RC-194951-15042013

Stevan picked up on Lizzie's comment regarding pronunciation after my last post.  To a certain extent the names are there just to make it easier for you to find yarn on the website if you want to buy it again, but what he had to say was interesting, so I thought I'd pass it on:

Lizzie was asking about pronunciation of the names of the yarn bases. Of course, the need for names is really to be able to find them on the web site rather than use them in everyday speech, so Helen's choices could be taken as interesting cultural connections rather than necessarily making it difficult.  But, while I'm not a linguist or even a Gaelic or Norn speaker, here goes, on the assumption that I'll soon be corrected.

Na Dannsairean can be pronounced like a cross between "nah down-sirrin" and "nah dahn-sirrin."  Interestingly, in Afrikaans, the word for "dance" is pronounced in a similar manner to the Gaelic.  The Afrikaans is "dans" but it pronounced with just a nod to the "n," which just elongates the "ah" sound - "daahns."

Hjaltland is interesting.  Obviously the "j" is pronounced like a "y." That leaves you with a sound like "huh-yet-land," the "huh" being short.  Now if you say that to yourself a few times, but move your tongue in your mouth on the first syllable, the "huh-yet" starts to become sibilant - it becomes like a "sh" sound. Try it and listen to yourself.  BUT there's further interest in the possible history of the name.  An older form of "Shetland" is "Zetland."  There's a suburb of Sydney in Australia by this name, I believe.  But where does that "Z" come from? It makes it sound vaguely Dutch.  Well, of course, it was never a "Z." It was a Yogh.  The yogh was common in Older Scots and Middle English, was represented by a sort of cursive Z, and printers who didn't have the proper character used a Z instead.  This was mainly the "Yuh" sound, which brings us back to our original "huh-yet-land" but with a different spelling.

And now you also know why the Scots name Menzies is pronounced the way it is, almost like "Ming-iss."  And why the name MacKenzie is incorrect pronunciation in comparison with its Gaelic origin which sounds more like "mac-con-yich"

Isn't yarn wonderful?