Nelson & His World

I’ve made a comment on another thread (I think) about the pronunciation of 'Trafalgar'. Nowadays, we say Tra-FAL-gar, with the accent on the middle syllable; but it is clear that as late as the mid-19th century, the word was pronounced with the accent on the last syllable, Traffle-GAR. The rhythm of two poems of the period confirms this:

Branwell Bronte wrote in his long poem to Nelson:

‘They gaze on six and thirty years ago,
They see where fell the ‘thunderbolt of war’
On the storm-swollen waves of Trafalgar.’

And George Meredith wrote:

‘Uprose the soul of him a star
On that brave day of Ocean days:
It rolled the smoke of Trafalgar
To darken Austerlitz ablaze,’

I received a few days ago a letter from a correspondent with whom I have been discussing unrelated poetical matters; but he knows of my interest in Nelson, and included this comment:

In 1945, maybe a year before or after, I went with 15 other boys, and our headmaster, to have tea with Lord Nelson at Trafalgar House near Salisbury. On the tea table he had two enormous decorated cups, I suppose they would have been called, about 18 inches high, ornate, one silver and another silver gilt, given to Nelson on occasions when he was to be specially honoured. He showed us mementos of the admiral, and some of the rooms in the house. But the thing that sticks most clearly in my mind is that he told us of the proper pronunciation of the battle name, as best as I can type it, was TRAffle-guh, with the accent on the first syllable and the final uh very brief.’

So: TRAffle-guh? TraFALgar? or Traffle-GAR?

Anna,

Naturally I was brought up to say Tra-FAL-gar, as were most of us today, and I believe you're right in saying the last syllable of the word was emphasised in the 19th century.

To widen this thread if I may, and I'm sure you'll have no objection (!), I am also quite interested in the derivation of names – Trafalgar certainly being no exception. I came across this very interesting page, which I'm sure you will find so too:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 2003_pg3_4

Although it would seem that Browning, in his poem 'Home thoughts from the Sea', pronounced it the modern way:

http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/125/

Yes, but it is poets and song-writers that caused all the problems in the first place! What about “The Death of Nelson” by John Braham, first performed in 1811, causing Emma Hamilton to collapse in hysterics? That has:

'Twas in Trafalgar's bay
We saw the Frenchman lay,
Each heart was bounding then.
We scorned the foreign yoke,
For our Ships were British Oak,
And hearts of oak our men!

Clearly the stress has to be on the second syllable.

But that was very likely the song that changed the word’s previous pronunciation. The Spanish pronunciation stresses the last syllable, and earlier English alternative phonetic spellings were Trafflegar and Traflagar. Clearly the one syllable that was not stressed was the second syllable!

Maybe that’s what caused the hysterics

Newbolt used the spelling 'Traflagar', and the Monthly Review said that according to Admiral Sir Windham Phipps Hornby, who served under Hardy, the sailors pronounced the word "Traflagar".

There is a footnote in the 1897 NRS publication of Sir George Rooke’s journal as follows: 'Cape Trafflegar – Trafalgar. The spelling shows that the pronunciation in Rooke’s time was Trafălgăr, which is the proper, but not the usual, pronunciation now.' I assume that means the stress was on the first syllable.

I guess that without the BBC, your pronunciation would depend on where you first heard it said, or sung, and if you read it off a chart, you made your own guess!

But Lord Nelson must be a more reliable source than the poets’ efforts to make their verses scan!

Cabo de Trafalgar is a Spanish name. The rule in Spanish is that the accent goes on the penultimate syllable when the word ends in a vowel and on the last when it ends in a consonant. Thus ValENcia and SegOVia but TrafalGAR.

The British have a history of mangling foreign names they can't pronounce; but this one is simple enough to get right. Our mispronunciation of GibralTAR as GibROLtar is presumably a deliberate gesture of national defiance!

Brian

I have found some confirmation that it was the song “The Death of Nelson” (‘Twas in Trafalgar’s Bay) that changed the English pronunciation.

