The Danish straits are the

straits A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean chan ...

connecting the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

to the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

through the

Kattegat The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...

and

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

. Historically, the Danish straits were internal waterways of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

; however, following territorial losses,

Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; da, Øresund ; sv, Öresund ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width v ...

and

Fehmarn Belt Fehmarn Belt (), (, former spelling ''Femer Bælt''; ) is a strait connecting the Bay of Kiel and the Bay of Mecklenburg in the western part of the Baltic Sea between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland. Ferries ...

are now shared with Sweden and Germany, while the

Great Belt The Great Belt ( da, Storebælt, ) is a strait between the major islands of Zealand (''Sjælland'') and Funen (''Fyn'') in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits. Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great B ...

and the

Little Belt The Little Belt (, ) is a strait between the island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits that drain and connect the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat strait, which drains west to the North Sea and Atla ...

have remained Danish

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...

. The

Copenhagen Convention of 1857 The Copenhagen Convention, which came into force on 14 March 1857, is a maritime treaty governing transit passage through the Danish straits. Provisions It has abolished the Sound Dues and all Danish straits have been made international waterways ...

made all the Danish straits open to commercial shipping. The straits have generally been regarded as an

international waterway The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

Toponymy and geography

Five straits are named 'belt' (Danish: ''bælt''), the only ones in the world. Several other straits are named 'sound' (Danish, Swedish and German: ''sund''). Where an island is situated between a "belt" and a "sound", typically the broader strait is called "belt" and the narrower one is the "sound": * Als: ** separated from the continent by ''Alssund'' ** separated from

Fyn Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as ...

by the southern part of the ''Little Belt'', an area referred to in German (but not Danish) as ''Alsenbelt'' *

Fehmarn Fehmarn (, da, Femern; from Old Wagrian Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, after Rüg ...

** separated from the continent by ''Fehmarnsund'', also ''Femersund'' ** separated from

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of Region Sjælland (Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2022, it has 57,618 inhabitant ...

by ''Fehmarnbelt'' (German) / ''Femerbelt'' ( Platt) / ''Femernbælt'' (former spelling: Femer Bælt) *

Langeland Langeland (, ) is a Danish island located between the Great Belt and Bay of Kiel. The island measures 285 km2 (c. 110 square miles) and, as of 1 January 2018, has a population of 12,446.

: ** separated from

Tåsinge Tåsinge () is a Danish island immediately south of Funen, opposite and facing Svendborg, divided from Funen by Svendborgsund.See detailed Denmark roadmap in References section. The island covers an area of circa . It is part of the South Funen A ...

Island by ''Siø Sund'' (''Tåsinge'' itself is separated from ''Fyn'' by ''Svendborg Sund'') ** separated from ''Lolland'' by ''Langelandsbælt'', the southern part of ''Great Belt'' *

: ** separated from Falster Island by ''Guldborgsund'' (''Falster'' itself is separated from ''Zealand'' by

Storstrømmen Storstrømmen (; lit. ''The Great Stream'') is a strait in Denmark separating the island Falster from the island Zealand. Geography Its maximum depth is approximately and the length is around . Smålandsfarvandet sound is situated to the w ...

Strait) ** separated from ''Langeland'' by ''Langelandsbælt'' ** separated from ''Fehmarn'' by ''Femernbælt'', which is the common continuation of Great Belt–Langelandsbælt and Little Belt *

Zealand Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020. It is the 1 ...

(Danish: Sjælland) ** separated from

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

n peninsula of the continent by ''

'' (Danish) / ''Öresund'' (Swedish) ** separated from ''Fyn'' Island by the

Etymology of "sound" / "sund"

The Germanic word "sound" has the same root as the verb ''to sunder'' in the meaning of "to separate". The

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

form of that verb is ''sundr''. In Norway hundreds of narrow straits separating islands and combining

fjords In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icela ...

or outer parts of fjords are named "Sund". Another explanation derives "sound" from an ancient verb "sund" in the meaning of to swim. That way a ''sound'' is a ''swimmable strait''. In the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countr ...

any strait is called "sund". The Germanic word "sound" is not related to the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

originated word "sound", which has developed from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''sonus''.

References

Denmark 1:500,000 – official map for download

Norwegian dictionary: ''sund''

Norwegian dictionary: ''sundre''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Danish Straits Baltic Sea Kattegat Bodies of water of the North Sea International straits Straits of Sweden Straits of Germany Straits of the Atlantic Ocean

Toponymy and geography

Etymology of "sound" / "sund"

See also

References