OUR MOTHER TONGUE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 5

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

RANDOM NOTES By Professor Arnold Wall. VIII PRONUNCIATIONS IN QUESTION. ; “ Debris.” Pronounced “ debree,” with the stress on the first syllable. The word is hardly Anglicised yet and probably never will be, as its form is so peculiarly French. “ Privacy.” —Both the long “ i ” as in “ private ” and the short, as in “ privet ” are permitted by authorities, though the long sound is reckoned more correct. “ Robot.” —This is sounded “ rowbott,” with long o in the first syllable, as in “robe.” This seems likely to remain the standard pronunciation as long as the word continues in use. It is a mistake to keep the “ t ” silent as if it were French. “ Grosvenor.” — Pronounced “ Grovener ” in two syllables. “ Autogyro.” —Apparently the “g ” must be hard in this recent word, as it is in “gyroscope” and “gyrostat,” not soft as in “gyrate” and “gyromancy.” 1 “ Anaesthetist.” —I was surprised to learn from a correspondent that this word is sometimes pronounced in hospitals without the “ s ” before the “ th.” The “s ” must, of course, be sounded, as in “ aesthetic ” and the other words of the group from the Greek “ aisthesis, ’ “ perception.” “ Lingerie.”—l am asked about this, but wonder if it is ever pronounced at all. At any rate it is not in the male vocabulary. If it had been adopted long ago it would now be Anglicised and pronounced like “gingery”; but as it is, if it must be used in speech, it must either be straight-out French with the vowel nasalised and the “ n ” not otherwise sounded (which is only possible for speakers of French), or the usual compromise which would be like “ tangerine ■’ without the “-ne.” As for me, I shall keep silent on the subject. “ Controversy.”—This is correctly stressed on the first and third syllables, like “contradiction.” One occasionally hears it stressed on the “ trov,” which is quite wrong. The old pronunciation is indicated by Shakespeare's line: “And stemming it with hearts of controversy,” where the rhythm requires the stressing of first and third. “ Deficit.” —The stress must be on the .first syllable, but this syllable is allowed by authority to be either long as in “detail,” or short, as in “delicate”; the long sound is considered the better. On no account should the stress be on “ fie.” •* Laboratory.”—Authorities allow both the current pronunciations, with the stress on either the first or the second syllables. Strictly the stress should be on the first, but this is so awkward, with four unstressed syllables to follow, that the other cannot well be banned. “ Veterinary ” is a parallel case, and there is every excuse for the popular shortening of these words to “ lab ” and “ vet.” “ Decadent.”—This ought to be stressed upon the first syllable, like "delicate,” and I should r#t myself allow the stress on the “cad” to be correct, though one authority at least seems to admit it. SOME SURNAMES. I have been asked for explanations of the following: — Hallett.—Diminutive of Hal for Henry, to be compared with Collelt, from Nicholas; Gillett, from Gilbert, Giles or William (Guillaume). Lainchbury. —I am very doubtful about this name. The most probable origin for Lainch seem to be Linch or. Lynch, the Anglo-Saxon word for “ hill ” which remains, in its northern form, in the golf “ links,” for sandhills. The oldest spelling, which is not of course available, would be the only certain guide in such a case. There are no English words in “ ainch.” The second syllable, -“ bury,” means “ town,” and the name is evidently a place name. Hardcastle. —This is also a problem. It is, of course, the name of a particular fortress. “ Hard- ” may be the common adjective and the name would mean a very strong fortress, difficult to take; or else it took its name from the owner, Hard, Hardy (strong or brave). It is also quite probable that Hard is for Howard, Haward, etc., which stand for Hereward, the famous Anglo-Saxon name meaning “ leader of an army.” Harden, about which I am also asked, is for Ha warden (Cheshire), thus pronounced and meaning the “ dene ” or “ valley ” of Haward. Crane. —This is the name of the bird, given as a nickname. Nearly all the common birds of England appear thus as names—Finch, Sparrow, Crowe, Dove, etc. These names were given for different reasons —personal resemblance, personal character or occurrence as the owner's inn or shop sign. Some of them are not so easily to be identified —such as Ruddock (robin), Speight (woodpecker), Pobjoy, etc., for Popinjay (parrot) and Poe, the peacock, which was used,' in its old form, pa, as a nickname for a dandy by the old Norsemen a thousand years ago. Some people, from motives of (shall we say?) delicacy, pronounce this name Poey: There was an old poet named Poey, Who injured his foot with a hoey, When they said, “Does it hurt?” He replied, “ That’s a cert. 0 my toey, my toey, O woey! ” Heptenstall. —This is from the Yorkshire village of that name. Stall in place names merely means “ a place,” but in some cases may mean a pool where salmon were trapped. Hepten or Hepton or Hebden is either Ihe town (ton) or valley (dene, den) or hill (don) of Hebb or Hibb (dealt with in a previous note), but it is possible that it is for “heap,” meaning burial mound or tumulus. ‘ Burnard. —Probably only a variant spelling of Bernard. The “u ” for “e ” or “y ” is a French device adopted in certain dialects, especially in the south, in the Middle Ages. It remains still in “bury” for “ bori,” “ biri,” and in “ busy ” for “ bysi,” “ bisi,” etc., and in a few other words. Caldwell. —A place name meaning cold spring or well. The form Cald for “ cold ” is peculiar to the north and appears also in Caldecott, etc. Melloa. —This is an Irish name and -I am very doubtful about it. If it is English in origin, as are many place names in Ireland, it is for Mill-meadow. .Mell or Mol for “ mill ” is a southeastern form of “ mill ” and appears in Melbourn (Millbrook) and" many other names- “ Lea,” meadow, usually appears in names as -ley or -lee.

