Bara is a dialect of Malagasy spoken by Bara people in Central and Southern Madagascar. It is a Southern Malagasy dialect.

Bara dialect belongs to the Austronesian language family and part of Southern malagasic subgroup alongside Southern Sakalava, Tandroy, Tanosy and Vezo.

The Bara dialect is predominantly spoken in the Ihorombe region, where it serves as the primary means of communication. It is particularly popular in the city of Ihosy. The dialect is also spoken in parts of the Menabe region, in the western areas of Atsimo-Atsinanana, in a very limited portion of southern Vakinankaratra, as well as in the Anosy region—especially in the Betroka District—and in the Atsimo-Andrefana region, notably in the Beroroha District.

The Bara dialect displays several phonological and lexical characteristics that distinguish it from the Merina-based Standard Malagasy. These features are also shared with other southern Malagasy dialects such as Tandroy, Tanosy, Vezo, Mahafaly, and Southern Sakalava.

One notable feature is the dropping of the final -na in trisyllabic words. For example, tana is used instead of tànana (hand), tanà for tanàna (village), sofy for sofina (ear), and antety for antanety (field), the latter also common in Southern Sakalava.

There is also a tendency to substitute l for d, as in valy for vady (spouse), dily for didy (law, order), and malio for madio (clean). However, in some cases where Standard Malagasy uses l, the Bara dialect reintroduces d, as in kedikedy (Bara), while southeastern dialects use kidikidy.

The s following a t is often omitted, producing forms like raty instead of ratsy (bad).

The consonant v may be replaced by b, for example, abo for avo (high).