OUR MOTHER TONGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

By PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL

Random Notes and Little Problems

I AM willing to admit that the average Maori has a pleasanter speaking voice than the average white New Zealander, and that the educated Maori is guilty of fewer mispronunciations and vulgarisms, when speaking English, than the average white speaker ; Irut I cannot agree with a correspondent who maintains that a Maori understands the meaning of the words '"yes" and "no," while the Englishman docs not. "You Don't Know? " The critic supports his contention by telling a story about a Maori launchman, the gist of which is that when an intending passenger says to him, "you won't go without me? " the Maori answers "yes," when a white man would have answered "no." It is contended that the Maori's way of answering is the only correct one, when the question is made as a statement in the negative form. My correspondent hafc, T think, lost sight of the fact that both the question and the answer are elliptic —something is "understood." When a question is put in .this form, as a statement, the interrogative force is given by the intonation of the voice; the full question really is, "you won't go willfout me, will you?" and the full answer, "no, 1 won't." Jf the critic is right the Maori's full answer would be, "yes, I won't," which is not, of course, correct under any circumstances. So I must decide that in spite of this ingenious argument English speakers, "highly educated from judges to primer schoolboys," as my friend puts it, do know what "yes" and "noV mean, "Irish Grass" A recent note gave the pronunciation and origin of "paspalmn"; now I have the question of another kind of grass which is well known throughout New Zealand, "florin," also called "red-top" (Agrostis stolonifera). In this country the name is pronounced as "fee-orin." stressed on "lee." But in England it is pronounced just like "firing" without the "g." the New Zealander evincing his usual passion for tho Maori and Latin sound of long "i." Tho word is, in English, well over a 100 years old, and represents the Celtic Irish word "fiorthan," meaning "long coarse grass." This is one of the very few words which have entered into standard English from 1 his source. Any more doubtful grasses? I am asked whether 1 can give any information about the term "Dickin," which is used as a reply to some very

improbable statement. All I can find out about this colloquial flower is that it is Australian, probably not older than the present century, and that it originates from "the dickens," at any rate, that is tiie only suggestion which the invaluable Partridge can make. That "explanation" does not at all satisfy me, but 1 have no other to offer. The same inquirer is nuzzled by "duck-shover" and would like information about it, too. There seems to be no doubt that this term originated in Melbourne about 1870. It was a cabmen's term for one who broke the rank and unfairly .touted for custom, which was regarded as an "unprofessional trick." An example of it quoted by Morris shows that it was in use in New Zealand in 1896. During the Great War it came to be used for one who evaded duty. I\o explanation is offered of the origin of the word ,and one can only conjecture that it meant something very nasty. "Jno" Again I am once more asked why the abbreviated form of John ,is Jno, and I am once more obliged to say that I do not know. As 1 have said on a previous occasion, the experts whom I have consulted confess themselves beaten by it. No known form of John in any language ends in "o," so wo are left guessing. However, as I do not like to disappoint a perfectly good correspondent, 1 will have a shot, carefully safeguarding my reputation, if any, by saying that it is only a shot. In old writings the letter "n," when it canto at the end of a word, was written with tho final stroke turned high up above the line of writing and curled up at the tip, so as to produce something very like a small "o." I have, for instance, a manuscript copy of an old charter made in 1508, in London, in which tho word "{foundation" ends in (his way, tho pen having also travelled on without a break to form the "o" which begins the next word, so that the "n," thus embellished, looks rather like a sketch of a dog seen from the side with his tail held high lip and prettily curled at the tip. If final "n's" were regularlv_ formed in this way the habit of making this conventional flourish may have misled later writers into the form Jno. At some future date 1. may bo able to say how this explanation strikes an expert who has better opportunity than 1 have to make certain researches. This is, of course, a trilling matter, but I would rather spend ' iv time and energy on a small problem of this kind than count u[> the number of adjectives which end "-clPns." as 1 have recently been in- j vited to do.