I must trouble you and some of your readers with a few words, in reply
to the doubt of "C.W.G." (No. 16. p. 248.) respecting the word _sprote_.
I do not think the point, and the Capital letter to _saliu_ in the Latin
text, conclusive, as nothing of the kind occurs in the A.-S. version,
where the reading is clearly, "_swa hwylce swa_, on watere swymmath
sprote." I have seen the Cottonian MS., which, as Mr. Hampson observes,
is very distinctly written, both in the Saxon and Latin portions; so
much so in the latter, as to make it a matter of surprise that the
doubtful word _saliu_ should ever have been taken for _salu_, or
_casidilia_ for _calidilia_. The omission of the words _sprote_ and
_saliu_, in the St. John's MS., would only be evidence of a more
cautious scribe, who would not copy what he did not understand.
Your correspondent's notion, "that the name of some fish, having been
first interlined, was afterwards inserted at random in the text, and
mis-spelt by a transcriber who did know its meaning," appears to me very
improbable; and the very form of the words (_sprote_, _saliu_, supposing
them substantives), which have not plural terminations, would, in my
mind, render his supposition untenable. For, be it recollected, that
throughout the answers of the Fiscere, the fish are always named in the
_plural_; and it is not to be supposed that there would be an exception
in favour of _sprote_, whether intended for _sprat_ or _salmon_. Indeed,
had the former been a river fish, Hulvet and Palsgrave would have
countenanced the supposition; but then we must have had it in the plural
form, _sprottas_. As for the suggestion of _sprod_ and _salar_, I cannot
think it a happy one; salmon (_leaxus_) had been already mentioned; and
_sprods_ will be found to be a very confined local name for what, in
other places, are called _scurfes_ or _scurves_, and which we, in our
ignorance, designate as salmon trout. In the very scanty A.-S.
ichthyologic nomenclature we possess, there is nothing to lead us to
imagine that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors had any corresponding word for a
salmon trout. I must be excused, therefore, for still clinging to my own
explanation of _sprote_, until something more _specious_ and _ingenious_
shall be advanced, but in full confidence, at the same time, that some
future discovery will elucidate its truth.
S.W. Singer.
Feb. 19. 1850.
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