Mutual Difficulty With Accents

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31344, 14 April 1967, Page 2

Mutual Difficulty With Accents

Dialects and accents were a mutual puzzle for the Rev. L. H. Kyle and Mrs Kyle, of Christchurch, at the beginning of their 18-month stay in a Yorkshire parish. The local people could not understand the “kiwi” accent of the Kyles, and the couple had considerable difficulty penetrating the Yorkshire dialect and the use of old Anglo-Saxon forms.

“The Yorkshire people use a lot of Anglo-Saxon words which had to be translated for us, to say nothing of the dialect. Our accent made things even more difficult. My wife taught and the children couldn’t understand her, and when I

preached the congregation couldn’t understand me,” he told the Canterbury Travel Club yesterday morning.

Mr Kyle’s parish, of which he was curate, numbered 26,000, in a mining town of 45.000 covering an area about half the size of Timaru. Castleford was “just about the dirtiest place imaginable.” One of England’s main industrial canals ran through its centre with a detergent factory at the headwaters. The factory’s waste was dumped in the canal and collected at a weir in the middle of the town. If the wind was blowing strongly it was not

uncommon to meet drifts of scum collected around corners, he said.

This, along with the usual grime of an industrial centre, made the fight against dirt a “rather grim task.” Scrubbing the doorsteps, cleaning the windows, painting letter boxes, and weekly washing of the white lace curtains which adorned all the town’s council houses, became a matter of pride.

“Yorkshire has a very distinct character and we grew to like it very much in spite

of the weather,” he said. Spring and autumn were a delight, soft and mellow, but summer was wet and dreary and for winter it began snowing in November and continued “on and off” until the end of April. Romantic Aspect Mr and Mrs Kyle found a romantic aspect to the town for all its grimness. It’s streets, lined with terrace or semi-detached homes in "Coronation street” style, were still gas lit. “My wife and I thought it very romantic, but had no luck in obtaining a gas light and stand to bring home.” “By ota- standards the houses are primitive. We lived on a hill-top with 18 houses looking into our backyard. There was no privacy at all; everyone knew what we had and what we were doing. 'lf my wife had a cough, our neighbour would say: “My, your wife did have a bad night last night.” “But we became accustomed to this, and we were fortunate that Castleford was very near the lovely country of the Vale of York and many abbey and castle ruins which we enjoyed visiting,” he said. A nearby Georgian Theatre, the only one still in existence, was also a favourite haunt Overland Journey After their 18 months in Yorkshire the Kyles joined a New Zealand couple with whom they travelled overland from Europe to India. For most of their long and interesting journey things went well. The Kyles slept outside and their friends occupied the van in which they travelled. Along the way they met

many New Zealandens also “making their own way.” One evening as they prepared to camp in a particularly secluded spot by the Rhine, a small car with three New Zealand nurses pulled up.

“Australians and Canadians also travelled in this way, but we thought them rather ruthless. Often they sold their blood to make money,” he said. Mrs A F. Mathews welcomed members and guest artists to the Canterbury club. Mr Kyle, and the artists, Mrs Noreen Boyle and her accompanist, Mrs Joan Davis, were thanked by Mrs C. Shaw.