Re: English is a crazy language

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:33:58 -0400, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
wrote:

>Danny Wier scripsit:
>
>> And the French horn is called _cor anglais_ "English horn" but our
>> English horn is a type of oboe!
>
>I think you have the details mixed here.  The English horn (cor anglais)
>is indeed an alto oboe with two bends in the sound pipe (unlike the
>ordinary oboe, which is straight); it is supposed that its name
>was originally "cor angle'", the bent horn, and was changed in
>French by folk etymology, which was then translated into English.
>There is no documentary proof of this, however.
>
>I don't know the French name of the French horn.
>
>The name of the oboe is also interesting.  It is Italian in origin,
>and came into English as usual by copying the spelling and applying
>an English pron /owbow/; the French version was "hautbois", which
>was at the time /o:bwe/, very like the Italian pron.  (English
>took up "hautboy" for a while but eventually abandoned the word.)
>
>--
>John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
The usual explanation is that the French version -- not the Italian -- is
original from haut (high) + bois (wood), since the oboe is a high-pitched
woodwind.

BTW, the _English_ name of the "French Horn", as used by those who actually
play it, is "Horn". Also see just about any English edition of a symphonic
score.

Jeff J.
Ersh Ha

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