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[Facts] Ngila
Ngila made costumes for the Lord of the Rings. Her name is pro. Nyla. she's white, female, umm..from New Zealand.Any ideas?-Seda*


"WOOHOO! Hey I have to tell y'all something. I went to Sea World for the first time yesterday. It rocked! I got to kiss a whale! And it kissed me back!"-Kelly Clarkson
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It's probably a Maori/Polynesian origin name, like Ngaire, which is pronounced ny-REE (Nyree is another spelling of this name). Ngaire and Nyree have both spread to Australia from New Zealand, so I imagine there's more similar names in general use in NZ.:-)
ChrisellAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Yup, it's Maori...(m)Many Maori names include (and often begin with) /ng/, which is NOT pronounced just like /n/. It is pronounced just like the /ng/ in "sing", only without a vowel in front of it. The back of the tongue is pressed against the roof of the mouth and the vocal chords are sounded. Also, I'm not fluent in Maori, but I lived in New Zealand and studied it informally. I'd be very surprised if the "i" was pronounced like the word "eye". The closest transliteration I would use would be NGEE-la.I can't find a meaning for Ngila, but I found Ngiha at http://snipurl.com/d6my, a scholarly collection of Maori names. It may be a variant, or it may be completely different. I'm not sure. In fact, I can't find Ngila as a Maori name anywhere on the internet other than in reference to Ngila Dickson (the costume designer). It's possible that the information is simply not on the internet; alternatively I suppose her parents might have simply made up a name that "sounded" Maori. However, I'm inclined to believe that it's a real name that I just can't find the information for. There's no good resource for Maori names available anywhere (even in print).~ Caitlín
"Blue tinted individuals who go about armed to the teeth and quoting twelfth-century poetry are not easy to comprehend." ~ Lloyd Alexander
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Ngila is soo pretty!
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That makes the best sense so far.
Thanks!-Seda*

"WOOHOO! Hey I have to tell y'all something. I went to Sea World for the first time yesterday. It rocked! I got to kiss a whale! And it kissed me back!"-Kelly Clarkson
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If it's pronounced "Nyih-la", then it's Italian. I hope that helps.
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I don't know of a single Italian word that starts with "ng" (my Italian-English dictionary certainly doesn't have any). I don't want to sound "narky", but do you have any evidence to back up that pronunciation?:-)
ChrisellAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Oh darn! My mistake! I was mixing up "ng" with "gn". Sorry! I was on late last night. XP
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It's true. There aren't any Italian words spelled that way. They have the "sb" sound, though.
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The initial Ng- suggests a native New Zealand or at any rate South Pacific language to me. For instance, there's a nice little tree called a Ngaio, and the 30s-to-50s author Ngaio Marsh was named after it.
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I can only think of Nila or Nilah (http://www.hebrewletters.com/item.cfm?itemid=68).
Oh, and Nagila, name given in honor of Hava Nagila (http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-havanagila.htm, music here: http://www.funnytummy.com/nagila_song.html I'm sure you know it). :)
~~ Claire ~~

This message was edited 3/1/2005, 5:43 PM

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Hmm. . . Nagila might very well be a variation of the name, in my opinion.

This message was edited 3/1/2005, 11:01 PM

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Hmm..thanks...*Aphrodite* (aka Hattie)

"WOOHOO! Hey I have to tell y'all something. I went to Sea World for the first time yesterday. It rocked! I got to kiss a whale! And it kissed me back!"-Kelly Clarkson
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