SC - Cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o!

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

I have been looking up "tellina" in a variety of sources today, including 
websites, and various dictionaries in Catalan, Italian and Spanish.  I 
found a variety of definitions: clams, mussels, bivalves, cockles, sunset 
shells, and tellina nitida (a species for which I cannot find a common 
English name).  There is also a family of mollusks by that name.  In 
short, I think that tellina/tallina is one of those words whose meaning 
has varied from time to time and place to place.  Rather like "corn" -- 
which can mean a certain kind of grain, or grains in general.

At this point, all I am willing to say is that Nola means some kind of 
bivalve which is not an oyster or scallop.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net