Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/89

 9 th S. V. FEB. 3, 1900.]

NOTES AND QUERIES,

81

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARYS, 1900.

CONTENTS. No. 110.

NOTES : R-Metalhesis in O.E., 81-The Wooden Horse, 82 Mr. Bernard Quaritch The Taxes on Knowledge, 83 The New Century -The Beginnings and Ends of Cen- turies - The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 84-" Manatee "- "Gavel" and "'Shieling" "This maid no elegance" Recollections of Blackburn, 85 Cinderella Campbell and Keats -Taste, 8ti.

QUERIES : - " Hurgin " "Hun-barrow "-Classical Word for "Headsore" Armorial Depreciation of Coinage- Salmon Disease Sir Henry Carey Lady Shoemakers, 87 Card-matches Men wearing Earrings- Pond Farm, Leicester "Jesso" Dr. J. G. Morgan Whiskers "Every bullet has its billet" Devizes Beezeley Old Wooden Chest, 88 "Africander" Lyttelton's 'Dialogues of the Dead ' Teesdale London Church Registers Arms on Bar Gate, Southampton ' Naming the Baby' Aide- bright, Rex Norfolcifc-Walthamstow Church Bells Rate of the Sun's Motion' Charlotte Temple,' 89.

REPLIES : The Jubilee Number, 89 Field-Marshals in the British Army, 90 General Lambert in Guernsey Father Gordon, 9i ''The Dukes" Rogers's ' Ginevra ' The Surname Morcom "By the haft " " Anchylostomeasis " -Heraldic, 92 "The Enfrgetic Old Man": "The Chris- tian Knight" Nursery Rimes Bellringers' Rimes Danish Place-names in the Wirr.il, 93 " King of Bantam " Prime Minister Church in Canterbury Henry Caven- dish, 94" Wound " for " Winded " " Horse-bread " Lincolnshire Sayings Was Shakespeare Musical ? "Brotherhood of Fools "A Voltaire Engraving -Scott's Dialect, 95 Guild Mayor -Cowper " To Priest," 96 Poet Parnell Sir Johns " Argh " " Sock " Les Detenus, 97.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Campbell's ' Balmerino and its Abbey 'Budge's 'Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life' and ' Egyptian Magic 'Temple Scott's ' Works of Swift ' Weston's 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ' -Perkins's ' Wimborne Minster' 'The Hampstead Annual.'

R- METATHESIS IN O.E.

THE absence of the W. Saxon Brechung in such O.E. words as berstan, fterscan, fersc, $cers, bcerst, cern, and hoern, is explained by Sievers ('A.-S. Gram.' 79, Anm. 2) by the fact that the group r + consonant, before which in W.S. Germanic e becomes eo, and Germanic a = O.E. ce, becomes ea, is in these words a secondary development, and due to meta- thesis. Metathesis is considered as a late process, which did not come into play until the r + consonant Brechung process had passed away. (Cp. Sievers, loc. cit., and Bremer, 'Relative Sprachchronologie,' Indo- germanische Forschungen, iv. Bd. p. 29). There can be no doubt that by .placing metathesis later than Brechung we are able to explain the forms already men- tioned, nor, indeed, can they be accounted for on any other assumption. On the other hand, as Sievers points out, the forms iernan, earn, beornan, show Brechung, although the r + consonant group is in their case, as in that of the former class of words, due to metathesis. These forms have not, so far as I know, been explained.

The only way out of the difficulty, appa- rently, is to assume an early period of

metathesis, which preceded consonantal Brechung, and consequently ^-umlaut. I believe this first metathesis was Anglo- Frisian, whereas the later process was purely English. It may be mentioned here that the later metathesis is later than the original change of -an to -on, as is evident from the forms born, orn = *ronn, *bronn, from earlier This latter change took place in the con- tinental period and affected East Frisian as well as English. (See Siebs, 'Fries. Spr.' Paul's ' Grundr.,' vol. i. ; cf. also Bremer, p. 16, &c., and Pogatscher, 'Lautlehre d. griech. und latein. Lehnworte in Altengl.,' p. 109.) O. West Frisian, on the other hand, has land, nama, compared with E. Fris. lond, noma.
 * rann, *brann (Sievers, 65 ; Bremer, loc. cit.).

There is also a second period of change of an to on, which is English alone. I propose the following scheme of development for, let us say, Germanic *ran- in Anglo-Frisian. I assume three varieties for the oldest Anglo- Frisian : 1. *ron-, 2. *rcen- (vrhich early became ran again), 3. *arn, with metathesis. It will be convenient to follow each type separately :

1. *Ron- was before t-umlaut ; it under- went the second (English) process of the metathesis and became orn (born, &c.).

2. *Rwn differentiated into *cern and *ran ; cern, due to the second (English) metathesis, remained, being later than Brechung; *ran became ron in the English period (cf. hron* 'Erf. Gloss.,' 146).

3. *Arn, the form with first metathesis, became *cern by the common Anglo-Fris. change of a to ce. This ce, being of continental origin, underwent, of course, the (English) process of Brechung to ea ; from this type, therefore, we get earn, &c. Above suggested scheme may be diagrammatically expressed thus :

'1. *ro (first change of an to on)=O.E. orn ; (by second metathesis).

a r*(ern (second metathesis, 2 *recn O E \ therefore no Brechung).

' A 1 * ran > l a ter ron (second change

P V. of an to on).

3. *arn (first period of metathesis, earlier than Brechung) = O.E. *a:rn, then, with Brechung, earn.

The three types may be regarded as due to dialectal differences in Anglo -Frisian. The second type (*r(xri) survives in the earliest English ; cf. hraen, Erf. raen, 400 ; rendegu, Erf. 1137 ; meter en, in a Kentish charter (Sweet, 'O.E. T.,' p. 440, Charter 313). The further development of this type also appears in the old glossaries ; uuinaern, Ep. Err. 1040. The other variety of type 2 occurs in hron (where o is due to a late English change from a before -n), Erf. (Ep. hran) 146. This word

Germanic


 * raw=Anglo-

Frisian