Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/358

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NOTES AND QUERIES, fio s. XL APRIL 10, 1909

It ought not to be pronounced in the Turkish manner. This is, of course, largely a matter of taste. The trouble arises from the Turkish custom of accenting final syllables, which makes the Turkish pronunciation of many Arabic and Persian words differ from that of the Arabs and Persians them- selves. Hence kismet and sherbet are stressed by some speakers on the first syllable, which is the Arabic pronunciation, and by others on the last, which is the Turkish. Byron, in his ' Bride of Abydos,' canto ii., follows Turkish usage :

A cup too on the board was set, That did not seem to hold sherbet.

In the ' N.E.D.' medjidie and mudirieh are stressed on the second and fourth syllables, in the Turkish fashion, which from my point of view is not wrong, but would shock COL. PRIDEAUX, since both terms are of Arabic origin, and no Arab would so pronounce them. The name of the late Vizier, Kiamil Pasha, was accented by every Turk on its last syllable ; and the same applies to many other names, such as Izzet Bey, and above all to Ahmed and Mehmed, which would be .accented by an Arab on the first syllable, but by a Turk upon the last.

JAMES PLATT, Jun.

Chambers's ' Twentieth Century Dic- tionary ' gives the pronunciation as " ser- .as'ker." F. HOWARD COLLINS.

Torquay.

" ARTAHSHASHTE " (10 S. xi. 148, 216). Though the -xerxes in Artaxerxes may not be the same word as Xerxes, yet, as PROF. SKEAT shows, on Spiegel's authority, they are both derived from the same root khshi, to rule. This root is found in the modern word Khattri, which is the name of the Rajput, or ruling class in Hindustan. Arta is a frequent constituent in Old Persian names. The Greek was not a bad trans- literation of the Aryan khsh. The later Persians whittled Artakhshatra into Ardeshir or Ardshir, which is a common name among the Parsees ; while khshatra-para, or satrap, has become sartlp. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

RUTLAND : ORIGIN or THE NAME (10 S. xi. 170). I should say that the family name of Rutland was, like Devonshire, Cornwall, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Kent, and many others, taken from the name of the county whence an early bearer of it came. It is quite possible too that some Rutlands may have resulted from Ruthland, if such a locality there were ; but it does not follow that they were the " holders " of it ; they

were perhaps born in the district, or in some way connected with it, in the minds of those who called them Rutland.

ST. SWITHIN.

Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries, vol. i. (1889-91) p. 74, &c., states that Rutland, as a name, was earlier than the Norman Conquest, and possibly derived from being a retreat of the Leicestershire Ratce. Its first mention, as " Roteland," occurs in the will of King Edward the Confessor ; in Domesday it is " the King's soc of Roteland," not being then a shire ; and in the reign of John it was assigned as a dowry to Queen Isabella. The article proceeds to speak of

" its position as an old independent community, now annexed to this artificial division and now to that, but always retaining an underlying sense of its own separateness, just as .... in Yorkshire, or as the little district of the Rodings still does in Essex."

I hope this excerpt may be of service.

W. B. H.

The patronymic Ruth appears originally to have been Routh. Richard de Scrute- ville, from Escretville in Normandy, was Lord of Routh (Yorkshire) at the time of the foundation of Meaux Abbey in 1136.

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

Dr. Isaac Taylor in his 'Words and Places,' 1888, p. 322, says :

" The Bio Colorado takes its name from its deep red colour ; Ratby, Rugby, and Rutland, from their red soil. Ratcliffe, at Bristol, is the red cliff."

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

BE ACHE Y HEAD : "To HULL" (10 S. xi. 186). In letters written in 1545 Beachey Head is eight times mentioned under the forms " Bechiff," " Bechiefe," " Beauchief," " Beauchif." See ' State Papers, Henry VIII.,' i. 790, 816, 818, 820, 821, 822 ; x. 585. In the first letter, written by Viscount Lisle, we read :

" And upon Soundaie last, being the 21 th of this presente, we all togethers a quarte sees over, twhart Bechiff, lying on hulling, the wynde vering at the northest."

Here is evident the beginning of the transi- tion from " Beau chef " to " Beachey." When was the transformation completed and the Head added ?

The above extract is of interest for another reason. The earliest quotation in the ' N.E.D.' for " to hull," in the nautical sense, is under date of 1558, and the earliest