Ngaio Marsh

[Larry Trask]

Robert Whiting writes:

> English just doesn't allow /ng/
> in initial position.  Of course, phontactical rules are relaxed
> for foreign loans.  Thus there are loans from languages like
> Maori with initial /ng/ (such as the name of the famous mystery
> writer, Ngaio Marsh) ...  So a foreign borrowing 'ngib' could
> contrast with initial /n/.

I'm interested in this.

I don't know how Ngaio Marsh herself pronounces her name.  But
John Wells, in his pronouncing dictionary, gives what I will write
as 'Naio' as the *only* English possibility.  Since he is usually
quite careful about checking names with their owners, it is possible
that Marsh herself pronounces her name this way.

I, of course, being a linguist and therefore a smart alec, pronounce
the name with eng, but I don't think many other people do, except
perhaps other linguists and phoneticians, and of course Maori-speakers.
I would have expected people to anglicize the name as 'Naio', as
Wells recommends, but, when I present the name to my British students,
they almost always respond with 'Nagaio' instead.  This is also the
pronunciation I heard on the sole occasion I heard the name uttered
on the radio.

Even after they have completed their phonetics course, few of my
students seem happy about pronouncing 'Ngaio' with eng.  And most
English-speakers seem to find initial eng impossible.  I wonder,
therefore: is it really possible for English to accept a foreign
word with initial eng?  I suspect it isn't.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: 01273-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: 01273-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)

[ Moderator's comment:
  A (semi-)authoritative source for the pronunciation [najo] is Dame Diana Rigg
  in her role as host for the U. S. PBS series "Mystery", which consists almost
  entirely of BBC programs.  I would assume that Dame Diana uses the late
  Dame Ngaio's preferred pronunciation.
  --rma ]