page_title: English Channel
section_title: Name
hierarchical_section_title: English Channel / Name
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Carte de la Manche avec la situation des caps principaux, des îles et des villes importantes. Projection de Mercator, données de 2005. Fond de carte provenant de [www.aquarius.geomar.de www.aquarius.geomar.de] (défunt). English: Channel map with main capes, islands and cities. Projection of Mercator, data as of 2005. Map background from [www.aquarius.geomar.de www.aquarius.geomar.de] (defunct).
context_page_description: The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France and links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world.
  It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 34 km in the Strait of Dover. It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km².
context_section_description: Known colloquially to the English as the ‘Narrow Sea’, until the 18th century, the English Channel had no fixed name either in English or in French. It was never defined as a political border, and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation. Before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as "Gaulish" (Gallicum in Latin) and French scholars as "British" or "English". The name "English Channel" has been widely used since the early 18th century, possibly originating from the designation Engelse Kanaal in Dutch sea maps from the 16th century onwards. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal (with no reference to the word "English"). Later, it has also been known as the "British Channel" or the "British Sea". It was called Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, which gives the alternative name of canalites Anglie—possibly the first recorded use of the "Channel" designation. The Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ ("South Sea") as opposed to Norð-sǣ ("North Sea" = Bristol Channel). The common word channel was first recorded in Middle English in the 13th century and was borrowed from Old French chanel, variant form of chenel "canal".
  The French name la Manche has been used since at least the 17th century. The name is usually said to refer to the Channel's sleeve (French: la manche) shape. Folk etymology has derived it from a Celtic word meaning channel that is also the source of the name for the Minch in Scotland, but this name is not attested before the 17th century, and French and British sources of that time are perfectly clear about its etymology.  The name in French has been directly adapted in other Romance languages (Spanish: Canal de La Mancha, Portuguese: Canal da Mancha, Italian: La Manica). The name in Breton (Mor Breizh) means "Breton Sea", and its Cornish name (Mor Bretannek) means "British Sea".
caption: Map with French nomenclature
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