Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/357

 H s. in. MAY e. ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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My friend and correspondent Signer Placido Campetti, Chief Director of the Lucca Pinacoteca, says Arnolfini embanked the Serchio,' and projected changing the river-bed at Nozzano, and removing the stream into the hollow ground at Massa- ciuccoli, near Viareggio. Scoli in line 8 should be scogli, and means rocks or boulders.

I can recommend readers to purchase a copy of the photograph of the Van Eyck picture in the National Gallery just finished by Signor Morelli, who is a marvel of juvenility. He tells me he is now 91 years of age. WILLIAM MERCER.

PAWPER OR PAUPER BIRD (11 S. iii. 89, 216, 290). It does not seem possible to accept as correct PROF. SKEAT'S obiter dictum, " Hence it was not really a British bird, but imported (probably from France,") in view of the quotation I gave from the " Acte for preservacon of Grayne," cap. 15, 8 Eliz. (1560), for this specifically refers to " the building or breeding of any kynde of Hawkes, Herons, Egryttes, Paupers, Swannes, or Shovelers." This clearly shows that the bird built and bred over here, and as such is " really a British bird."

Regarding popelle, the entry in Godefroy is meagre in the extreme :

"Popelle, s.f., nom d'oiseau. Alunbes (I. palun- !>es?) popdles. Gloss, de Neck., MS. Bruges. Scheler, Lex. p. 98."

Without the whole of the passage one has no grounds, beyond Godefroy's statement, for saying even that popelle is a bird. If one reads palunbes, that means wood pigeons, of which there are clearly plenty in England, and it may be that popelles was intended as a synonym, but there is no evidence to this effect. As a matter of fact, popelle was a term applied to the fur of a squirrel in springtime, so that perhaps the passage quoted may be referring only to wood pigeons and squirrels. But there is no evidence upon which to form anything except a conjectural opinion.

' Turner on Birds ' was consulted before sending my reply. There is no information therein about pawper. The translation is by A. H. Evans, and not " E. H. Evans," as given by L. L. K. JOHN HODQKIN.

"C" AND "T" INTERCHANGED (11 S. iii. 229). The interchange of c and t is sometimes due to misreading, the letters often being exactly alike in mediaeval writing. But the interchange of the hard c or k sound with that of t is due to the proximity of the vocal organs that produce

the two sounds. Hence the palatal k may be produced by mistake for the lingual t, or vice versa. Children will say " likkle " for " little," and " tat " for " cat."

The same interchange is familiar in Hebrew grammar. Thus the last syllable of 'dnokht, 'I," appears as i in the verb qatal-ti, ' I have killed." The second syllable of attd,' " thou," appears as khd in karmekJia, " thy vineyard."

Sounds of the same or of adjacent organs are the most likely to be interchanged ; thus Taffy for David (it is too much trouble to pronounce the final consonant, so it drops out), Billy for Willy, the Cockney v and w, &c. Children will substitute the dental s for the lingual th, and drop a more difficult sound altogether, saying " pitty ikkle sing " for " pretty little thing." The dialect of the nursery is indeed full of philological interest. J. T. F.

Winterton, Doncaster.

Changes between consonants in the same order are common, but it is not usual for a guttural, as k, or a dental, as t, to inter- change. Yet they sometimes do, especially in unstressed syllables. Robert Louis Stevenson says : " The change from t to k is the disease of the Polynesian tongues." So in English dialects " beacon " may become " beaton," as " pancake " becomes "pancate" ('E.D.D.'). Conversely "in- mate" may become " inmake," as Fr. bateau becomes bakyo in Guernsey-Norman. Several instances of this change will be found in Moliere's dialect-speech ; as s'esquiant for s'etant, amiquie for amitie, jesquions for jettons (' Festin de Pierre ').

In literary languages interchange between c and t is due generally to a choice of one of the two consonants when combined. Thus from L. agere, actum, come It. atto, azione ; Sp., Fr., Eng. accion, action; Prov. acioun. A primitive hard g gives rise either to t, ts, or to ks t s. EDWARD NICHOLSON.

Paris.

ARMS OP THE ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK (11 S. ii. 426). Old as the arms mentioned by ST. SWITHIN, namely, those borne by Robert Waldby, Archbishop of York, in 1397, undoubtedly are, yet, heraldically speaking, they are but " modern."

The " ancient " arms of the archiepiscopal see of York were virtually the same as those now borne by the see of Canterbury, with a " difference " in the number of crosses patee fitchees on the pall five instead of four. The same slight " difference " also