130 



meaning attached to its primitive designation ; or did the inhabitants of 

 the Southern parts of Wales, who still sometimes exchange uncompli- 

 mentary epithets with their Northern neighbours, spitefully or con- 

 temptuously adopt a name held in honour by their hereditary foes or 

 rivals as one of infamy amongst themselves 1 * 



The ventilation of this question might, perhaps, elicit some of that 

 curious information, or of those ingenious hypotheses which find a genial 

 home in the pages of " Notes and Queries." 



The names of places and persons in the districts dominated by the 

 Romans, composed of Celtic elements, appear to have been generally 

 euphonized by tbem, and adopted into their language. 



We cannot doubt, that in the case under consideration, the honours 

 of deification, and the legend or myth attached to the name of Sabrina 

 were of Roman origin, and the principles upon which the word 

 "Hafren" has been converted into "Sabrina," admit of exemplification 

 from so many languages and their dialectic changes, as to become per- 

 fectly intelligible. The Latin tongue having no sound equivalent to 

 that of the hard Welsh " uch," by the pi'ocess of adaptation of sounds 

 to the power of vocal enunciation, which becomes in the lapse of time 

 characteristic of races, and may be traced through many other lan- 

 guages, has substituted for it the softer sound of S. 



Without going more deeply into the subject of dialectic variations, 

 it will suffice to be reminded how constantly and systematically 

 such changes are adopted, even by people of cognate origin. The 

 transition of P, F, or V, into B and P, is common to too many lan- 

 guages and dialects, to require more than a passing reference. In point of 

 fact the difference of prommciation, as regards either letter, is little 

 greater than that upon which the lives of a race once hung in the word 

 « Shibboleth." 



The Saxons, in all probability, adopted Romano-British words for 

 incoi-poration into their own language in like manner. Ignoring 

 the myth, they felt that, by the natural change of B into V, the name 

 would be not only significant, but appropriate, and Sabrina, the nymph, 

 became Sseferan, by elision Saefren, from 'Saiferan,' Anglo-Saxon, to go to 

 the sea, " the sea fa/re or way," by which name it is still known, pre- 

 serving amongst the people of the district, through all the changes of 

 language which have since taken place, its ancient pronunciation. 



Few words, could more succinctly prove the correctness of the 

 principle, upon which we may suppose the later appellation to have 

 been formed, or which enables us more truly to trace derivations 

 of others, exhibiting similar peculiarities, from languages as distinct 



