Ma'anyan language
Ma'anyan or Ma'anjan or Maanyak Dayak is an Austronesian language belonging to the East Barito languages. It is spoken by about 150,000 Ma'anyan people (subgroup of Dayak people) living in the province of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is closely related to the Malagasy language spoken in Madagascar. Phonology. Consonants. /r/ can also be heard as a tap sound [ɾ]. Vowels. /i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables. Connection with Malagasy. The Malagasy language is an Austronesian language spoken in Madagascar. Malagasy is believed to have originated from the Southeast Barito language, and Ma'anyan is  believed to be its closest relative, with numerous Malay and Javanese loanwords. It is known that Ma'anyan people were brought as labourers and slaves by Malay and Javanese people in their trading fleets, which reached Madagascar by ca. 50-500 AD. There is high lexical similarity with other East Barito languages like Paku (77%) and Dusun Witu (75%). Vocabulary. Vocabulary comparison between Malay, Banjarese, Ma'anyan, and Malagasy.