Q WHAT was the Kellogg Briand Pact and is there any connection with Kellogg's, maker of breakfast cereal? - Jeff Wilkinson, South Moor, Stanley.A THE pact was an agreement made between the US and France in 1927. The countries renounced war in favour of finding more peaceful means of settling disputes. Its name comes from the United States secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg (1856-1937) and the French foreign minister Aristide Briand. Fifteen other countries signed in August 1928 but the great weakness of the pact was that it did not make provision for dealing with aggressors. Frank Kellogg was the son of a wheat farmer, I haven't found any connection with Kellogg's cereals. The inventor of cornflakes was another American, John Harvey Kellogg, who developed the recipe in the late 19th Century.Q DOES a cry for assistance Mayday, Mayday come from the French language meaning help me? Why are Yorkshiremen called Tykes and how did the Cockney greeting wotcher come about, it sounds like what chair? Is there any connection between Holland and the wife of a Duke, ie Duchess? - E Reynolds, The Lodge, Office Street, Wheatley Hill.A MAYDAY does indeed come from the French m'aidez which means help me. The distress call used to radio for help is internationally recognised and is used by ships and aircrafts. There is a word tyke, of Old Norse origin and has probably been used since Viking times when the Vikings settled much of Yorkshire and made York their capital in England. It was originally used to describe a vicious snarling dog or a low-bred dog, but quite why this word would be applied to a Yorkshireman is not known. The word has certainly been used to describe a Yorkshireman for some centuries and was originally applied to clownish rustics who inhabited the county. Another possibility is that the word derives from a Welsh word taeog (Old Welsh taiawc). Taeog meant villain or churl both of which were originally a kind of Medieval farmer, but later applied to rogues. In Cornwall the related word was tioc meaning husbandman, farmer or ploughman. As the early inhabitants of Yorkshire spoke a language closely related to Welsh, it may be a survival of those times. Duchess is simply a feminine form of Duke and has more of a French connection than a Dutch origin. The word derives from the Middle English (the language spoken in Medieval England after the Conquest) and was originally duchesse from an Old French word. The original root of the word was the Latin ducissa. This word was based on the Latin dux ducis meaning 'leader' from which the Old French word duc derived. This developed into the English word duke. Wotcher is an easy one, it is of course a shortened form of the phrase what cheer? Do you have a Burning Question, or can you improve on any of the answers above? Please write to Burning Questions, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF or send an E-Mail to dsimpson@nen.co.uk