The stress accent is counted from the bottom to the beginning of the word :
1- it is on the last but one syllable (penultimate, Malzac, p4) in a two syllable word
nify- vava -loha
but exceptions for
zomà ( friday )
vovò barking
lalào game/toy
words from French ending by é kafé (coffee), talé (director)
words derived from monosyllabic root: mandà (refuse), fanào (do),
2-It is on the third from the bottom (antepenultimate) in a three syllable word or more, and for three or more syllable words with ka, tra, na
tongotra- lemaka- anarana
*exceptions =
tanàna (city)
lalàna (way)
alika (dog)
sobika (de soubique, Fr)
fantàka (reed)
mazàna (always)
akòtry (paddy)
3- the last syllable (1) rarely bears the stress accent
Remarks:
The final vowels are always weakly pronounced, a/y mostly,
for example: ( anana: green leaves [anane], and y fary [farr] mostly
i and o between consonants are not pronounced, according to Rajaonarimanana (2011)
like misaotra [misôt']
inona [ inn]
but it is pronounced if preceded by h
mihevitra [miévt']
hividy [ividi]
However, for the final vowels Malzac stressed that it must be distinguished from another word, so it is pronounced as if you murmur it, a forgotten vowel you add
manénona (to weave) is different from manénina (to regret)
vola (money ) from voly (culture) from volo (hair)
4- The accent moves to the end of the word with the imperative form,
with ina/ana of the passive verbs
5- In words with diphtongues (ai, ay, ei, ey), the accent always falls on the diptongues, but the second vowel is pronounced higher than the first, on e for ei/ey, in the passive ai is pronounced separately=
a-i-dina adina (poured into)
a-o-rina, aorina ( that is built)
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Bibliography
Rajaonarimanana, Le malgache, Assimil. 2011.preface XI.
Malzac, Grammaire Malgache, 1950. p. 3. (some of the examples are taken from the book)
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Listen and tick the place of the stress accent
kado-sambo-tasy
satroka-kitapo
voataby
kado-sambo-tasy
satroka-kitapo (ki is a prefixe)
voataby (diphtongue ao=ô)
*kadò is from the French cadeau, and also tasy (tasse, FR.) but they are malagasy words now, so I used them as examples
