Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/27

 ,

s. in. JAN.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATUBDAF, JANUARY 1U, 1S99.

CONTENTS. -No. 55.

NOTES English Guttural Sounds, 21 A Chinese Novel, 23-Ancient Zodiacs, 24-G. H. Lewes and Locke-Peas- King Charles I., 25 Gladstone on Shakspeare A Child s Caul Old London, 26.

QUERIES "An Ice " Withycombe Church, 26 The Lady Nelson Collection of Letters-' The Christ with Blue Kyea ' Taxidermist " Warburton's Servant" Xmas The ' Eclectic Review ' " Filigalentee " Furly of Colchester, 27 Armorial " Kings ! "Government Offices Pope Street, Eltbam R. S. Godfrey-Trinity Windows -Trethowan-Sir G. Clifford-General G. J. Hall-Silver Ladle Authors Wanted, 28.

REPLIES : Felibre, 28 Wollaston Arms, 29 Silhouettes Sir Thomas Munro, 30 Poem on the Horse-chestnut- Counts of Holland Tolling Bells, 31 Patronymics Architectural Niches-" Lynx-eyed "Lending Money by Measure Inaccuracies in Marriage Registers " Maills, 32 Margaret Plantagenet-A Church Tradition-Biggles- wa de " To save one's bacon" "The sair saunt for the Crune," 33 Jew's Harp Pillar Dollar Sheldon : Wright Paul Jones English Translation Cecil Brothers with the same Name Evelyn's 'Diary' Mary Bowles Jacobites-Gilbert Glossin, 34 "Tryst" Books on Gam- ing, 35 Shakspeare and the Sea Mrs. Woodham " Rummer "Portrait Rings Private Gates in London- Royal Navy Club-Cedar Trees, 38 Field-Names " Carn- age is God's daughter" The Colour Green, 37 The Con- ventionalized Tartar Cloud, 38.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Murray's ' New Historical Diction- ary ' Waters's ' Jerome Cardan 'Evans's Leo of Assisi's ' Mirror of Perfection ' Dauze's ' Index Bibliographique Peters's 'King Solomon's Golden Ophir '-Gibbs's 'A Cotswold Village.'

Notices to Correspondents.

APPARENT IRREGULARITIES IN ENGLISH GUTTURAL SOUNDS.

IN the following note I propose to deal very briefly with four classes of words : (1) those which in Old English (O.E.) have a medial or final c, but which in Modern English (E.) have k instead of ch in one or more dialects ; (2) words which in O.E. have q, but which in E. show g instead of dge ; (3) O.E. words with 3 between back vowels such as a, o, which in some E. dialects have developed a g instead of a w; (4) words which liave final h in O.E., but which instead of having lost this sound altogether have developed a k sound in some dialects. Ex- amples : (1) O.E. secan, Middle English (M.E.) sechen, E. seek; O.E. \>yncean, M.E. }>inchen, E. think. (2) O.E. hryc$, M.E. rigge, rugge, E. rig (in many dialects) ; O.E. muc$- wortj inyc$, M.E. mugwurt, migge, E. mugwort and rnig (in many dialects). (3) O.E. ha$a- ]>orn, hcejporn, M.E. hawe]>orn, E. (Devonshire dialect) hagthorn, standard English haw- thorn. (4) O.E. heahfore, M.E. haifare, E. (Hampshire dialect) heckfer ; O.E. heah\>u, M.E. heithe, &c., E. (Hants dialect) eckth.

There are two well-known ways of account- .ng for these perplexing k and g words. Some of them are supposed to be Scandi- navian forms, others are said to be Northern rorms. Neither of these explanations is. entirely satisfactory, for the first cuts instead of unravelling the knot of the difficulty ; the second is not an explanation at all, for we are not told how it is that in some Northern words we find k and g, and in others the nor- mal ch and dge. Kluge (Paul's ' Grundriss,'' p. 839) has noticed that O.E. fronted c- becomes k when it stands by means of syncope immediately before a consonant. He instances M.E. tek\>, thenk\>, think]p.

This statement is unfortunately incom- plete and misleading, for we are not told whether this change from c to k takes place in all dialects, or only in some, and the term. " consonant," without any hint as to what class of consonants affects the change, con- veys an erroneous impression. Kluge also* says that Scottish forms like steek, stitch, theek, thatch, &c., are to be explained by the return of O.E. fronted c to K. This is no> explanation at all, but a mere statement of fact. The question is, Under what condition* and in which dialects did O.E. c become un- f rented, that is, become k instead of develop- ing into ch ?

I have collected a considerable amount of material illustrating the development of the- gutturals in English, and as a result of my observations on the ch, k, dge, g questions, I consider myself justified in formulating the- following statement. In a certain group of dialects (probably only in West Saxon and Kentish) O.E. c does not develope into ch, but becomes k, in the middle of words before open consonants, that is, before f>, /, s, w, <fec. This principle further applies to the final c in the first element of primitive compounds, in those cases where the second element begins- with an open consonant. The same applies to the voiced form of this sound, usually written c$ in O.E. This was a front stop consonant, which under ordinary circum- stances becomes dge, but which in the above conditions becomes a back voiced stop, g.

I turn for a moment to O.E. 3 and h, medi- ally, or finally before the second element of an old compound. O.E. 3 in this position was-. either a back or a front open voiced consp- nant, according to the vowel which preceded" it. O.E. h was the voiceless form of this. sound. Now in certain dialects (again pro- bably in West Saxon and Kentish only) O.K and h are atopped when they stand before- open consonants, and become g and k re- spectively.