Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/211

 10 S. XL FEB. 27, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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PROF. SKEAT may perhaps be able to account for the fact that while in such words as sign, benign, malign, the g sound is dropped, and the i is lengthened into ai, in derivatives the i is shortened and the g regains its power ; e.g., sign, signal, signet, signify ; benign, benignant ; malign, malignant.

Though disposed to go only a very short distance with the Spelling Reform party, I would concur in changing the spelling of mignonette to minionet. In French the flower is not known by that name, but is called reseda, and there seems no object in giving a quasi-French spelling to an Eng- lish word. W. F. PRIDEATJX.

PROF. SKEAT'S interesting article suggests a few remarks.

1. With regard to the use of ny for the liquid gn in English, this may have been derived from the Provensal and Aragonese usage. In Catalan ny has always been the symbol for this sound. Catalan surnames like Capmany and Fortuny, and place-names like Arenys, have puzzled our pronouncing dictionaries, which treat them as three syllables, whereas they should reckon as two.

2. " This liquid n is common in Middle Scotch." PROF. SKEAT might have added that another Scotch symbol for it is nz. The name MacKenzie, for instance, was meant to be pronounced Mac Kenyie. The Gaelic spelling is Mac Coinnich, pronounced Mac Konyie. I have never been able to find out why the- Kon- of the Gaelic original has become Ken- in the English name. Perhaps there is some difference of dialect.

3. The change of final gn to ng occurs in many languages. It is universal in Munster Gaelic ; thus the surname Flynn becomes Flyng, popularly pronounced with a long y, like our word " fly." A good example is the Cockney " Boolong " for Boulogne. Similarly, the German residents in Courland turn Lettish family names like Kalniri and Smildsin into Kalning and Smilting.

JAS. PL ATT, Jun.

If the key-words are meant to be taken from modern English, it must be objected that the gn in poignant is not pronounced like the gn in mignonette and champignon. In poignant the gn has the same value as in such a word as signing, i.e., it is no more than a simple n. A better example, if a third one is wanted, would be the gn in cognac, L. R. M. STRACHAN.

Heidelberg.

EASTRY, KENT (10 S. xi. 87). In my ' Place-Names of Cambridgeshire,' p. 53, to which MR. DUIGNAST refers, I say that the forms of Eastry (Kent) are given in Sweet's ' Oldest English Texts,' p. 611 ; and these are duly cited in the query.

The forms cause much difficulty, but have been admirably explained by Mr. H. M. Chadwick, in his ' Studies in Old English,' p. 147, in the Cambridge Philological Transac- tions, vol. iv. part 2. He shows that the equivalent of the Gothic gam, mod. G. gau, " a district," is only found in the Oldest English, and in four place-names, viz., Eastry, Ely, Lympne (Kent), and Surrey ; and even in these the later forms of Ely and Surrey altered the suffix to -ey or -y, with the sense of " island."

The proper forms are Eastre-ge, Eostere- ge, where Eastre, Eostere, are the feminine genitives (in -e) of Easter, Eastor, the god- dess whose name is preserved in the neuter sb. Eastor, the festival of Easter. Ge answers to a later form gea, equivalent to the G. gau ; hence Eastre-ge is " the district consecrated to the goddess Eastor." The curious form found in "in regione Eastr- gena " is explained as a genitive plural.

The older form of Ely was el-ge, answering to Beda's " regio anguillarum " ; the later form Elig (both vowels long) was due to the substitution of Ig for ge, and means " eel-island."

As for Surrey, so long the despair of ety- mologists, it occurs as Suthri-gea in the 'A.-S. Chronicle,' an. 836, and simply means " southern district." And here we find the very form gea that we should expect. Of course this obsolescent word was confused with lg, M.E. ey, y, " island," as in the case of Ely ; so that Robert of Gloucester has Sothereye, Sotherey, Sotherige, Southerey, as old spellings of Surrey.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

I feel little doubt that this place derived its name from its geographical position, notwithstanding the local belief that it was named after the goddess Eastre. If its early history were accurately known, I believe it would be found that it was one of the first Saxon, or more probably Jutish, settlements in England. After Christianity was introduced, the church was made de- pendent upon Canterbury, and it was its geographical position in relation to the capital of the Cantwaras that most likely gave it its name. I would venture to invite MR. DTTTGNAN'S attention to a paper that was published some years ago in The Home