SIR C. AUCHINLECK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1941, Page 3

SIR C. AUCHINLECK

PRONUNCIATION OF HISTORIC NAME. The controversy over what General Sir Claude Auchinleck may or may not have said fills me, as a Scotsman (writes a correspondent of the “Manchestei- Guardian”) with wondering scorn as I hear it discussed in cafes, clubs, on tramcars, on buses, in railway trains, and elsewhere. Not one of the controversialists but hashes up profanely the gallant general’s ancient and honourable name. To hear Auchinleck pronounced “Awkinleck,” “Otchinleck,” “Okkinleck,” “Owtchinleck,” and so forth, reminds me of the pitiful attempts on General Wauchope’s name in the South African war, when the lamented Scotsman became “Walk-up,” “Watch-hope,” •“Washup,” and what not. Will Englishmen never learn that most Scottish ■ names, Marjoribanks, Wemyss, Home,, and so on, have arbitrary pronunciations all their own, that are so many traps for the uninitiated? Auchinleck, when properly pronounced, bears no resemblance, in the first half of the word, to the spelling of the first syllable, and “Miscellany” readers may henceforth display their superiority over the unlettered critic by referring to “General Affleck,” which, after all, is quite easy to say. James Boswell, who lived in Auchinleck House, and # whose father was Lord Auchinleck, is careful to inform us of the common and proper pronunciation of the name, and it may be remarked that the estate had been in his family from the year 1504.