MSGID: 1:153/716.0 70adee80   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 6707b612   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   AK>  I asked about the second name.   
      
   AH>  Oh, I see. I'd describe the initials here as representing a   
   AH>  person's given names and "Milne" as a surname or family name.   
      
   AH>  I understand these things work a bit differently WRT Russian   
   AH>  names... and to complicate matters, a person's given name may   
   AH>  also be the mother's maiden name and/or another individual's   
   AH>  surname where I come from.   
      
   AK>  Is it correct that a second name is always equal to a surname   
   AK>  or family name?   
      
      
              Not always.  If another man introduced himself to you as "Alan   
   Milne" his surname/family name would be the second of two names & for everyday   
   purposes this works most of the time.  But a lot of folks have one or more   
   "middle names" they rarely use.  In this case we know the man's middle name or   
   use his initials   
   ... but then we have three items in the series.  If he wasn't an author he   
   might not have disclosed this information & we wouldn't have to redo the   
   math....  :-)   
      
      
   AK>  How would you write it "Milne" or "Miln" if you never saw   
   AK>  it written.   
      
   AH>  Well, it does rhyme with "kiln"... so if I'd never seen or   
   AH>  heard this name before I might employ the latter until I had   
   AH>  time to investigate further.   
      
   AK>  It remains to me only to wonder about the English language   
   AK>  evolution. How on earth you put a letter into the word and   
   AK>  don't pronounce this letter. ;)   
      
              In some cases at least a word has been adopted from a Scandinavian   
   or northern European language & we've trimmed a few inflections etc.  :-))   
      
      
   AK>  Maybe Milne was spoken differently in the past?   
      
              Quite possibly.  There are many different dialects in the UK, and   
   for us it's not easy to be sure how or when the pronunciation may have   
   changed.  One must also realize that before the advent of the printing press   
   spellings weren't standardized the way they are now.  I've heard Shakespeare   
   didn't always use the same spelling of his own name... and other names often   
   have variations too.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
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