4 ms·
I think part of this is down to a failure of the English language around the word ‘lake’. If we had a word for “inland freshwater sea” then we would be able to
by tleilaxu 4y ago
I think part of this is down to a failure of the English language around the word ‘lake’.
If we had a word for “inland freshwater sea” then we would be able to distinguish between a lake and a _lake_. The best we can do right now is add “great” preceding it!
- rcme 4y agoThe surface area of Lake Bakal isn’t even that large. It’s just really deep.
- ithinkso 4y agoThere is a Caspian sea in Asia, which is a lake to make it more clear. In the end, the disctinction based on size is a wonky one and makes no sense in the long run so I don't mind having large lakes that are bigger than some seas
- dmurray 4y agoEnglish doesn't do that badly here. German and some other European languages use the same word for a 100 metre wide lake as for a sea stretching a thousand kilometers, like the North Sea.
- eliaspro 4y agoIn German it's a bit complicated: - die See (fem.), alt. das Meer (neutr.) - the sea (a saltwater ocean) - der See (masc.) - the lake (an inland freshwater lake) But then again, "das Meer" is sometimes used for freshwater lakes when connotated with some context, e.g. "das Schwäbische Meer" as an alternative name for "Lake Constance".
- ianburrell 4y agofreshsea or superlake?