The languages used in Madagascar are examined from the following perspectives: the linguistic varieties and functions socially recognized at the community level; the oppositions and complementarities that have become established between languages in contact; and the speakers' attitudes toward those varieties. The report focuses on the following topics: (1) the country, the people, and the languages in contact (regional varieties, the normalized Malagasy, and French); (2) the linguistic issues and political influences; (3) the types and functions of the languages in contact; (4) the conditions of usage of the official Malagasy, dialects, and French, including passive and active situations in which the languages are used in written and spoken forms; and (5) the attitudinal factors in the usage of each language. It is concluded that Madagascar has functionally differentiated language varieties and that, when the speaker has a choice of language to use, the choice is made according to function. The Malagasy diglossic situation is not one of strict complementarity, primarily because of the political and sociohistorical situation. (MSE)