Wayne Abel wrote: > Ray, Isobel,Gavin thanks for your responses, I need to drop the Z in my > pronunciation ... As a general rule, "nz" in older Scots represented what in Standard English is usually shown as "ng". This older style of spelling persists in placenames like Auchmunziel and Finzean. There are also names like MENZIES. Some people pronounce this as "menzees", but many prefer "mingeez". Gavin Bell