- For other uses of dike or dyke (and combining forms) see Dyke.
A dike (or dyke) is an artificial earthen wall, constructed as a defense or as a boundary. It is also known in American English (notably in the Midwest) as a levee, from the French word levée (elevated). Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. Dike (constructionEmbankmentA levee, levée, dike (or dyke) embankment, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial The best known form of dike is a construction built along the edge of a body of water, to prevent it from flooding onto an adjacent lowland. A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land a deluge Dikes can be mainly found along the sea, where dunes are not strong enough, along rivers for protection against high-floods, along lakes or along polders. Furthermore, dikes have been built for the purpose of empoldering, or as a boundary for an inundation area. A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity meaning it has no connection with The latter can be a controlled inundation by the military or a measure to prevent inundation of a larger area surrounded by dikes. Dikes have also been built as field boundaries and as military defences. Fortifications are Military Constructions and Buildings designed for defense in Warfare Humans have constructed defensive works for More on this type of dike can be found in the article on dry-stone walls. Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together
Dikes can be permanent earthworks or emergency constructions (often of sandbags) built hastily in a flood emergency. Earthworks are engineering works created through the moving of massive quantities of Soil or unformed rock. A sandbag (floodbag is a sack made of burlap, polypropylene or other materials that is filled with Sand or Soil and used for such purposes as flood When such an emergency bank is added on top of an existing dike it is known as a cradge.
Dikes were first constructed in the Indus Valley Civilization (in Pakistan and North India from circa 2600 BC) on which the agrarian life of the Harappan peoples depended. The Indus Valley Civilization (Mature period 2600&ndash1900 BCE abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus River basin Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Geography Northern India lies mainly on continental India and a very small part of it lies on the Indian peninsula [1]
The modern word dike is most probably derived from the Dutch word "dijk", where the construction of dikes is well attested since the 12th century. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname The 126 km long Westfriese Omringdijk, for instance, was completed by 1250, and was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Westfriese Omringdijk (West-Frisian Circular Dyke is a dyke system that protected the region of Westflinge, part of the historical region of West-Frisia. The Roman chronicler Tacitus however mentions the fact that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land and to protect their retreat (AD 70). Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. The Batavians ( Latin Batavi) were a Germanic tribe originally part of the Chatti, reported by Tacitus to [2] The Dutch word dijk meant originally both the trench or the bank. The word is closely related to the English verb to dig (EWN).
In Anglo-Saxon, the word dic already existed and was pronounced with a hard c in northern England and as ditch in the south. Similar to Dutch, the English origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name may be given to either the excavation or the bank. Thus Offa's Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench though it once had raised banks as well. Offa's Dyke (Clawdd Offa is a massive linear earthwork, roughly following some of the current border between England and Wales. The Car Dyke was and to large extent still is an eighty-five mile (140 kilometre long ditch which runs along the western edge of The Fens in eastern England. In the midlands and north of England, a dike is what a ditch is in the south, a property boundary marker or small drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a running dike as in Rippingale Running Dike, which leads water from the catchwater drain, Car Dyke, to the South Forty Foot Drain in Lincolnshire (TF1427). A Catchwater Drain is a land drain a ditch cut across the fall of the land typically just above the level of low-lying level ground such as The Fens of eastern England Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. The Weir Dike is a soak dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty and alongside the River Glen. The term Soak dike is used in The Fens of eastern England to mean a ditch or drain running parallel with an embankment for the purpose of taking any water that soaks Bourne is a Market town on the western edge of the Fens, in southern Lincolnshire, England. Twenty is a small somewhat remote hamlet, 4 miles (6 km east of the market town of Bourne, (between Bourne and Spalding) in Lincolnshire The River Glen is a River in Lincolnshire, England with a short stretch passing through Rutland near Essendine.
Dikes are very common on the flatlands bordering the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Canada. Tides Folklore in the Mi'kmaq First Nation claims that the tides in the Bay of Fundy are caused by a giant whale splashing in the water New Brunswick ( French: Nouveau-Brunswick /nuvobʁɔnzwik/ is one of Canada 's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The Acadians who settled the area can be credited with construction of most of the dikes in the area, created for the purpose of farming the fertile tidal flatlands. This article is about the Acadian people and culture The Acadians (Acadiens are the descendants of the seventeenth-century French These dikes are referred to as "aboiteau".
A dike made from stones laid in horizontal rows with a bed of thin turf between each of them is known as a spetchel.
Dike can also mean a pond in the same way as Australians use the word dam. However, this is more likely in the several other languages which use obviously related words. Frisian is one of them. The Frisians who settled in England with the Angles and Saxons form a linguistic link with Dutch dating from well before the 12th century. Frisia ( West Frisian: Fryslân; North Frisian: Fraschlönj, Freesklöön, Freeskluin, Fresklun, and See the stories of Saints Boniface and Wulfram. Saint Boniface ( Latin: Bonifacius c 672 – June 5, 754) the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid or Wynfrith at Saint Wulfram of Fontenelle or Saint Wulfram of Sens (also Vuilfran, Wulfrann, Wolfran, Latin: Wulframnus, French
In April 2006, South Korea completed the Saemangeum Seawall, displacing the Afsluitdijk as the longest man-made dike in the world. South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː The Saemangeum Seawall, located on the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula, is the world's longest man-made dyke, measuring 33 kilometres The Afsluitdijk ( English: Closure Dike Frisian: Ofslútdyk is a major dike in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and
Footnotes
- ^ http://history-world.org/indus_valley.htm The Indus Valley. Accessed June 11, 2006
- ^ Tacitus Histories V 19
References
- Ordnance Survey Pathfinder 856 (1:25 000 Sheet TF12)
- Oxford English Dictionary ISBN 0-19-861212-5
- EWN : Etymologisch Woordenboek v/h Nederlands 2004
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Ordnance Survey (OS is an Executive agency of the United Kingdom government The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
External links and references
- Levees.Org (non-profit based in New Orleans)
- Richmond's Dyke system
- DeltaWorks.Org Flood protecting dams, dikes and barriers project in the Netherlands
- Dictionary of Archaic and obsolete phrases
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