Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/281

 9". s. vii. APRIL 6, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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dissent from his opinion that pinhoen==pine- seed is not a genuine and lawful word both in Portuguese and in English as borrowed therefrom in commerce. If pinhoens is its legitimate plural, as he admits, is it not the cousin germane to Castilian pinones ? And is not the singular of this pinon ? Castilian n is the equivalent of Castilian nh, French gn, and Catalan ny as in any ( = French an), sounded ayn almost. Therefore pinhoen is prima facie correct. Plu rals are not generally made before or without their singular. In modern writing it became pinhao ( =pinhaon), but the n is still resonant in the ending, and the phonetic equivalent to English ears is nearly pinyaung. One needs only to think of French pignon and Italian pignone to see that the n has every right to be there. Pinhoen would pass into pinhoe, and then, by false analogy with other words ending in aon or do ( = aung), into pinhao. It would be better if the Portuguese would give up the tilde, as a sign of the omission of n, in such words as cdo, for instance, and write caon, the equivalent of Castilian can = dog. The ~ representing n does not come between the a ana the o, but after them. Otherwise cdo would sing cano. Opinido, on the other hand, corresponds to opinion in French and Cas- tilian, and opinione in Latin and Italian. The name of the town of Guimardes may be seen in at least one inscription spelt Guima- raens. There does not seem to be any need for it either in such plurals as geraes, where it shows merely that the I of gerales (=Cas- tilian generates) has been left out. Whether pinhdo QIC pinhoen comes from pinus through pinko or pinha directly, or has been tainted in its descent by the formation of other words beginning in pen or pin, is a larger question for students of Low Latin and the mediaeval Romance dialects. It often happens that a foreign word in a language remains un- changed for centuries in its new home, while in the mother tongue whence it came it undergoes the general decadence or trans- formation. Pinhoen is a relic of old Portu- guese which a Camoes or Camoens would certainly respect. E. S. DODGSON.

The Portuguese singular is pinhdo, plural pinhoes, the pronunciation of which latter is fairly rendered by Acosta's pignons, quoted by ME. PLATT. According to the Brazilian dictionary of Valdez, the purging nuts are known as pinhao das Indias.

E. E. STREET.

OLD MARRIAGE CUSTOM IN YORKSHIRE (9 th S. vii. 208). The following facts about a Lancashire school may be given to illustrate

J. B. W.'s reference. Harland and Wilkin- son's * Lancashire Folk-lore ' (ed. 1867, p. 265) says :

"An ancient custom prevails at Burnley Gram- mar School, by which all persons married at St. Peter's Church in that town are fined by the boys. As soon as a wedding is fixed, the parish clerk in- forms the boys, ana on the day appointed they depute two of their number to wait upon the groomsman and demand a fee. There is no fixed sum named, but enough is got to purchase books and maintain a tolerable library for the use of the pupils. Former pupils always pay a liberal fine."

The above Mr. Wilkinson was an assistant master at the school. The present Bishop of Carlisle, in giving in the Preston Herald, 27 August, 1887, an account of his school- days at Burnley, said :

"As often as there was a marriage at the parish church it was the duty of the senior boy [sic] at the Burnley Grammar School to wait upon the happy bridegroom, and request a present for himself and school companions, which was never denied. The fines thus levied were devoted to library purposes not the school library, which was in the oak room, but the boys' library, which was supplied with some of the best periodical literature then published, such as the Penny Magazine, Saturday Magazine, and Basil Hall's stories of adventure and peril."

Another gentleman, writing in the same paper, says :

"The scholars of the Burnley Grammar School had the privilege of sending two of the head boys to all noted weddings to demand ' tribute' from the newly married couple, and the funds were devoted to the cricket club, which was at that time the only one in Burnley."

I believe Mr. P. G. Hamerton, another pupil, in his autobiography alludes to the custom ; and I think he states that the money was not devoted to such laudable objects as the above, but I have not a copy of the book here to refer to. I may add that during my head- mastership (1877-97) I was solicited on several occasions to resuscitate the practice ; but it seemed to me hardly in accordance with the dignity of a grammar school, and it was never done so far as I know. I surmise the

ustom ceased about 1870.

J. LANGFIELD WARD, M.A.

Bath.

TOWNS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR SlTES

(9 th S. vii. 206). I hope your readers will freely contribute to this list, and that I may yet succeed in convincing your incredulous correspondent who some years ago tried to tiold up to ridicule "the strange theory" (propounded by me) "that as Old [river] Bull gradually warped up, the inhabitants of the former Wyk movecl off to the site of the latter [the new town], even taking their dwelling-houses with them " (8 th S. iv. 470).