332 PHONETIC ANOMALIES OBSERVED IN SOME 
To the vocal organs of some of the early Norse immigrants in 
Italy /, in certain combinations, appears to have been a difficult let- 
ter: hence Firenze for Florentia; and generally z for 1 when followed 
by a vowel: as in the familiar piano, piazza, for plano, plazza. We 
may notice that some of our Indian tribes have the same difficulty in 
the utterance of English words: with Ojibways, Montreal is Moneong, 
English, Yaganash, and so on. It used to be considered amusing 
by Canadian boys that the Indian could not say “plenty;”’ it was 
always ‘“‘puenty.”’ 
FR appears to have been occasionally another awkward letter. 
-Hence we have for Pistoria, Pistoia; for lavatoriwm, lavatoio; for 
cochleare, cucchiajo, &c. Such a word as bore would inevitably have 
become Jaw, as an amusing periodical sometimes renders it. Some 
of our Indians again experienced the same difficulty with r. In 
Lewis's Iroquois Map, Toronto is set down as Deonda, Onyagara as 
Neageh, &c.* 
The generality of the inhabitants of Saragossa and Grenoble would 
at this day as little recognize Cesar Augusta and Grantianopolis, as 
the plain people of Brighton, Exeter, or Windsor would Bright- 
helmstone, Exanceaster, Wyndleshore. 
Still these corrupted forms of ancient proper names, when placed 
side by side with their respective originals, have helped to preserve 
for us certain sounds and pronunciations, current long centuries 
ago, which would otherwise, perhaps, have vanished without a trace. 
Sounds and pronunciations are, we know, very impalpable and 
fluctuating things; it is almost impossible to fix them—to embalm 
them, so to speak, from age to age—except by a musical notation. 
In languages where rhyme has been admitted into poetical com- 
position, a proof of ancient pronunciation may occasionally be dis- 
covered. Thus we learn from Spencer (1553—1598) that our curious 
- modern pronunciation of “‘Tems,” for Thames, is at least 300 years 
old. In his Prothalamion in honour of the Ladies Elizabeth and 
Katherine Somerset, ‘‘he walked forth,” he says, 
“ Along the shore of silver-streaming Thames, 
Whose rutiy bank, the which his river hems 
Was painted all with variable flowers, 
And all the meads adorn’d with dainty gems 
Fit to deck maidens’ bowers.” 
et 
® In Baraga’s “Otchipwe Dictionary” the articles F, L, and 2, do not appear. 
