Matt wrote :
> Malagasy orthography is pretty close to being perfectly phonemic - except
> for the peculiarity that /i/ is spelled "y" at the ends of words and "i"
> everywhere else. To the best of my knowledge, the spelling conventions
> were established by the 19th century English and French missionaries.
> The use of "y" at the ends of words is generally attributed to English
> influence. Why /u/ is spelled "o" and /dz/ is spelled "j" I don't know.
I can remember I was taught years ago in my language university in Paris that
*o* was /u/ and *dz* was /j/ because Malgache orthography was fixed by
Portuguese missionnaries having settled on the island before English and
French.
Mathias
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