On March 24, 1894 The New York Times printed a snippet from the London Telegraph which commented that “correctly the accent of that last word [Trafalgar] is on the last syllable, but the exigencies of a song placed it on the second, where, for Englishmen only, it has remained ever since”.

According to Dorothy Constance Peel in ‘The stream of time: social and domestic life in England, 1805-186’ (published 1931), 'When the Battle of Trafalgar was fought, the name was pronounced TrafalGAR. Later, because of the shifting of the accent by SJ Arnold in his song " 'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay" (which made a great success in an opera named " The Americans," by John Braham), it was more generally so pronounced'.

Thanks, both, for those satisfyingly conclusive posts. TraffleGAR it is!

Actually, the small town I grew up in had, like many others, a Trafalgar Street. Some of the very old people called it TraffleGAR Street, but we thought they were just a bit peculiar.

The Arnold/Braham song appeared not long after Nelson's death, I think, but obviously, the old, correct pronunciation of TraffleGAR hung on for some years, well into the Victorian era.

The Death of Nelson was a VERY popular song during the "golden age of parlour music."

I already knew of one impact it had. i.e. the wording of Nelson's signal was changed so that it scanned better.

s.b. England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty

changed to England Expects That Every Man This Day Will Do His Duty.

That wording became the accepted version of the signal for many, many people - and you will find that it is still regularly quoted to this very day.

But I never realised about the Trafalgar pronunciation issue until today. AMAZING!!

MB

Yes, you're right! Here are the words by S.J. Arnold

http://ingeb.org/songs/oernelso.html

Even as late as the 1950s, this was a popular song on the 'wireless' as we used to call it, sung by the wonderful Australian bass-baritone, Peter Dawson. I remember it well - my Dad always used to join in!

Here is a portrait of the tenor, John Braham, often said to be the finest singer England ever produced. He composed the tune of 'The Death of Nelson' as well as 'Twas in Trafalgar Bay' and numerous other patriotic songs of the period.

http://www.cornishwonder.com/page4.htm

How about the Arabic: Al-taraf al-agharr is just one of many transliterations I've seen, but what does that sound like?

I consulted a native speaker of the language. My friend Hassan says "ahl TAR-ahff 'l ah-(v)GHARR." In the final syllable, the lips hint at a V, without touching the teeth, while the GH sounds like the French "R" as in "Rameau" (Hassan's description); and there's a slight R-roll at the end. It sounds wonderful! Much better than it reads phonetically.

The cadence is the same as "I'm GOing to the STORE."

Or " ' Twas in Trafalgar's bay"

More uncertainties: however you pronounce it, what does 'Trafalgar' actually mean?



http://baheyeldin.com/history/trafalgar ... aning.html

Anna,

Apparently it means 'Cape of the Cave'. More in the link I posted earlier:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 2003_pg3_4

I am not so sure. Working out how mediaeval arabic came to be mispronounced into modern Spanish and thence into English is an imperfect science.

In arabic 'ghar' means two things - 'cave' and 'laurels'. 'Gharb' also means 'west'. Thus I have seem Trafalgar translated as 'Cape of the Cave'; 'Cape of the Laurels' and 'Cape of the West'. Sir Richard Burton said it was the second in his dictionary. The 'Times' says it was the first. Frankly. having been there and having seen no sign of any cave or of any laurels, I would put my money on the third. In mediaeval Andaluz would it not have been its westernmost promentary?

Brian

Fiddler!

Did Hassan tell you what 'aghar' means. It is a totally different word to 'ghar' (cave or laurel) - just as 'ahead' is different from 'head'. It must be an adjective since the use of 'el' twice shows the adjectival form (as in 'el-beit el-abyod' the White House.)

I think in your understandable enthusiasm for the sound of spoken arabic you slightly misheard Hassan. Before a hard 'T' arabic 'elides' (ie does not pronounce) the 'l' in 'el' but repeats the letter that follows. Thus he would have said 'aT-TARif al-ahGHARR'.

Brian