Re: Thorny issues

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 16:38:59 +1000, Tristan Mc Leay
<kesuari@...> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
> Poster:       Tristan Mc Leay <kesuari@...>
> Subject:      Re: Thorny issues
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ray Brown wrote:
> > Yep - and up in Scotland, yogh and z seem to have got themselves confused,
> >  so we know have. e.g.
> > capercailzie /k&p@(r)'kejli/ a species of grouse
> > and the surnames:
> > Dalziel /di'El/
>
> Whoever thought that up?! silly orthographies :)
>
> > Menzies /'mINIs/
> >
> > Tho I gather the latter has acquired in spelling pronunciation /'mEzIz/ in
> > our former colonies  :)
>
> More like /'menziz/ (or /mEnziz/ or however you want to think of it)
> where  the /i/ is like -y, but I suppose you just accidentally forgot to
> type the /n/ and were thinking in RP. (At least in this former colony
> that has had a Menzies as our head of Government.)
Archibald Menzies was a botanist in the 1700's who introduced a good
number of plants from California to Europe. His last name shows up in
a lot of California native flora botanical Latin names:

Arbutus menziesii - Madrone (related to the Strawberry tree of Ireland
- Arbutus unedo)

Pseudotsuga mensiesii - Douglas Fir

Ribes menziesii - Canyon Gooseberry

Nemophila menziesii - Baby Blue Eyes

Tolmiea menziesii - Piggy Back Plant


Erysmium menziesii - Menzies Wallflower (a very rare but pretty native plant)

Everyone i've heard pronounces it /mEnziEsiaj/, and pronounces
Menzies as /mEnziz/




--
Something gets lost when you translate,
It's hard to keep straight, perspective is everything

- Invisible ink - Aimee Mann -