Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/270

 220 NOTES AND QUERIES. 1 12 s.vm. MARCH 12,1021. iS.P.E. Tract No. IV. The Pronunciation, of English Words derived from the Latin. By John Sargeaunt. (Clarendon Press, 2s. Qd. net.) MR. JOHN SARGEAUNT'S paper is excellent. It provides not only the scheme for an understanding in so far as it can be understood of the English pronunciation of words derived from Latin whether direct or through French but also some explanation of the seeming vagaries of English pronunciation of Latin. The subject is ' handled so carefully and so systematically that the word "exhaustive" might not be out of place in describing its treatment. One conviction, certainly, this discussion brings home that it is vain to try and make current pronunciation as a whole square with the classical quantities of the original stems of words. However, we find among the examples given as lippeless at least two which we quite commonly hear pronounced as, on the face of it, they should be : " economy " and " segregate " which Mr. '- Sargeaunt would render " economy " and " segregate." How to pronounce gladiolus has puzzled a good many people ; Terence would have called it gladiolus ; but Cicero and Quintilian gladiolus, on the principle that in words of more than two syllables a short penultimate makes a stressed antepenultimate. We still have to decide whether to give the stressed i the English or Italian sound. Apropos of anglicizing Latin sounds Mr. Sargeaunt reminds us of Burke's extraordinary practice, when reading French poetry aloud, of pronouncing it as if it were English. This must have been an entertaining -exhibition. Stresses and changes in pronunciation as -connected with poetry make a very interesting element in the paper. Our author is inclined to think that in the well-known line : " Laodamia, that at Jove's command" Wordsworth intended the normal not the in- verted stress. At the beginning of the nine- i teenth century alternation of stress and no stress in polysyllables was usual and even, it appears, insisted upon. Having to mention " infinite " Mr. Sargeaunt craves permission to spell it infinit saying this is how it is pronoxinced " except in corrupt quires." But could one read it so in Shelley's line : "To suffer woes that hope thinks infinite," where, not only has it to rime with " night," but .also, surely, is charged with the expression of some of the strain of hope long deferred ? Is it not a pity to reduce words irredeemably t from their natural strength ? May it not even be said that we owe something to those afore- said " corrupt quires " in so far as they tend to keep alive some consciousness of original weight i in a word. Mr. Sargeaunt, again, in Greek names, seems to shorten one or two more than the present writer was taught (it is true, long ago) to shorten. Do people, indeed, now talk of Icarus (Icarus) and Onesimus ? We should have thought it vain to try and preserve "apotheosis," in spite of its riming with " tea-houses " in ' Rejected Ad- dresses ' : and, on the other hand, cannot feel so sanguine as Mr. Sargeaunt does about " mytho- Klogy " or "pyrotechnic." This tract is of no little permanent value and should certainly be noted by all students of English. The Incas and their Industries. By Henry van den Bergh. (Boutledge, 2s. Qd.) A BRIEF, pleasantly written summary of what is known of the history and customs of the kingdom of Peru before the Spanish conquest. It includes a sketch of the physical c onformation of the 1 * country, and accounts of the architectural remains and of the relics of industries principally pottery. The book is very well calculated to serve its purpose of inciting readers to visit and inspect with enjoyment and understanding the Peruvian collections in the British Museum ; but it should, we think, have included some indication of the sources from which our informa- tion is derived, and the reasoning by which con- clusions have been reached. Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. New Series, Vol. VII., Pt. II. (Glasgow, Maclehose, Jackson & Co.) THE first paper is Dr. J. T. T. Brown's discussion of an episode in the Grand Tour of James Boswell a romantic episode, illustrated by a long and hitherto unprinted letter of Bozzy's to the lady to whom, waywardly and doubtfully, he was paying tentative addresses. The letter is of considerable biographical interest destined for the hands of the accomplished, but rather tiresome Belle de Zuylen. Dr. David Murray supplies a list of the books of forty-four Scots authors which were printed abroad in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries. Dr. George Watson gives us the text of Sir John Skene's MS. ' Memorabilia Scotica ' and his revisals of ' Regiam Majestatem.' There is a good discussion of French privateering on the Galloway coast by Mr. Edward Rodger ; and a study of the Citadel of Ayr by Mr. James A. Morris. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers" at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ; corrected proofs to the Athenaeum Press, 11 and 13 Bream's Buildings, E.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WHEN sending a letter to be forwarded to another contributor correspondents are requested to put in the top left-hand corner of the envelope the number of the page of N. & Q.' to which the letter refers. IT is requested that each note, query, or reply be rritten on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. GOUGER (12 S. viii. 89, 195). MRS. STEPHEN, Wootton Cottage, Lincoln, writes : " Many thanks to Capt. W. Jaggard for information re the name Gouger. I find from another correspondent that this name is still in existence."