The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-08-19
Some CUrioSifieS
in Nomenclature


Christopher Bs Eister, in Times-Herald
Chumley and Cholmondeley, Marsh
banks and MajCribanks and few similar
exhibitions of freakishness In the pronun-
citation of English proper names have
gone far to convince everyone that there
are no rules by which it can be told in
advance how an effort of this kind is go
ing 10 sound, however well known its
spelling may be. But the real enormities
of the English system or lack or II can
only become apparent to the careful stu
dent of such matters-and the more care
ful the stddcnt the greater the enormit-
les. He viii, it is true, succeed in bring
ing out a rule or two for the guidance of
those who come after him. but the rules
will be few and the names many, so that
his work is of little value at best 1t can
be safely said, however, that an English
mans name Is his to muss up, quite as
| much as his home is his castle, and the
results of one are as incongruous as the
castles ship of the other. There are three
names from the French. to take an eX-
| ample quite at random. which came into
| English at nearly the some time and have
much the same sort of meaning. These
are Beauchamp, a pleasant field; Beau
clerc. n good writer, and Beauiin, well
| ended, aI of them, it will be noted, hav-
| ing the same word for their first syl-
| liable. VIII it be believed that they are
pronounced as if spelled beccham, with
| a long "e;' boClar. with a long co." and
| biffin, with "a short 'i"? What, then, is
the law governing the word beau in
composition? There isn't any.
| But there are a few laws, as has been
said. store" in combination with other
syllablcs, itself being the last, is always
| called stun" Thus Blackstone and
| Blackstone are spelled ,ndifferentiy bux-
| ton and blaXston, while Gladstone IS
| called gladstun, of course. "Ou" at the
| beginning of name is "oo' long, as in
| Ouse, Ouless, Outram, Ousely and some
| others. "Ough" has the uniform sound
| of 'uf' in monosyllables. as in Clough,
| Hough and Lough, instead of being dis
| tributed all over the alphabet. as in CON-
| mon nouns, In the terminational "ces-
| ter" the two letters &C. and "e'' are not
| sounded, and they generally succeed IN
| drawing others down with them, Bices-
| ter (bister), CirenCester (siseter), and
some others not so much so. "G" is gen.
| orally hard before 'e'' and "i'' also, as in
Flgin. elliott, Gill. Clifford and some 9TH
c.s, but short in Nigel, a Latin name, and
| In Gillett, as coming from Giles, another
Latin name. Terminational "ohun' is
| ''oon," as in Bohun and Mohun. Hope
| Is up" with short "u," as in Court
hope Stanhope (cortup. stanup), and
|
sound being the obscurest possible MOI
does the 'h' in this soften the So it may
| happen to follow, therefore Gotham is
| got'm. Hotham is hut'm Bentham
bent'm, and so on. "Ys" as an ending
might better have the "y" out, for Oidys
is olds sandys, sands; Pepys peps. peeps
or pips knollys, noz, and Wemys
weems. Initial "a" is long in Aram and
| AVIAN, and it is also long in the first syl.
lables of Barring, Bagehor (baje-u), and
| Bathurst, where the 9Th" is sounded as
| in the word then" "Er" is generally
pronounced ar, as in Berkeley, Derby
| Herts, HertfOrd, Dcrwent and many
more. This is the Old English rule in such
matters as may be seen I'm Bartram ant
Bertram, Bernard and Barnard, and ir
| tho common nouns merchant anC
CLERK" from which come the not un.
usual family names Marchant and Clark
| Short 90 Is frequently the short "u' oi
today, as in Cromwell, Boleyn and oth
ers And it is just here or hereabouts thai
| rules stop.
How can a law for final tx" be evolved
from data which include MolyneuX (mol
linooks), MeuX (muse), Vaux Cvawks)
De Gex (de jay) and a few others equal,
| miscellaneous? What OF Crichton (crit'n
and CREIGHTON (crayt'n)? When Charter.
Is i'm two syllables as well as Spottis
woode, why should Cheves and Lewes b,
in two syllables also? How can you, OF
anybody, account for Ascough (ask"yom
Bswick (bu-ik), and Leveson Qu-s'n)? Ev
eryone knows that the poet Cowper ant
the novelist Coopev pronounced theil
family names alike, but why did they
spell them differently? 1t all ends up il
the wise and ancient saw that fool car
ask questions, but
There is set of English names in com
mon use which are derived from the ap
pellations OF saints, and these show how
far corruptons may extend. Toolcy ol
Tuley Is from ST, Olave, Sidney from ST
Denis, Simbarb from st. Barbe, ST. Savior
Sissiver; st. Paul, Simple Semple, Sem
pole; st Leo, Sallow; st. Austin, Sustin
ST. Omer, Somer, Somers; ST. Clair, Sin
csair Sinkler; st. Leger, Slllinger; st. Hi
airy, Sillary; St. Amand, Sandman, Sam