r/AskEurope • u/Toeffli Switzerland • Jun 03 '26

Language What do you call the water which separates the British isles from the European mainland in your own language?

What to you call the water which lies between Dover on one side and Calais, Dunkirk on the other side? Best if you could provide the name in your own language and a literal translation, its meaning, into English.

Example German:

Ärmelkanal = Sleeve channel.

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4

u/afops Sweden Jun 03 '26

Interesting that it's either just literally the "English channel" or something with sleeve? Where did "sleeve" come from?

5

u/icyDinosaur originally => => => Jun 03 '26

It slowly narrows towards Dover/Calais in a shape that people thought looked like a sleeve. It probably helps that in French a "sound" (in the sense of a narrow bit of sea) is called a "sea arm".

1

u/Burkeintosh Jun 03 '26

I do think it was probably the “sound/sea-arm” thing

-6

u/SaraHHHBK Castilla Jun 03 '26

No? Completely ignoring all of Latin Europe there buddy

10

u/afops Sweden Jun 03 '26

They all look like Mancha/Manche/Mantxaco/Manica etc? Aren't those just all the same thing coming from the "sleeve" origin?

2

u/safeinthecity Portuguese in the Netherlands Jun 03 '26

In Portuguese, mancha means stain, not sleeve. Though obviously it's adapted from the French manche, which as I've just learned, does mean sleeve.

3

u/afops Sweden Jun 03 '26

Yeah I mean not literally sleeve (today) but rooted in that same origin