Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/307

 10 8. XL MAB. 27, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The Konkani Brahmans, who inhabit the Ratnagiri and Alibagh Districts, and have perhaps the acutest intellects of any class in India, have also a system of surnames. The names of Mandlik, Ranade, Tilak, &c. will be familiar to those who take an interest in the question of Indian reforms. The late Sir Dinkar Rao, the ablest native statesman of the nineteenth century, was a Konkani Brahman. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

Grand Hotel, Locarno.

MR. PLATT is perfectly correct in assuming that Mukharji (more commonly written Mookerjee) is the equivalent of Mokopadhya. It is a cognomen, denoting membership of one of the highest castes of Bengali Brahmins, but is nowadays regularly used as a surname. There are any number of Mookerjees in distinguished positions throughout Bengal. Related cognomens, de- noting (Bengali) Brahmin castes, and all in use as surnames, are Banerjee (Band- hopadhya), Bose (Basu), Chatterjee (Chatto- padhya), Chuckerbutty (Chakravarti), Mitter <Mitra), &c. In the Madras Presidency the Tamil and Telugu caste-cognomens, Aiyar, Chetty, Mudaliar, Naidu, Pillay, &c., are tending more slowly in the same direction. Among Hindus on the Bombay side the tendency is not very noticeable, but the Parsees have heritable surnames exactly as we have : Mundvawala, Kolhapurewala, Petit, Bharucha, Billimoria, Readymoney, <&c. H. H. S.

It may be taken as a general rule that among themselves no genuine native of India, whether Mohammedan, Hindu, Sikh, or Christian, has a surname in the European sense. When any such native travels to Europe, Europe insists, for its own con- venience, that he should have a surname like other people. The Indian native cannot but submit, as he submits to other strange customs of dress, food, &c. ; but he submits with amusement. The Brahmin Ramas- wami lyengar and the Sudia Ranga Pillai become to the British tradesmen and others R. lyengar, Esq., and R. Pillai, Esq., the British not knowing that lyengar and Pillai are mere caste and social honorifics. And it is not only the British tradesmen and others who make these curious mistakes : [ have observed in an important Anglo- Indian newspaper lately the same kind of error in reporting the speech of " Mr. Pillai." Names of genuine Indians are purely per- sonal. Only official designations are here- ditary. FRANK PENNY.

THE LIQUID N IN ENGLISH (10 S. xi. 105, 170). Please allow me to apologize. When I instanced poignant as being sounded with the gn in mignonette, it was because I knew no better. I was taught to pronounce it thus in my younger days, and it is a word which one seldom hears. I now find that the ' N.E.D.' gives no other form than " poi'nant." I have long ago learnt to recognize the fact that " correct " pro- nunciation really means the pronunciation used by others than myself ; and it shows how our language abounds with traps for the unwary. WALTER W. SKEAT.

COL. PRIDEAUX thinks that mignonette as an English word ought to have an English spelling. But the word mignonette is borrowed from the French. It is true that the ordinary French name is reseda, but mignonnette is applied to this plant as well as to others. See Littre and ' N.E.D.' In Cotgrave we find mignonnette (and mignonne) in the sense of a man's " sweeting, or sweet- heart, his pretty minion, his lovely delight." A. L. MAYHEW.

MR. PLATT asks why the Kon of the Gaelic original Coinnich has become Ken in English. The reason is that the vowel e represents the sound of the Gaelic diphthong oi more nearly than o. The sound of oi is in fact almost exactly the same as that of the German 6" or oe, as in " Goethe." The z in Kenzie is really y ; it is the Early English character 3 ; which, being also some- times used for z, caused the confusion.

C. S. JERRAM.

TUESDAY NIGHT'S CLUB (10 S. xi. 147). Is it not probable that the name refers to balls given by Mrs. Cornelys (Cornelis) under the patronage and influence of some ephe- meral association of ladies or gentlemen, or both, who alone could dispose of the tickets, the balls being given on Tuesday nights ? Casanova in his memoirs (Paris edition, vi. 365) describes his visit to Lady Harington (sic). The latter says :

" You will begin by seeing on Thursday all the nobility at Madame Cornelis' in Soho Square. I can give you a ticket. Take it. It is for both ball and supper : it costs two guineas."

Casanova paid the money, and her ladyship wrote on the ticket to that effect. Madame Cornelis had informed Casanova that she could not give him a ticket, as she could 2jive them only to the nobility. This was the last of her nobility assemblies of the season (p. 353). The year was 1763. All the members of the royal family,