s 
\ 
114 
Shakespeare, in the Two Gentlemen of 
Verona (act. 1. scene 1.) “ Proteus. 
Therefore thou art a sheep.—Speed. 
Such another proof will make me cry 
baa.”"—It is rather extraordinary that 
Walker remarks, in the Principles of 
Pronunciation, prefixed to his dictionary 
(No. 77), that this word has*been adopted 
precisely for the same purpose “in almost 
all languages.” I am afraid this cireum- 
stance would go fatally to the very foun- 
dation of the whole plan; forit can hardly 
be supposed that “almost all’ nations 
have been uniform, or even nearly so, 
in their pronuneiation of these identical 
letters. 
The barking of the dog I have already 
given on two poetical authorities. I find 
trom Walker*that Aristophanes expresses 
it by the diphthong av, a3; exactly equi- 
valent, says Walker, to our ow in baw- 
we. 
The owl, I have given from Shake- 
speare. Plautus however expresses it 
differently, as ¢u-tu (the very expression 
‘which your first correspondent affirms 
that the same poet has given to the 
euckoo!); and two other authors, an 
English and.a French, write 1 respec- 
tively too-foo and touefou.t —- 
The cries of the crow and the frog 
were also stated in my former letter; but 
each of these I have since found expres- 
‘sed difierently. Parkhurst, in his Greek 
Lexicon, on the word x2g2£, attributes. this 
word (koraxr) to the reven or crow, and- 
‘says, that Aristophanes expresses the 
croaking of the frog by koar. I have 
since seen the freg-chorus in Aristopha- 
nes stated more fully (so far as concerns 
the cry of the anima!) as follows: 
Brekekéx, koax, hoax, 
Brekekéx, hoax, kadx. 
aaa tay aon aes Nea URES Ss VEO S anos 
p. 26. * E longum, cujus sonus in ovium 
balatu sentitur, ut Cratinus et Varro tradi- 
derunt.’ 
perceived inthe bleating of sheep, as Cratinus 
and Varro have handed down to us.” "= 
Qusted from Walker's Key to the Classical Pro- 
nynciation, Dc. page X. 
* Key, &c. page x. 
+ ‘© Plautus: 
—~Tu, tu, istic, inquam, vin’afferi nectuam, 
Que fz, tu, usque dicat tibi ?**- 
«¢ Tt appears here, (says Mr. Forster, in his 
defence of the Greek accents,) that an owl’s 
cry was ty-iu to a Roman ear, as it is too ¢eo 
to an English, _Lambin, who was a French- 
man, observes on the passage: ‘ alludit- ad 
-mOctuz vocem seu cantum, tw-tuv seu tou-fou.’ 
He here alludes to the voice or noise of an 
owl, tu-tu or tou-tou (French), "Quoted: 
fri Walker's Key, Ze ps rie 
The sound of the e long may be. 
On the Plan Sor recording Alphabetical Sounds. [March ty 
As Tanr no naturalist, my ideas are 
not perfectly chear on the subject of a 
bird which [ mentioned in my former 
letter by the name of the pee-wif. Dr. 
Mavor, in his Elements of Natural His- 
tory, gives this a secondary appellation 
of the /epwing. Now Harmer, in some 
part.of his Observations om Passages of 
Scriptsre, speaks of the lapwing as called 
upupa in the Kast, from its note bemg 
pupu :~~and there seems some coinci— 
dence between thisremark and the name 
of hoopoe, given by Dr. Mavor to one 
of the birds that he describes, and which, 
-he says, “ receives its name from its 
note.” The doctor gives a plate of the 
hoopoe; which, I suppose, will help those 
who know more about birds than I de 
to solve the difficulty. 
J mentioned explicitly that I did not 
pretend that the sound assigned to the 
trumpet, in the poetical quotation which 
I gave, was at ali suited to it. I have’ 
since found it much better illustrated : | 
first, in a line from a very old Latin poet 
(Ennius)* 
e At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara 
dixit ;"+ 
And secondly, together with that of ano- 
ther martialinstrument, as follows: 
6s Now, madam, observe how he marches in 
state, sc 
The man with the 4ett/e-drum enters the gate, 
Rub dub a-dub dub: the trumpeters follow, 
Lantara tantara, while all the boys halloo.f - 
I do not know how it was, that I omit- 
ted giving an authority for dantivy asthe - 
sound’ of the hunting-horn, from the song 
of Old Towler: 
Heigho chivy ! 
Hark forward, hark forward, zantivy ! &e. 
Some of my fresh examples I have now © 
given incidentally, among the confirma- 
tions of my old ones. J shall here add 
the rest. 
The name of the bird called cockatoe 
is given to it from its note. : 
A periodical publication of last month, 
in some account of the Feast of Fools — 
(or of the Ass), one of the moralities, or 
sort of sacred dramas, that were formerly 
exhibited in the churches, at particular 
seasons, in Roman-catholie countries, © 
gives the following from Du Cange as 
the first line of the chorus to the song — 
sung in the cathedral of Sens on this oc- 
* Quoted in the notes on Heyne’s Virgil, 
fEneid ix. 503. 
+ “* Bat the trumpet, with a terrible 
ound, said taratantara” . 
i Swift: the verses on Hamiltoi.’s bawn. 
casion 5. 
* 
y 
: 
4 
Z 
