Madagascar

See also: Madagáscar

English

12th Century Tabula Rogeriana, with Gezīra al-Qamar and Gezīra al-Mālāī in the Upper Left-hand Corner

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French Madagascar, from Madageiscar, popularly reputed as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu by Marco Polo's misreading of Arabic. 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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /madəˈɡaskə/, /-ɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mædəˈɡæskɑɹ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Proper noun

Madagascar

2. An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.

Holonyms

• Subsahara

Derived terms

• Madagascan
• Madagascar bean
• Madagascar hissing cockroach
• Madagascar jasmine
• Madagascar plum
• Malagasy

 

Translations

country in Southern Africa

• Afrikaans: Madagaskar
• Amharic: ማዳጋስካር (madagaskar)
• Arabic: مَدَغَشْقَر (ar) f (madaḡašqar)
• Armenian: Մադագասկար (Madagaskar)
• Assamese: মাদাগাস্কাৰ (madagaskar)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܡܲܕܲܓܲܫܩܲܪ f (maddagašqar)
• Azerbaijani: Madaqaskar (az)
• Belarusian: Мадагаска́р m (Madahaskár)
• Bengali: মাদাগাস্কার (bn) (madagaskar)
• Breton: Madagaskar (br)
• Bulgarian: Мадагаска́р m (Madagaskár)
• Burmese: မဒါဂတ်စကား (ma.dagatca.ka:)
• Catalan: Madagascar (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馬達加斯加／马达加斯加 (zh) (Mǎdájiāsījiā)

• Czech: Madagaskar (cs) m
• Danish: Madagaskar (da)
• Dhivehi: މަޑަގަސްކަރަ (maḍagaskara)
• Dutch: Madagaskar (nl)
• Esperanto: Madagaskaro (eo)
• Estonian: Madagaskar (et)
• Finnish: Madagaskar (fi)
• French: Madagascar (fr)
• Galician: Madagascar (gl)
• Georgian: მადაგასკარი (ka) (madagasḳari)
• German: Madagaskar (de)
• Greek: Μαδαγασκάρη (el) f (Madagaskári)
• Hausa: Madagaskar
• Hebrew: מדגסקר (madagaskár)
• Hindi: मेडागास्कर (meḍāgāskar), मैडागास्कर (hi) m (maiḍāgāskar)
• Hungarian: Madagaszkár (hu)
• Icelandic: Madagaskar (is) n
• Ingrian: Madagaskara
• Interlingua: Madagascar
• Italian: Madagascar (it) m
• Japanese: マダガスカル (ja) (Madagasukaru)
• Kamba: Madagaska
• Kazakh: Мадагаскар (kk) (Madagaskar)
• Khmer: ម៉ាដាហ្គាស្ការ (maadaagiəskaa)
• Kikuyu: Madagaska
• Korean: 마다가스카르 (ko) (Madagaseukareu), 마다가스까르 (ko) (Madagaseukkareu) (North Korea)
• Kyrgyz: Мадагаскар (Madagaskar)
• Lao: ມາດາກັດກາ (mā dā kat kā), ມາດາກາສະກາ (mā dā kā sa kā)
• Latin: Madagascaria (la)
• Latvian: Madagaskara f
• Lithuanian: Madagaskaras (lt) m
• Luhya: Madagaska
• Luo: Madagaska
• Macedonian: Мадага́скар m (Madagáskar)
• Malagasy: Madagasikara (mg)
• Malay: Madagaskar
• Manx: Madagascar
• Maori: Marakāhia, Matakahaka
• Meru: Madagaska
• Mongolian: Мадагаскар (Madagaskar)
• Navajo: Mágí Bitseeʼ Noodǫ́zí Bikéyah
• Norman: Madagascar
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Madagaskar (no)

  Nynorsk: Madagaskar (nn)

• Persian: ماداگاسکار (fa) (mâdâgâskâr)
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: Madagascar
• Polish: Madagaskar (pl)
• Portuguese: Madagáscar (pt) m (Portugal), Madagascar (pt) (Brazil)
• Punjabi: ਮਾਦਾਗਾਸਕਰ (pa) m (mādāgāskar)
• Romanian: Madagascar (ro) n
• Russian: Мадагаска́р (ru) (Madagaskár)
• Scots: Madagascar
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Мадагаскар m

  Roman: Madagaskar (sh) m

• Sinhalese: මැඩගස්කරය (mæḍagaskaraya)
• Slovak: Madagaskar m
• Slovene: Madagaskar (sl) m
• Spanish: Madagascar (es)
• Swahili: Bukini (sw), Madagaska
• Swedish: Madagaskar (sv)
• Tagalog: Madagaskar (tl)
• Tajik: Мадагаскар (tg) (Madagaskar)
• Tatar: Мадагаскар (Madağaskar)
• Thai: มาดากัสการ์ (th) (maa-daa-gás-gâa)
• Tibetan: མ་ད་གཱ་སི་ཀར (ma da gā si kar)
• Tigrinya: ማዳጋስካር (madagaskar)
• Turkish: Madagaskar (tr)
• Turkmen: Madagaskar
• Ukrainian: Мадагаска́р (uk) m (Madahaskár)
• Urdu: مڈغاسکر (meḍāġāskar)
• Uyghur: ماداگاسكار (madagaskar)
• Uzbek: Madagaskar (uz)
• Vietnamese: Ma-đa-gát-xca
• Western Panjabi: مڈغاسکر
• Yiddish: מאַדאַגאַסקאַר (madagaskar)
• Yoruba: Madagásíkà

See also

• 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

Madagascar (plural Madagascars)

1. (rare, obsolete) A resident of Madagascar.

   Synonyms: Madagascan, Madagascarian, Malagasy

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [mə.ðə.ɣəsˈkar]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ma.ða.ɣasˈkar]

• Audio (Valencian)

  (file)

Proper noun

Madagascar m

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)

Central Huasteca Nahuatl

Proper noun

Madagascar

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)

Central Nahuatl

Proper noun

Madagascar

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.da.ɡas.kaʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Proper noun

Madagascar m

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)

   Synonym: Grande Île

Derived terms

• porcelaine de Madagascar

Related terms

• malgache
• Malgache

 

Italian

Proper noun

Madagascar m

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)

Related terms

• malgascio

Manx

Proper noun

Madagascar m

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)

Mutation

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

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.da.ɡasˈkaʁ/ [ma.da.ɡasˈkah]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.da.ɡasˈkaʁ/ [ma.da.ɡasˈkah]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ma.da.ɡasˈkaɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ma.da.ɡaʃˈkaʁ/ [ma.da.ɡaʃˈkaχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.da.ɡasˈkaɻ/

• Hyphenation: Ma‧da‧gas‧car

Proper noun

Madagascar f

1. Brazilian Portuguese standard form of Madagáscar.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /madaɡasˈkaɾ/ [ma.ð̞a.ɣ̞asˈkaɾ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: Ma‧da‧gas‧car

Proper noun

Madagascar ?

1. Madagascar (an island and country off the east coast of Africa)