الجزائر

See also: الجزاير‎ and الجزایر‎

Arabic

Etymology

The broken plural of جَزِيرَة‎ (jazīra, “island”) has come to be the proper name for Algeria, its capital, and the islands in its bay, as there were once several small islands in the Bay of Algiers. Most of these islands are now connected to the shore or have been removed. الْجَزَائِر‎ (al-jazāʾir) is itself a truncated form of the city's older name of جَزَائِر بَنِي مَزْغَنَّىٰ‎ (jazāʾir banī mazḡannā, “the islands of (the tribe) Ait Mazghanna”), which was used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /al.d͡ʒa.zaː.ʔir/

• Audio

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Proper noun

الْجَزَائِر • (al-jazāʾir) f pl

1. Algiers (the capital city of Algeria)
2. Algeria (a country in North Africa)

Declension

Declension of noun الْجَزَائِر (al-jazāʾir)

Singular	basic singular diptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	—	الْجَزَائِر al-jazāʾir	—
Nominative	—	الْجَزَائِرُ al-jazāʾiru	—
Accusative	—	الْجَزَائِرَ al-jazāʾira	—
Genitive	—	الْجَزَائِرِ al-jazāʾiri	—

Derived terms

• جَزَائِرِيّ‎ (jazāʾiriyy)
• جَزْأَرَة‎ (jazʾara)

Descendants

• → English: Algeria, Algiers
• → Spanish: Argelia
• → Turkish: Cezayir

References

• Wehr, Hans (1979), “جزر”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN