THE JEWELLER’S WINDOW Murder in the Garden

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29994, 1 December 1962, Page 8

THE JEWELLER’S WINDOW Murder in the Garden

[Specially Written for “The Press” by

ARNOLD WALL

TJARDENERS, both profes- " sional and amateur, commit their own special brand of crime when handling the names of plants and trees. In some cases the blunder is an old one and is established as the standard form. Thus “anEMone,” as we all say it, ought really to be “aneMOne” stressed on the third syllable, “ERica" ought to be “erEEka,” “oxALis” ought to be “OXalis.”

But all these three are permanently malformed. In a different class are the names which are too often popularly mutilated. The “nerine” lily should have three syllables; it more commonly is given two as "nereen.” (Compare “Ireen.”) “Bugloss” should be “bewgloss” not “buggloss.” “Cotoneaster” should be "co-to-nee-AST-er” in five syllables, not "cottonEEster” as we so often hear it. “Olearia" has been unlucky. It is often treated as if it had been named in honour of some botanist “O'Leary,” as “O-LEER-ia” instead of the five-syllabled “O-li-AIR-i-a.” “Clematis” after a long period of hesitation and controversy, is now, according to the best authorities, “CLEMaiis,” not “cleMAYtis.”

"Hydrangea,” is another unfortunate; it is sometimes given two syllables—“Hydraynj” and sometimes four—“Hyderaynja”; it should have three—“Hydraynja." The pretty native “Celmisia” is quite often pronounced as if spell "Celmesia.” I have rarely heard it pronounced correctly. "Kowhai” is rarely, if ever, given the proper sound of the -wh-; it becomes “Kowai.” No authority permits ''cyclamen” with a long “y” as in "cycle.” though this is often to be heard in New Zealand, the “cycl” should be as in “bicycle." As for the unlucky “gladiolus,” the pundits being all at loggerheads, no charge of murder will lie (as the lawyers say) whichever of the four current pronunciations you fancy. “Zee” We call it “zed,” the Americans call it “zee"; we have had other names for it—“ezod,” “uzzard" and “zad.” In Old English and French it was used for the sound of “ts,” and this accounts for “assets,” the old form of French “assez” and this again accounts for the false singular “asset”; and we have it in “Fitz” for the French “fils,” formerly “fiz.” Because it resembled in form the Anglo-Saxon letter “yoch” for g the medieval writers and the Scottish printers, in early days, confused the two letters so that words containing "g” came to be written with “z” and we get names like Menzies and Dalziel. now pronounced with “z” but more properly with “g.” And in 18th century printing of old ballads we have “z" not only for the old “g" but also for “y” which also resembles the old “yoch." As for the American “zee,” this form was formerly known in England from 1677 and stands for the flat or voiced sound corresponding to the sharp “s" or “c” just as “b” does to “p.” and “d” to “t” so that “zee” and "cee" make the usual pair. “Eeet” Would you believe it? This is a surname. It was much discussed in "Country Life” some years ago. but no satisfactory explanation of its origin or of its pronunciation

was forthcoming. It appears upon a gravestone (or gravestones) in the churchyard of a parish in, I think, Northamptonshire. It is not a mere freak spelling by some illiterate stonemason, for it appears also in the same spelling in the parish register; no people bearing the name can be traced now. I shall attempt the explanation of both points. I take it to be an alternative spelling of the word “ait” or "eyot” for a small island, especially in a river. In Anglo-Saxon it was “iggath,” "iggeoth” and in modern times it has been spelt “ait.” "eyot” and "eyet.” It would be pronounced “ee-it” like “howbeit” without the “howb,” but it looks as if it would be like “eat” with the “e” greatly prolonged. One can understand how puzzling it would be to spell this name, for the second syllable would probably be hardly a clear “i” or "e” but rather obscure. We have double letters —“e,” "o” and “u,” but this is “treble-e.” If you were allowed to say “zoo-ology” as many people do, you would have to use a "treble-o” but "zoo-ology” is non-U. isn’t it? The correct way is “zo-ology” with the first "o” long.

Mars Rocket Russia's Mars rocket. Mars I, was about 5,578,125 miles from earth with its equipment working normally, Moscow Radio said today.—Moscow, November 28.