SPOKEN ENGLISH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 2, 2 July 1938, Page 18

SPOKEN ENGLISH

EFFECT OF BROADCASTING

AN EXAMINER'S OPINJONS

The influence of" correctly spoKen broadcast English in breaking down barriers of speech was emphasised by Mr. R. E. 'Besant, examiner in elocution for the Trinity College of Music, London, who arrived by the Rangitiki yesterday from London to conduct examinations in New Zealand.

In an interview with a "Post" reporter, Mr. Besant said that in New Zealand there was a distinct accent in the pronunciation of the "as." That would'be one of the difficulties he would encounter in the examinations, as he would have to make allowances for local peculiarities. He thought, however, that the New Zealand accent was more like that of an Englishman's than the accent in any other British possession. Australia had a very distinct Cockney accent.

The 8.8.C. endeavoured to announce in ordinary standard English, but Mr. Besant thought that the announcing had had no effect on the English language, owing to the variety of county dialects. "They understand the 8.8.C. language, but they can't talk it," he remarked. His own view was that if the county dialects were changed, the character would go out of the British people. "If everybody talked like the 8.8.C. announcers it would be a disaster," he said. Incidentally, Mr. Besant remarked that he regarded the "Oxford accent" as rather an "affected affair,"

Mr. Besant considered that American films had altered the English language, and had introduced a lot of ugly and meaningless phrases which one regarded as slang.

In a country like New Zealand, where there was no marked variation in dialect, the people would respond much better than they could in England to a uniform broadcast pronunciation. Mr. Besant said that he had heard some New Zealand announcers as the ship approached the coast, and they appeared to be very good indeed. "Very straightforward, unaffected English," he commented.

The broadcast pronunciation of English was having a marked effect on the language, said Mr. Besant, and it had to be remembered that broadcasting had been in existence for a comparatively short time. "In fifty years' time we will all be talking the same way. It is linking us together, and! the voice from London will be the same as the voice from New York."