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-jazāʔir) is itself a truncated form of the city's older name of جَزَائِر بَنِي مَزْغَنَّىٰ (jazāʔir 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:

  (file)

Proper noun

الْجَزَائِر • (al-jazāʔir) f pl

1. Algiers (the capital city of Algeria)

   Synonym: مَدِينَة الْجَزَائِر (madīna(t) al-jazāʔir)‎

2. Algeria (a country in North Africa)

Declension

Declension of noun الْجَزَائِر (al-jazāʔir)

Singular	basic singular diptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	—	الْجَزَائِر al-jazāʔir	—
Nominative	—	الْجَزَائِرُ al-jazāʔiru	—
Accusative	—	الْجَزَائِرَ al-jazāʔira	—
Genitive	—	الْجَزَائِرِ al-jazāʔiri	—

Derived terms

• جَزَائِرِيّ (jazāʔiriyy)
• جَزْأَرَة (jazʔara)

Descendants

• → Azerbaijani: Əlcəzair
• → English: Algeria, Algiers
• → Spanish: Argelia
• → Indonesian: Aljazair
• → 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