7 JANUARY 1928, Page 21

CURIOSITIES. OF PRONUNCIATION [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In

the old records Fowey is spelt Foy. It is an example of words, not a few, which have changed their spelling but not their pronunciation. Launceston is another. In the old deeds it is Lanson and that is its pronunciation to-day. The spoken word is more vigorous and longer-lived than the written. People in this county of Huntingdon still say

housen but they write " houses."

What Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch thinks of Foy, now Fowey, is sufficiently reflected in a book of his which purports to be the history of a town called Troy. How conies Keighley to be called Keithley ?—I am, Sir, &c., Huntingdon. CRAIG COLIN.