The Malagasy language, spoken throughout Madagascar by the entire population, is the only one in the African region that belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian language family.
Linguists believe that it shares a common origin with, and is most closely related to Maanyan, a language spoken in south-east Borneo. Both Malagasy and Maanyan bear a close affinity with the languages of the western Indonesian archipelago, such as Malay, Javanese, Balinese, and the Minangkabau language of Sumatra.
