Crossword Genius

Spooner's pronounced Scottish river and lake (4,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dead sea

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'lake' is the definition.
(I know that Dead Sea is a lake)

'spooner's pronounced scottish river' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'river' could be 'ea' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ea' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dead sea that I've seen before include "Didn't win; TV series" , "Lake of Jordan/Israel" , "River Jordan flows into this" , "At 400 m below seal level, the world's lowest point" , "large salt lake" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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