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Loch

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geology and geophysics

   View across Loch Lomond, towards Ben Lomond.
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   View across Loch Lomond, towards Ben Lomond.

   A loch (usually Lough as a name element outside Scotland) is a body of
   water which is either:
     * a lake or;
     * a sea inlet, which may be also a firth, fjord, estuary or bay.

   Sea-inlet lochs are often called sea lochs.

   This name for a body of water is Gaelic in origin and is applied to
   most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north of
   Scotland. For a list, see List of Scottish lochs.

   As a name element Loch has become Lough for many bodies of water in
   Ireland and for some in the north of England. However, reference to
   these as lochs or loughs (lower case initial), rather than as lakes,
   inlets and so on, is unusual. For lists, see List of Irish loughs and
   List of English loughs.

   Although there is no strict size definition, a small loch is often
   known as a lochan (so spelled also in Scottish Gaelic; in Irish it is
   spelled lochán).

   Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness, although there are
   other large examples such as Loch Awe, Loch Lomond and Loch Tay.

   Examples of sea lochs in Scotland include Loch Long, Loch Fyne, Loch
   Linnhe, Loch Eriboll.

   Some new reservoirs for hydroelectric schemes have been given names
   faithful to the names for natural bodies of water - for example: the
   Loch Sloy scheme, and Lochs Laggan and Treig (which form part of the
   Lochaber hydroelectric scheme near Fort William). Other expanses are
   simply called reservoirs, eg: Blackwater Reservoir above Kinlochleven.

   Scotland has only one natural water body actually called a lake, the
   Lake of Menteith, an Anglicisation of the Scots Laich o Menteith
   meaning a "low-lying bit of land in Menteith", and applied to the loch
   there because of the similarity of the sounds of the words laich and
   lake. The Lake of the Hirsel is a reservoir. Most Scots will be quick
   to correct anyone who refers to "lochs" as "lakes".

   The word "loch" is used as a shibboleth to identify natives of England,
   because the hard "ch" sound is used in Scotland whereas the English
   pronounce the word like "lock".

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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