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The Caribbean ( or ; (スペイン語:Caribe); ; Caribbean Hindustani: कैरिबियन (Kairibiyana); (フランス語:Caraïbe) or more commonly ''Antilles'') is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean), and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. (See the list.) These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean islands, consisting of the Greater Antilles on the north and the Lesser Antilles on the south and east (including the Leeward Antilles), are part of the somewhat larger West Indies grouping, which also includes the Lucayan Archipelago (comprising The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands) north of the Greater Antilles and Caribbean Sea. In a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana are also included. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America〔( ''Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49) )'', United Nations Statistics Division〕〔(North America Atlas ) National Geographic〕〔("North America" ) ''Atlas of Canada''〕〔("North America" ). ''Britannica Concise Encyclopedia''; "... associated with the continent is Greenland, the largest island in the world, and such offshore groups as the Arctic Archipelago, the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the Aleutian Islands."〕〔( ''The World: Geographic Overview )'', The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency; "North America is commonly understood to include the island of Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend south all the way to the Isthmus of Panama."〕 and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15, 1954, to October 10, 2010 there was a country known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states, all of which were Dutch dependencies.〔(The Netherlands Antilles: The joy of six ), The Economist Magazine, April 29, 2010〕 While from January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, there was also a short-lived country called the Federation of the West Indies composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations. ==Etymology and pronunciation== The region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" are , with the primary accent on the third syllable, and , with the accent on the second. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years.〔In the early 20th century, only the pronunciation with the primary stress on the first syllable was considered correct, according to Frank Horace Vizetelly, ''A Desk-Book of Twenty-five Thousand Words Frequently Mispronounced'' (Funk and Wagnalls, 1917), p. 233.〕 It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer while North American speakers more typically use , although not all sources agree.〔See, e.g., Elster, ''supra''.〕 Usage is split within Caribbean English itself. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Caribbean」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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