Madagascar
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Middle French Madagascar, from Madageiscar, popularly reputed as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu by Marco Polo's misreading of Arabic.[1][2] The maps of particular interest are that of al-Idrisi in the 12th century, who produced the Tabula Rogeriana, the most advanced world map at the time.
The actual misconstrued term was Arabic جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ (jazīrat al-mālāʔiyy, “The Island of Mālāī”) listed alongside Arabic جَزِيرَة القَمَر (jazīrat al-qamar, “The Island of the Moon”) which lent its name to Comoros; Madagascar however likely being the original based on its dimensions.
The map in question warps the direction of Africa's east coast to be parallel to the coast of southeast Asia, prompting a conflation of the regions furthest east and furthest south, in the reaches of Arab exploration. This perhaps makes the Island of Mālāī both representing Madagascar and an island in Indonesia, likely Sumatra, in close proximity to Malaysia. To conflate matters further, the populations of both regions are of Austronesian background, a fact pointed out by Arab explorers who identified Madagascar as colony of the former region. A second wave of Austronesians, including Malays, did indeed migrate to the island after the first group had originally left from what was likely Southern Borneo from linguistic and genetic analysis.
"Mālāī-Gezīra" also holds connection to the term for the people and languages of the island, Malagasy, which had earlier forms Malegass and Madegass, because of dialect division.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /madəˈɡaskə/, /-ɑː/
- (US) IPA(key): /mædəˈɡæskɑɹ/
Audio (Southern England): (file) Audio (US): (file)
Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar
- An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
Holonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
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See also
[edit]- Countries of the world
- (countries of Africa) countries of Africa; Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe (Category: en:Countries in Africa) [edit]
Noun
[edit]Madagascar (plural Madagascars)
- (rare, obsolete) A resident of Madagascar.
- Synonyms: Madagascan, Madagascarian, Malagasy
References
[edit]- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “Madagascar”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ “Madagascar, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021.
Catalan
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): (Central, Balearic) [mə.ðə.ɣəsˈkar]
- IPA(key): (Valencia) [ma.ða.ɣasˈkar]
Audio (Valencia): (file)
Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar m
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
Central Huasteca Nahuatl
[edit]Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
Central Nahuatl
[edit]Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar m
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
- Synonym: Grande Île
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Italian
[edit]Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar m
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
Related terms
[edit]Manx
[edit]Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar m
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
Mutation
[edit]Manx mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
Madagascar | Vadagascar | unchanged |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Portuguese
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]
- Hyphenation: Ma‧da‧gas‧car
Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar f
- Brazilian Portuguese standard form of Madagáscar.
Spanish
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Proper noun
[edit]Madagascar ?
- Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Arabic
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English proper nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Madagascar
- en:Islands
- en:Countries in Africa
- en:Countries
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan terms with audio links
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan proper nouns
- Catalan masculine nouns
- ca:Madagascar
- ca:Islands
- ca:Countries in Africa
- ca:Countries
- Central Huasteca Nahuatl lemmas
- Central Huasteca Nahuatl proper nouns
- nch:Madagascar
- nch:Islands
- nch:Countries in Africa
- nch:Countries
- Central Nahuatl lemmas
- Central Nahuatl proper nouns
- nhn:Madagascar
- nhn:Islands
- nhn:Countries in Africa
- nhn:Countries
- French 4-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French proper nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Madagascar
- fr:Islands
- fr:Countries in Africa
- fr:Countries
- Italian lemmas
- Italian proper nouns
- Italian masculine nouns
- it:Madagascar
- it:Islands
- it:Countries in Africa
- it:Countries
- Manx lemmas
- Manx proper nouns
- Manx masculine nouns
- gv:Madagascar
- gv:Islands
- gv:Countries in Africa
- gv:Countries
- Portuguese 4-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese proper nouns
- Portuguese feminine nouns
- Brazilian Portuguese forms
- Portuguese terms with varying stress
- Spanish 4-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Spanish/aɾ
- Rhymes:Spanish/aɾ/4 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish proper nouns
- es:Madagascar
- es:Islands
- es:Countries in Africa
- es:Countries