THE MENACE OF MINCING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 221, 18 September 1934, Page 6

THE MENACE OF MINCING.

Lord Ponsonby has made a vigorous plea in a broadcast for tlio retention of the various .accents that distinguished tho people of Britain from one another (says the "Manchester Guardian"). It comes none too soon, for already those who value the variety in our speech have set a'bout making dialect gramophone records for future reference. They fear, like Lord Ponsonby, a day when the Briton from Caithness to Cornwall will try to maintain in his remarks the colourless correctitude of a wireless "uncle," when the rolling "r" and sonorous "o" of the Scot, the ingratiating burr of the West Countryman, and the quick and musical intonation of the Welshman will bo heard no more in the land. The 8.8.C., to give it its due, is doing its best to prevent this calamity. It has of necessity to prescribe for its announcers a standard English which shall conform to the best usages and shall be readily intelligible, throughout this country and the British Commonwealth. But it couples with this, in its regional stations, the liveliest interest in dialect, and has indeed afforded the writers of dialect plays and the like better outlet for their work than they have ever had. The danger lies in the snobbish attitude which tends to regard the standard English of the .announcer as in some mysterious way more "respectable" than the native speech. The result too often is the most distressing of all accents, that of the mincer with the "refaned" voice. If Britain had to choose between a continuance of its dialecte in all their strength and saltiness and a base imitation of the accents of Portland Place she would be better off with the dialects. But if parents, education authorities, and employers will but realise that there is nothing "inferior" in homely variety of speech that lamentable choice will not have to be made.