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JAWS
10-Jan-06, 20:06
"He's the frontrunner for the Lib Dem leadership, but why is Sir Menzies Campbell's first name pronounced Mingis?" B.B.C.

Don't switch off, it's not a party political broadcast.
Take a glance at this site and see if you, like me (or should it be I?), end up more confused after the explanation than before you started.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4595228.stm
connieb19
10-Jan-06, 20:12
"He's the frontrunner for the Lib Dem leadership, but why is Sir Menzies Campbell's first name pronounced Mingis?" B.B.C.

Don't switch off, it's not a party political broadcast.
Take a glance at this site and see if you, like me (or should it be I?), end up more confused after the explanation than before you started.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4595228.stmIt might as well have been written in german, for all the sense it made to me...lol:confused:
landmarker
10-Jan-06, 20:19
I was wondering that too. I mean when you buy a newspaper or book in the chain of stores called John Menzies, you dont call it John Mingis do you? Is this a Scottish quirk? because I know he is a Scot.

As an aside, I find it funny that his supporters have been nicknamed 'mingers' which is youth slang around here for an ugly person. I dunno if has reached Caithness yet.
rich62_uk
10-Jan-06, 20:20
Well Alison from Aberdeen further down the page certainly understood and even added her two-pennys worth.

In this neck of the woods, Menzies would be pronounced Menzees, which is an awful lot nicer than Mingis.
Alison , Aberdeen

:confused:
DW
10-Jan-06, 20:58
I was wondering that too. I mean when you buy a newspaper or book in the chain of stores called John Menzies, you dont call it John Mingis do you? Is this a Scottish quirk? because I know he is a Scot.

You do in the part of Scotland I come from. That's exactly what we used to call Menzies - "Mingis"

Anyway isn't it strange that the LibDems got rid of Chuck for being an alky and now they all want to get " Ming in "? [smirk]
landmarker
10-Jan-06, 21:02
You do in the part of Scotland I come from. That's exactly what we used to call Menzies - "Mingis"



Well, I never knew that!
Edinburgh?? Do tell.
I used to work for opposition R.S. McColl - on the distribution side after they merged with Martin's down south.
Gleber2
10-Jan-06, 21:06
We had an art teacher in Thurso High who got really annoyed if You called him anything but Mingis.He was mr.Menzies and belt happy.
Whitewater
10-Jan-06, 22:28
We had an art teacher in Thurso High who got really annoyed if You called him anything but Mingis.He was mr.Menzies and belt happy.

I knew him as well, (are we giving away our vintage here Gleber2?)

I also have a friend in Inverness who pronounces it MinGiss
cullbucket
10-Jan-06, 22:32
Mr Mingis was deputy rector by the time I got to THS, but was still the hardest tweeger in the school.....
Saveman
10-Jan-06, 22:37
Hey thats how they taught us to write a z in joined up writing at school!
It was like a 3 shape.....wow I always wondered why that was......now I know!
JAWS
10-Jan-06, 22:49
Somebody once told me that they had a high ranking officer in the Army whose name was Sidebottom.
He insisted it was pronounced Sid Hay Bottaaaam. The 'Bot' as on bottle and the 'Taaaam' as in salami.
The male version of Mrs. Bucket, sorry Bouquet, I suppose.

The question is, who is right, the person who insists their name is pronounced in a completely different way to that in which it is spelt, or the idiot who caused it to have the wrong spelling in the first place?
Or is it just a matter of being different for the sake of being different?