"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...

Pronunciations are a very local matter usually, aren't they? And of
course,
the pronunciation of plant names seems to be a very personal one, too.
We've often had 'debates' on here about how people pronounce different
things. My old name used to be Villiers, and the last 'i' is never
pronounced but in South Africa, where there are a lot of people of that
name, it always is! My husband had great fun trying to find Kirkcudbright
when he was pronouncing it as it is spelled. And someone has just kindly
sent us some Crocosmia called 'Culzean Pink'. How was I to know that
it's first name is pronounced 'Killhane'!


The "z" in Culzeal as in many Scottish names - Menzies, "Dalziel" in
"Dalziel and Pascoe" often represents the archaic letter yogh.

quote

yogh /jg/ n. ME. [Origin unkn.] The letter , originally a loose writing
of g in Old English but developing in Middle English as a distinct letter
to represent a palatal semivowel (/j/) initially and medially, a voiced
velar or palatal fricative medially, and a voiceless velar or palatal
fricative medially and finally. In later Middle English it was replaced
by silent gh, y, and medial and final w. The letter z in some Scottish
words (now chiefly place-names and surnames), such as Menzies /--/,
Kirkgunzeon /--/, is an adaptation of yogh.

---------------------------------------------------------
Oxford English Dictionary C/D
Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

/quote

Although quite how you get "Killhane" out of that little lot, is
another matter. I'm still working on "Dalziel" and "Menzies" myself.

michael adams

....

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)