Sir Menzies Campbell

[bruce5755]

Something that has puzzled me since he came on the scene is, who decided that Menzies was to be pronounced Ming? Does this mean that for years I have been mis-pronouncing the name of my old newsagent, or is this just a matter of Bucket/Bouquet sindrome?

[Quizmonster]

The Scottish name, Menzies, is properly pronounced Ming-is. There are other examples of this unusual pronunciation of 'nz'...there's a large manor-house in Aberdeenshire called Enzean House. It's pronounced ing-in house. Consider the following litle poem...

A lively young damsel named Menzies
Inquired: "Do you know what this thenzies?"
Her aunt, with a gasp
Replied: "It's a wasp,
And you're holding the end where the stenzies!"

[jno]

do gasp and wasp rhyme in Scotland, QM?

To add to the answer, I'm pretty sure the newsagents always pronounced their name as spelt, with the Z.

[Quizmonster]

Yes, J, 'wasp' and 'gasp' do rhyme in the Scots lingo...at least they certainly do in certain parts of that country. Having said that, I think in this instance all we have really is an eye-rhyme.
Strangely enough, the newsagent Menzies - for whatever reason - was as you suggest invariably pronounced men-zeez in my hearing, even in Scotland!

[aristotle]

I had always been told the newsagent was also Mingis though I refused to pronounce it that way. This comes from some ancient English scribe copying the letter g as a z when writing down some Scottish dialect.

[spudqueen]

I think this explains it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menzies.

[heathfield]

The problem with the pronounciation is all down to alphabetical letters used in medieval scripts that looked like the number '3'. When typeface printing came along, these weren't included in the printer's sets of letters, and it was usually represented in type as a 'z', it being the nearest shape.
But...the way the '3' was originally written, fully rounded, or flat top and rounded base, for example, could all vary the pronounciation of the letter. It could represent a 'yee' sound, or a hard 'g', or a soft 'z'
Compounding this is the name itself, which is found over Scotland from 'Mingus' (Min3uss, where '3' = hard 'g' ) through to 'Mennies' (from Men3iss, where '3' = 'yee' ).

(Most Scottish place-names containing a 'z' retain the 'yee' sound, as in 'Dalrulzion' = 'Dal-rul-yion).

The result of all this is that you'll just have to ask any person called 'Menzies' just how they want their name to be pronounced.