Talk:Kattegat

Sea or a strait?

I always thought that Kattegatt is a strait, not a sea. I think this should be changed.

Norum (talk) 05:39, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I always thought that Kattegat is a sea, not a strait. I think this should be reflected in the article. I am not joking.

RhinoMind (talk) 19:27, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

I guess the page needs sourced info on this particular subject. RhinoMind (talk) 19:27, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Kattegat is a fairway which is named after a invisible dangerous strait. Jesper7 (talk) 22:10, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

@Jesper7 Sources please. RhinoMind (talk) 15:20, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Germany?

The lead sentence:

"The Kattegat [...] is a sea area bounded by Jutland (Denmark and extreme north Germany), and Scania, Halland and Bohuslän (Sweden)."

gives the impression that the Kattegat is bounded in part by "extreme north Germany," but the accompanying map clearly shows Germany far south of this area, bounding the Baltic, but not the Kattegat. Although including extreme north Germany in a definition of Jutland is correct, this article is about the Kattegat, not Jutland. Germany appears to have no relevance to the Kattegat and should be removed from this sentence to avoid confusion.

The corresponding sentence in the article on the Skagerrak says:

"The Skagerrak is a strait running between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark [...]."

which gives the relevant information regarding Jutland without the confusing mention of Germany. I'm going to change this article to say "the Jutland peninsula of Denmark" as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jim10701 (talk • contribs) 19:20, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

...even more costly

There is a clarify-tag up in the "Ecological collapse" paragraph. "...even more costly" refers primarily to the damages to the fishing industry in Kattegat, due to the heavy eutrophication. The damages have been estimated in the billions (DKr). I will try to find and put up proper refs, hopefully in English.

Btw. The whole page needs proper refs and in-line citations.

RhinoMind (talk) 19:40, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

I have now found and inserted an English source that describes the problem. Hopefully I will find a source that gives quantitative data on the economical damages. The damages to the industry is not even limited to the economy of the industry, is has also dramatically affected the organizational and socio-economical structure of the Danish fishing industry, with a very strong monopolization (an extreme concentration of the fleet and economy on very few hands). Hopefully I will bring proper sources, but please join in to finish the job. Its a lesson for other countries. RhinoMind (talk) 11:54, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Etymology

... the name derives from the Dutch words katte (cat's) and gat (hole, gate).

The Large Danish Encyclopaedia only translates the obvious contemporary Dutch words "Kat" (cat, domestic animal) and "gat" (hole). Thus it litteraly translates as: "hole for the cat to pass through", meaning an ordinary "cat flap".
"Katte" is not just the genitive of "kat", but has a wide range of historical meanings, e.g. in Brabantic, "katte" means "ramparts", hence the many "Kattestraten" (Wall Streets) at the edge of historical city centres.
The more logical Frisian or Low Saxon etymology according to R. Van Der Meulen, "Over den Nederlandschen oorsprong der aardrijkskundige namen Skagerrak en Kattegat", in Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde. vol. 38, (1919) p. 113—132 develops as follows:

1. A hole where the cat crawls through (in the walls or doors of houses, warehouses, etc.).
2. A narrow passage through which only the cat can pass, e.g. in application on the narrow space between two houses.
3. A narrow waterway, e.g. applied to a canal, slate or rake.
4. A difficult, dangerous, foul, dirty water.

--Wipala (talk) 21:10, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

• Isn't the question rather why this term should have Dutch roots in the first place? The Netherlands aren't particularly close to this strait, and the Scandinavian languages have "katt" (cat) and "gat" (old Norse for "opening, passage"). If there's a Dutch origin, this would require exact documentation, that is, evidence that the term was used in Dutch long before it appeared in the Scandinavian and other languages. 2601:185:300:72F0:247F:5FC9:D376:E25A (talk) 14:57, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

References

A

A 2601:648:8384:C1D0:848D:7543:3067:D2CD (talk) 07:56, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Southern extent

The section Kattegat#Extent in this article appears rather misleading, as it includes the extent of the belts. The Danish enclopedia (largely) defines the southern extent of Kattegat as along the northern coasts of Funen and Zealand: https://denstoredanske.lex.dk/Kattegat. Kattegat#Extent should be changed to define the extent of Kattegat only. Hjart (talk) 20:09, 10 February 2023 (UTC)