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( Balearic Islands)
The Balearic Islands (Catalan and official[1] Illes Balears; Spanish Islas Baleares) are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, of which the capital city is Palma. The co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Spanish and Catalan (i.e. Mallorquí, Menorquí and Eivissenc, as Catalan is known by its speakers in this territory). The Balearic islands /'be??l??æ??k 'a??l?ndz/ have many names, in many languages. (Catalan "Illes Balears" /'i??z b??e'a?(r)s/, Spanish "Islas Baleares", /'is·las·ba·le'a?·res/, Greek Gymnesiae – G?µ??s?a?, Balliareis - ?a???a?e??, Diod. v. 17, Eustath. ad Dion. 457; Baliareis - ?a??a?e??, Baliarides - ?a??a??de?, Steph. B.; Balearides - ?a?ea??de?, Strabo; Balliarides - ?a???a??de?, Ptol. ii. 6. § 78; Baleariae - ?a?ea??a?, Agathem., Latin Baleares) There are various theories on the origins of the two ancient Greek and Latin names for the islands – Gymnasiae and Baleares. Two survive in classical sources. According to the Lycophron's Alexandra verses, the islands were called Gymnesiae (gymnos - ??µ??? means naked in Greek) because its inhabitants were often nude, probably because of the year-long benevolent climate.
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