Ngaio Marsh

[Douglas G Kilday]

Lars Henrik Mathiesen (14 Dec 2000) wrote:

>If anecdotes about surname pronunciation are really on topic here, I'd
>like to know what happens to the (Korean?) family name Ng in the
>mouths of English-speaking non-linguists.

>(I'm guessing that the native pronunciation is a vocalic eng, but I've
>never heard anyone pronounce it in either Korean or English).

If I'm not mistaken, this surname is Chinese and means "crow". I used to
work in a place where someone named Ng was employed. His name was always
pronounced "Ing" over the public-address system and by other
English-speaking employees, never "Eng". Oddly, this person abbreviated his
surname, signing his initials as "W.N."

Doug Kilday