I know
it's sort of like a guitar and I know the word for guitar (because
it's guitar in Malagasy; nice, huh?). So, I would say, "guitar-tar,"
which means it's sort of like a guitar. You double the word or last
syllable. Another example, there's no word for medium-sized items (as
far as I know), but you can say "kely-kely" or "maventy-venty," which
mean "sort of small" and "sort of large." Understand-stand?

Ok, vita (finished). With this information, if you come to visit the
North, you'll gain some street cred and also understand why I won't be
able to stop saying, "I'm tired ayyyyyyyyyyy" when I come back to the
States. Sorry in advance.