This came up in a trivia contest last night, What is the official name of the tunnel under the English channel between England and France? Is the name different in France, or is it the same but in French?
Posts: 16984 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
As far as I could find, it is officially the Channel Tunnel in English and le tunnel sous la Manche in French (which means the tunnel under the English Channel, if my atrophied French can be trusted).
Correct. For a while before the thing was built the English did try Chunnel but that is both ugly and too-contrived a portmanteau word, probably the invention of some ad-man. The name 'Chunnel' never gained much currency and was obsolete long ago (except, apparently, in American trivia quizzes as is the way with trivia ) With the brevity that marks English it is indeed the Channel Tunnel and with the descriptive complications of French it is indeed 'le tunnel sous la Manche'. Both sides call it the/le tunnel in everyday speech: the full name is rarely used by natives. Over here we just 'take the tunnel'
Eurotunnel might have served but that name was taken by the company that runs it.
PS La Manche means 'the sleeve', which is an apt description of the shape and form of the Channel (we don't talk of the 'English Channel' : it's always just 'the Channel')
We were told that the official name was "Chunnel", which I knew to be wrong. However, I thought the official name was something longer, possibly including the cities at the ends of the tunnel. In any case, we answered "Chunnel" because we a) couldn't come up with anything better and b) weren't sure that the MC had the right answer.
Posts: 16984 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
Chunnel seems destined to be what Americans think it is now called. A quick search shows American sites still calling it that. We have enough difficulty as it is with well-meaning Americans attempting to speak 'native' and calling our beer 'ale' and our policemen 'bobbies' (and many another: they should never attempt 'rhyming slang')
(They also , naturally, call the tube the 'subway' :a subway in London is an underground corridor for pedestrians to cross the road safely. So Americans ask where the subway is and get directed to the street side stairs and not the underground )
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