🚀 go-pugleaf

cie96sdc@student2.lth.se (Stephane Di Cesare) writes:

|>  On 25 Jan 1998 22:52:20 +0100, kanze@gabi-soft.fr (J. Kanze) wrote:
|>  
|>  >Well, most of them are certainly less deep than any of the alpine
|>  >lakes:-).  (I'm not sure about the Etang de Berre, though.)  My Petit
|>  >Robert says "generallement moins vaste, moins profond qu'un lac."  (Note
|>  >the "generallement".)
|>  
|>  I think the Etang de Vaccares is actually the second largest lake in
|>  France...
|>  They are probably not very deep, as they are close to the sea.
|>  
|>  >Two possibilities (just guessing): one is that this usage might be
|>  >regional (southern France), and the other is that the bodies of water in
|>  >question are very recent, and originally were only the size of a pond.
|>  
|>  Being from the area, I don't think it is a regional usage (at least
|>  nowadays).
|>  Concerning the Etang de Thau, it is artificial, it is a consequence of
|>  linking Sete to land under Louis XIV. Sete was an island before. It is
|>  in fact the part of the sea which is inside land.

Yes.  In the case of coastal "etang", I would probably use the word
lagune in English, but certainly not pond.  I've always associated the
word with stagner (English stagnate), which would associate it with
water that wasn't moving: a pond as opposed to a river, but a lagune as
opposed to a sea with tides (except that the Mediteranean doesn't have
tides, at least to speak of).

Le Petit Robert also mentions that it has a "fond etanche".

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James Kanze    +33 (0)1 39 23 84 71    mailto: kanze@gabi-soft.fr
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