Re: Funny Forsskaolii

At 21:51 4/11/98 GMT, Tim wrote:

>The spelling is a problem. Betsy Clebsch has FORSKAOLEI. So does
>Christine Yeo. So, once upon a time, did T. Longville. Then up popped
>THE PLANT FINDER, the UK Bible nowadays for plant names, and opted for
>FORSSKAOLII. Which obediently I'm now trying to switch to. Notice,
>though, that in my first attempt I missed out one of the two s'es (how
>do you spell THAT? I know there shouldn't be an apostrophe but how the
>heck else to indicate the pronunciation? - esez, not sez). Mrs Clebsch
>says that the plant is named in honour of a plant collector from
>Finland called Peter Forsskal. That accounts, I guess, for the second
>s. Now can someone tell me what accounts for the o (kaOlii)?? 

That's easy.  The man's name is Swedish (he's a Finn of Swedish descent,
probably), and the letter "a" in skal isn't "a" at all. but "a" with a
little "o" on top of it (pronounced like English "or" or "aw").
Historically, that letter (which comes at the end of the alphabet) was
originally "ao", and is supposed to be written like that if your font
doesn't have the correct character -- i.e., Mrs Clebsch actually got it
wrong there in writing the bloke's name, though it's a common error.

Our man's ancestor was presumably the official poet (skald) of a king or
lord called For -- For's skald.  That's why there are two esses -- the
possessive in Swedish is the same as in English, but their spelling in
surnames is more rational -- if I was Swedish, I'd be Atkinsson -- probably
with a couple of dots on the "a" too (which turns it into yet another letter
we rarely use these days in English).

>Greetings from the for once dry and sunny shores of the Solway Firth,
>UK (snow on the hills already but no frosts yet by the sea)

I envy you

John (suffering from snow-deprivation already -- will I make it through to
next June?)
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