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| | Lingua Franca - 20/5/2000: The Russian Woodpecker Mystery... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-12) |
 | | In Spanish the woodpecker is variously known as 'picaposte', 'picamaderos', 'picobarreno', the borer, and 'o carpintero', the carpenter bird. |
 | | It is possible then, that the name of the Russian woodpecker was brought to England by ships' crews returning with cargoes of pine for masts and spars. |
 | | Unaccustomed to the 'd-ya' sound, formed with the Russian D and what looks like a reversed R but which is in fact a soft vowel, 'ya', English seamen may have dropped the D and formed 'yattle', later softened to 'yaffle'. |
| www.abc.net.au /rn/arts/ling/stories/s128890.htm (1897 words) |
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