Issue 663 of The Big Issue features a story I wrote, entitled ‘The Book Place’, about my local library service. The special library edition has finished its sales run, but some vendors keep recent issues to sell, so it’s worth checking if you haven’t yet got a copy, and if like me, you prefer to read print. Otherwise, you can download and read a pdf version on your preferred device.
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Illuminating your search for words
An error in Issue 1 of The Raptorial was brought to my attention by subscriber Teneille Clerke. I’d used ‘Melbournian’ rather than ‘Melburnian’ to describe a person hailing from Melbourne. And so follows a little lesson in etymology, Latin, and the wonders of the Internet to understand why ‘Melburnian’ is the correct spelling (for now).
Let’s start with the ending. The suffixes ‘ian’ or ‘an’, used to turn nouns into adjectives, are Latin in origin. So far, so clear.
Now, a quick wade into Latin (no deep dive): ‘Melbourne’ contains the diphthong ‘ou’, which does not exist in Latin. Okay, enough Latin!
On to etymology: from my research, I’ve learned that in 1876, Melbourne Grammar School (in Melbourne, Australia) named their publication The Melburnian to avoid incorrectly mixing a Latin suffix with a non-Latin word (remember, no 'ou' in Latin). The Latin for ‘Melbourne’ is ‘Melburnia’, hence the adjective formed with the Latin variant and the Latin suffix ‘an’ is ‘Melburnian’. This, subsequently, influenced the use of 'Melburnian' in the capital city of Victoria, Australia.
Finally, looking at the Google Books Ngram Viewer for use of the two spellings in publications over the years, it appears that despite having had the case made for it in 1876, it took almost a century for ‘Melburnian’ to overtake ‘Melbournian’.
In the years between 1876 and 1972, Melbourne Grammar alumni may have been ‘correct’, but the masses (of published text) begged to differ. Unfortunately, those were pre-internet days and Ngram wasn't available to resolve disputes with Melbourne Grammarians. However, it is worth noting that filtering the Ngram for only Australian publications was not possible, so perhaps the influence of Melbourne Grammar School is lost in data that includes all English language texts.
I hope you’ve found this illuminating, whether or not you are Melburnian.
If you need help finding, crafting or refining your words, get in touch.
Fascinating....Who would have thought that there was such a story behind the addition/subtraction of one letter. I have actually often wondered about that difference, and had just put it down to some weird local usage. Just goes to show though, that whilst Latin might not be studied much these days, but it still has a powerful influence on our language.