,
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 have 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 Scandinavian forms, others are said to be Northern forms. 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 normal 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. (
Greek characters), (Greek characters), (Greek characters)
This statement is unfortunately incomplete 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.
