GOOD SPEECH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 27, 2 February 1932, Page 8

GOOD SPEECH.

VARIANT OF ENGLISH.

OPPORTUNITY FOR DOMINION

PROFESSOR SINCLAIR'S VIEWS.

The opinion that New Zealand may develop a pleasant variant of the English language as spoken was expressed by Professor F. Sinclair, formerly lecturer in English at Melbourne and Perth Universities, who arrived by the Ulimaroa at Auckland this afternoon, to assume the chair of English at the Canterbury University College. Professor Sinclair said he had noticed a great improvement in spoken English in Australia in the past few years, and he would be interested to see how New Zealanders compared in that respect with Australians. "My impression—and it is only an impression—is that you give more attention to the linguistic side of the language study, and perhaps less to the literary side," Professor Sinclair added. "Of course, I am not dogmatising; I am very greatly interested in the preservation of a good type of English speech. By that I do not mean the 'stage curate' style of English, or the pedantic or the bookish English. I think we might well have a distinctively New Zealand type of English that would be a pleasant variant, in the same manner as a good type of Scotch or of Welsh. No doubt there is a Now Zealand accent, and I would like to see it be a pleasant one and not a disagreeable variant of standard English. Too often we are liable to compare the best type of Eng-

lish with our average, and to overlook the fact that the mass of the people in England do not speak well.

'A distinctive variant is inevitable in New Zealand, and we should be careful to see (hat if is a pleasing one. Speech is not simply a mutter of vowels and consonants; it is a matter also of the tone and quality of the voice, and where the quality of the voice is pleasing, other defects are to some extent mitigated."

Asked whether he considered the English speech was being adversely influenced by talking pictures, the professor replied that he had never heard a talkie. Professor Sinclair paid a tribute to the capacity of the Australian students and expressed the hope that his experience in the Dominion would be as satisfactory as it had been in the Commonwealth. Professor Sinclair, who is accompanied by Mrs. .Sinclair, was horn in New Zealand, but has been resident in Australia for the past 20 years.