Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/140

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xii. AUG. 7, im

real explanation seems to me to depend upon two facts :

(a) Some languages, such as English, have strong syllabic accents, while others, as French, have none.

(6) The surd aspirate h is heard in some languages, but is hardly audible in others. English, for example, can hardly be said to have an h. Most Europeans tend to leave it out altogether.

Remembering these, let us consider the word qdhvdh, in which v is not so much a labio-dental as a labial (w).

1. If the first syllable is not accented, the h becomes imperceptible, and may be left out in writing ; but the vowel becomes lengthened to a in pronunciation. Thus Hungarian kdve, Bohemian kdva, Polish kdwa. French cafe prefers surd / in place of the sonant v, and Servian is indifferent. Roumanian cafed, being accented on the last syllable, retains short vowel a, and has only one / (in place of v).

2. If the first syllable is strongly accented an attempt will be made to pronounce the final letter h, and Europeans would tend to replace the aspirate by the nearest fricative. As h is a surd, the fricative surd / (pronounced labially rather than dentilabi- ally) would be the most natural substitute. Thus we get kdfwe, and by assimilation kdffe. As the first syllable is the most prominent, it is the h that first becomes /, and then w becomes / also.

It is only in the second case that the vowel a changes to o ; for the vowel a being absent in most European languages, and the syllable bearing a strong accent, 6 is the nearest vowel equivalent.

I may add that in Oriental languages, where the aspirate is very clearly sounded, the word has undergone no change. The lower classes in India, however, are unable to pronounce either the Arabic q or the aspirate h, and they say kaivd, using the diphthong ai instead of dh ; both the syllables are equal as regards stress, Indian vernaculars not having strongly accented words. But Persian words have strong syllabic stress, and hence Turkish, deriving from Persian, often changes h into /, espe- cially before dentals, labials, or labio-dentals, and also finally, especially after the more closed short vowels.

V. CHATTOPADHYAYA. 51, Ladbroke Road, W.

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MB. PLATT says : "It does not seem credulous to assume that kahve might readily become kafve." It is, however, a fact that

Polish Jews have in my own hearing often asked for a tas kovve = cup of coffee. No doubt the Poles brought back the name and the fragrant berry after their wars with the Turks under the famous John Sobieski, in the seventeenth century.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

THE PARKER CONSECRATION AND THE LAMBETH REGISTER (10 S. xii. 62). The explanation asked for by MR. THORNTON is very simple.

Nicholas Bullingham was restored to the Archdeaconry on the petition of Sir F. Ayscough to Cecil, dated 27 Dec., 1558.

He was not Bishop-elect of Lincoln till 12 Jan., 1560, when the royal assent was given to his election.

When he accepted the bishopric he naturally vacated the archdeaconry, which was therefore described as vacant on 18 Jan., 1560. It follows therefore that the state- ment that Bullingham was Archdeacon of Lincoln at the consecration of Parker on 17 Dec., 1559, is perfectly correct. T. C.

BAUGHAN : BOFFIN (10 S. xi. 509). It may interest MR. PERCY SMITH to know that in the churchyard of Great Rollright, Oxfordshire (some three miles from Long Compton), there is a considerable monument erected to the memory of members of this family, who are said to have been squires of the parish. It stands under the tower, to the left hand of the church porch. In the sixties there was an old gentleman called Henry Boffin (so spelt and pronounced) still living in the village, and my father often told me that he was the last repre- sentative in the village of the old Baughan squires. He was a fine specimen of decayed gentility, and used always to sit on a chair outside his cottage door, wearing a broad- brimmed beaver hat, and leaning his chin on a large walking-stick. He would chat to the passers-by, and every one in the village had a liking for the old man, and missed him when he died about the year 1875, I fancy. HERBERT RENDALL.

In his ' Surnames of the United Kingdom * Henry Harrison gives the following deriva- tion : " (Celt.) Little, Small. [Wei. bychan, f. bach]." C. E. LOMAX.

Louth.

MARCHETTI COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS (10 S. xii. 47). This collection, according to Duplessis, ' Les Ventes de Tableaux, Dessins,' &c., was sold in London in 1758, presumably by W. Bathoe, whose name