Ghost of a flea: Sir Ming

? Ana-Kin-Rexic | Main | Underworld: Two months off ?

October 29, 2007

Sir Ming

File under "you learn something new every day". For me, at least. The retirement of Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell lead me to the question: Why is Menzies pronounced Mingis?

Blame the "yogh", a letter in old English and Scots (see image, right) which has no exact equivalent today.

Pronounced "yog", it used to be written a bit like the old copperplate-style "z" with a tail, which helps explain the discrepancy between the spelling of Menzies and the pronunciation. The rise of printing in the 16th Century coincided with the decline of the yogh, and so it tended to be rendered in print as a "z", and pronounced as such.

More yogh information at Wikipedia. I think the letter resembles a yoke but I am probably drawing Indo-European etymological conclusions where there are not to be made.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 29, 2007 07:02 AM

Comments

And there are other letters no longer in English, likeeth, thorn (the reason we end up with "ye old" in store names), and wynn.

I love Wikipedia for stuff like this.

Posted by: JohnAnnArbor at October 29, 2007 01:55 PM

I knew what a yodh was, but I had no idea Menzies was pronounced "mingis." On the other hand, one of my colleagues just pronounced bon mot to rhyme with "pot," so at least I'm not the biggest idiot in the room.

Posted by: utron at October 29, 2007 03:22 PM

I enjoy saying faux pas to rhyme with "hoax pass" to see how many people will correct me.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at October 29, 2007 03:30 PM

Around the home I'll misspronounce words to annoy Wanda; library as "lie-berry" and spaghetti as "pah-sgetti", etc.

Posted by: Chris Taylor at October 29, 2007 04:37 PM

Following the same principle I will sometimes refer to Pasdina Station. So far everyone has just looked confused (though the pasghetti reference seems obvious to me...).

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at October 29, 2007 04:46 PM

My dad once walked up to a perfume counter in a department store and asked how much for a bottle of Channel 5 perfume. You should have seen the look on the sales lady's face.

Posted by: JohnAnnArbor at October 29, 2007 05:06 PM