THE JEWELLER’S WINDOW

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29792, 7 April 1962, Page 8

THE JEWELLER’S WINDOW

[Specially written for “The Press" by

ARNOLD WALL)

Professor Arnold Wall, in the present series of articles, discusses the origin of many familiar names, expressions, and phrases. He wishes to make it clear that he cannot undertake to reply personally to readers who may comment on any of them. This article is the twenty-ninth of the series.

The conflicts between rival grammarians have often ended in a draw, but here is a case in which finality, as we say, has been reached; the defeated duellist has completely vanished; nobody now says “CONventicle.” Yet this seems to have been the earlier and for a longish time the only pronunciation. From 1764 to 1791 five of the lexicographers prescribed it, while from 1732 to 1795 eight preferred the stressed-VENT—which we all use now. One of the best authorities, John Walker, conscientiously changed his mmd after, as he says “further enquiry and review of the authorities;” so, in his first edition 1791, he was one of the five backers of the stressed CON—but in his edition of 1795 he reversed his decision. He observed that the prounciation with stress of CON—was chiefly adopted by the poets, “who should not be deprived of their privilege of altering the accents of words to accommodate them to the verse.” Walker, I think, deserves credit for his courage in this case; too often he led a forlorn hope in the defence of some outmoded pronunciation and proved himself a bad prophet, as. for instance, in his idea that “Rome” was irrevocably fixed as “Room,” which I referred to recently in these notes. Break “Brayk” or “breek?” The authorities of the 18th century were not agreed on this point. For example, Sheridan, 1780, made it “brayk,” but Churchill, revising him in 1797, changed over to “breek.” Walker, 1791, branded “breek” as an affectation. I should suppose that Churchill was the last champion of “breek." In English dialects of today “breek” is still common, especially in the northern countries. An

old Yorkshire great-aunt of mine, bom in 1800, always said “breek.” She, by the way, well remembered the announcement of the victory at Waterloo when she was a schoolgirl, 1815, a real “link with the past.” Great “Grait” or “greet?” The letter “r” has been an inveterate disturber of the peace and so it comes about that “break” and “great” are out fit step with most other words spelt with “ea,” such as “beat,” “beach,” “beam” etc. “Great” was a real bone of contention among the old lexicographers. Dr. Johnson, discussing differing pronunciation, told how he had consulted Lord Chesterfield, “the best speaker in the House of Lords,” and Sir William Yonge, “the best speaker in the House of Commons,” with the result that Chesterfield said “grait” and Yonge said “greet” and that only an Irishman would say “grait.” John Walker, 1791, prescribed “grait” and condemned “greet” as, an affectation. He also used a rather quaint argument in favour of “grait” by citing the case of “Alexander the Great” who, he maintained, was always called “the Grait” even by those who otherwise said “greet" because “grait” rhymes so properly with “fate." As usual in many cases the rejected “greet” survives in provincial English dialects, chiefly in the North. My impression is that no authority after 1880 countenanced “greet,” but detailed evidence is lacking. Busy “Busy” which we pronounce “bizzy” is a kind of rogue or rebel detached from the regular community of words spelt with “u.” It has a companion in “bury”

where the “u" stands for “e.” No authority ever proposed to change this habit and say “bewsy” and “bewry,” yet it appears from a comment by John Walker, 1791, that “busy” was actually “bewsy” in Scotland and “bury” was “bewry.” He observes that we laugh at the Scotch for pronouncing “busy” as if written “bewsy” but we ought rather to blush for departing so wantonly from the general rule as to pronounce it as “bizzy.” Now Walker rather puts the cart before the horse; it would be more reasonable to alter the spelling than the pronunciation for the sound was traditional and the spelling anomalous. The use of “u” for the sound of “i” or “y” and “e” was a mark of the Kentish dialect in the Middle Ages and was due to scribes whose native language was French. In old as in modem French “u” means the “thin u” which we have always found so hard to pronounce; and somehow this dialectal spelling got itself established in these two words in the standard language. Formerly a large number of words were spelt in this odd way—“busy” and “bury” alone perpetuate the old habit The surname Bury is, or should be “Bewry” being a word of quite different origin; but the place-name Bury is “Berry” like the verb.