Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time the Comoros and a look at some of its place names and starting with the capital.
Moroni is, in the local Comorian tongue, ‘in the heart of the fire’ and refers to its location at the foot of the active volcano mount Karthala.
Mayotte is a French corruption of the original name of Maore or the Arabic Mawuti, this speaking of ‘the island of death’ – Comorian, French and Arabic remain the official languages.
Comoros is from the Arabic meaning ‘moon’.
Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.
No comments:
Post a Comment