Asian roots of the Malagasy; A linguistic perspective

The idea that Malagasy is related to the languages of insular Southeast Asia is very old. It can be traced back to 1603, when Frederick de Houtman published his Spraeck ende Woordboeck, inde Maleysche ende Madagaskarsche talen. This work was basically a textbook for those interested in learning Malay, but it also contained a Malay-Malagasy Dutch wordlist which clearly demonstrated some of the similarities between Malay and Malagasy. But, as Dahl points out, although De Houtman provided ample evidence for the idea, he did not state in so many words that there was a relationship between Malagasy and other Austronesian languages. It is therefore the Portuguese Luis Mariano to whom the credit should go for being the first to observe that there is a linguistic relationship between Malagasy and the languages of Southeast Asia. Mariano mentioned that the Malagasy came partly from 'Malacca', and partly from