the Merina dialect. Eastern Malagasy The Eastern dialects are: Northern Betsimisaraka Malagasy (1,270,000 speakers) – spoken by the Betsimisaraka on the northeastern coast of the island Southern Betsimisaraka Malagasy (2,000,000 speakers) – spoken by the Betsimisaraka in the North of the region Vatovavy Fito Vinany. Plateau (Merina) Malagasy (10,893,000 speakers) – spoken in the centre of the island and includes southeastern dialects like Antemoro and Antefasy. Tanosy Malagasy (639,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antanosy people in the south of the island Tesaka Malagasy (1,130,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antaisaka people in the southeast of the island. Western Malagasy The Western dialects are: Antankarana Malagasy (156,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antankarana in the northern tip of the island Bara Malagasy (724,000 speakers) – spoken by the Bara people in the south of the island Masikoro Malagasy (550,000 speakers) – spoken by the Masikoro in the southwest of the island Sakalava Malagasy (1,210,000 speakers) – spoken by the Sakalava people on the western coast of the island Tandroy-Mahafaly Malagasy (1,300,000 speakers) – spoken by the Antandroy and the Mahafaly people on the southern tip of the island Tsimihety Malagasy (1,615,000 speakers) – spoken by the Tsimihety people. Additionally, Bushi (41,700 speakers) is spoken on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, which is part of the Comoro island chain situated northwest of Madagascar. Region specific variations The two main dialects of Malagasy are easily distinguished by several phonological features. Sakalava lost final nasal consonants, whereas Merina added a voiceless : *tañan 'hand' → Sakalava **tan̈a, Merina tanana Final *t became in the one but in the other: *kulit 'skin' → Sakalava **holitse, Merina hoditra Sakalava retains ancestral *li and *ti, whereas in Merina these become (as in huditra 'skin' above) and : *putiq 'white' → Sakalava **foty, Merina fotsy However, these last changes started in Borneo before the Malagasy arrived in Madagascar. Writing system The language has a written literature going back presumably to the 15th century. When the French established Fort-Dauphin in the 17th century, they found an Arabico-Malagasy script in use, known as Sorabe ("large writings"). This Arabic Ajami script was mainly used for astrological and magical texts. The oldest known manuscript in that script is a short Malagasy-Dutch vocabulary from the early 17th century, which was first published in 1908 by Gabriel Ferrand though the script must have been introduced into the southeast area of Madagascar in