Langley.—A very common English village name, for “ Longmeadow ” also appearing as Longley. Maughan.—This is, I suppose, a Celtic name, appearing also as Trish, Mahon. Two villages in Cornwall are called Mawgan and may probably have supplied the name. I cannot till what this nan- meant exactly; an Irish scholar would know. The Cornish language has l,ng been extinct. Keddie, or Kiddie, or Kiddey.—This Scottish name stands for Keddier or Kidder, which means a pedlar, from “ kid ” or “ kit,” a bag. The same change appears in Peddie for Pcdder or Pedlar. Other names which mean the same thing are Badger (Batgcr), from bag, and probably Lcaper (Locper) from “ leap ” a fish-bag. LITTLE HISTORIES. ' Riding,” for an administrative division. The fortune of this word seems to be unique. It is well known to stand for the old word “ thridiug,” a third part. As it was usually preceded by north, south, east or west, all of which happen to end in t or th. the th of “thriding” was displaced*, it is easy to see how e.g. North-thriding became North Riding. The poor old word lost its head by sheer ill-luck. “Always.” A correspondent seems to be puzzled by this familiar word, whose very familiarity masks the peculiarity of its history. It docs not literally mean “at all times” but “all along the way, or road.” The original form, now archaic, was “ alway,” and the s is not really a plural sign but a genitive. In “singing all the way” we can see how easily the sense passes, “ nichin' along” as the song says, from “ all along the road ” to “ all the time.” “ Roslyn ” and “ Rosyth.”—“ Ros ”in Gaelic means “ rose,” the flower, and the word for promontory or peninsula has the same form. Both of these appear in names. In Roslyn it is most probably the flower; in Rosyth the promontory. “ Lynn ” .in the Celtic language is a waterfall, and -yth in Rosyth is for “ hithe,” the Anglo-Saxon word for “ haven ” or “ landing-place.” VARIOUS IDIOMS AND USAGES. “ Data ” “is a singular. This mistake is very common and almost excusable, since only those who know Latin grammar can be fully aware of the fact that “ data,” for “ things given,” is the neuter plural of a participle. The English language is not the exclusive property of people who know Latin and it -is a great pity that it includes so many words like this. In the case of “ stamina,” which is the plural of “stamen” (of a

flower) used in a very special figurative sense, it is too late to protest; “ stamina ” in English is singular and must remain so. If “ datum,” the singular form, were in common use and not merely a technical term known to few, the error in number would not have arisen. The preposition at the end of the sentence. —I have been asked about J this old “ rule ” —but have no space to deal fully with it. It should never have been a rule or instruction at all, as the usage is old, natural, and innocent. It is indeed (or was) a pedantic attempt to force the national English idiom, which is free and flexible, into the rigid frame of Latin syntax. Eowier’s ] article on it in his “ Modern English j Usage ” is excellent. .