OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Evening Star, Issue 14634, 2 August 1911, Page 8

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

—New Zealand Speech.— The lengthiest of the four addresses given at the meeting of members of the Otago Institute last night was that of Mr G. E. Thomson, M.A.. who investigated the question of the local New Zealand dialect. Assuming at the beginning that it was an open question whether there be such a thing in course of development, he analysed English pronunciation by an application of the science of phonetics. He explained the position of the tongue (relative to the palate) in the formation of the close, and open, the front and back vowels. With the aid of a diagram he showed the position of all our known vowel sounds on the curved line which marks the path, of the tongue in the progression from the close front vowel (I) to the open vowel (A), and on to the close back vowel (I."). Then, selecting typical and freq.iently-observed mispronunciations of vowels bv the younger generation of New Zcalanders, he demonstrated that almost invariably such mispronunciation is traceable to a lowering of the tongue, and consequent, tendency towards the open vowels. This fosters the formation of harsh and discordant vowel sounds, and to tin's the lecturer attributed our New Zealand twang, discarding as a primary cause nasal intonation, the. other possible source of twang. Mr Thomson admitted that flu's tendency of the speech of young New Zcalanders was due to carelessness, but why, lie asked, should carelessness tend always to act in a certain way—i.e., towards a lowering of the tongue''" -He mentioned that of the three accepter! standards of speech—Southern English. Northern English, and Scotch (any variant from these being a dialect,)—the New Zealand dialect most resembled Southern English, and least resembled Scotch.

In the cour.se of a brief discussion Mr Smith said that in his native county (Yorkshire) one could guess a man's'locality almost to a few miles from his 'dialect. He. was beginning to find it possible to do the same thing in New Zealand: for instance, he could distinguish a Taieri dialect. ]Jr Morrell also contributed to- the dis-cu.-sion. and remarked that were he. to speak the dialect of his own county (in the South of England) he would verge on many of lho typical New Zealand mispronunciations. He thought that many of those ought to bo. suppressed, especially a tendency he had noticed to grunt at the end of certain words, .such as " mountain." the last syllable being a grunt rather than an articulation. In his opinion our primary ,-chool teachers (to whose general standard lie paid a high compliment) shonld be aiforded a course of study in phonetics at our training colleges, a-s was now being done in Britain. —Other Addresses.— Professor Malcolm dealt most interestingly with ' The Food Value of the Knmara.' After mentioning that an analysis showed it, to be identical with the Mi-cet potato of other parts of the world, he compared ' its constituent, parts with those of other vegetable foods, and especially with the ordinary potato. Although the knmara excels the poiato in the important food constituents of protein and carbo-hydrates, one would require, to eat 12J,1b of kumaras dailv to secure the desirable amount of combustible matter, and 6jlb to acquire sutiicient protein—which would impose, tew seven:, a tax on the digestive organs. He suggested that it may have bey 11 lack of protein in the Maoris' diet which caused them to make- up the lack by an occasional cannibalistic diet. The sweetness of the knmara he did not altogether attribute to the amount of.glucose- contained in it. but wither to its possessing qualities which induced a great flow of saliva, which dissolved the starch in it quickly. Tho kumarn did not contain an undue preponderance of poi.-t.sh. salts over sodium salts, coit-equenLly its use a.- food did not induce that loss of sodium eluorido from the system which had to be repaired by satisfying the resultant craving for salt. The. knmara. being somewhat deficient in true fat.-, was best baked under a roast of meat.

Mr H. Tannock rvhibited some primulas as illustrations of the laws of Mendelism. Starting wi'Ji a white and a crimson primula, he crossed them, and the seedlings proved to be a pale rose color. In these he knew he had the possibilities of other shades, and he again crossed them with ph.nts of another color. He " selfed" them again, and obtained pure white, pure red, and varied shades also. Thus, by crossing two pbints with distinct Mendclian character in the tirst generation, the result, showed nothing but the dominant ehara-'ier ; the second generation gave the reeessives, the dominants, and intermediates. The while and red would go on breeding true, and the two intermediates would go on " sporting." There was no difference between the recessive and the original. Had he known nothing of Mendelism he would have discarded the first cross, but he persevered, and obtained the above proof of the theory. Mr G. Howes. F.E.S., showed a collection of New Zealand moths and butterflies, and tabled a. paper on their life habits and history. He drew attention to two species .of butterfly—A. Antipodum and C. lioldenarum. The first was a tussock-frequenting butterfly only found in the South Island. He had reared the caterpillar to tirst the pupa and then the butterfly stage. In all stages its coloring and marks, harmonising with the tussocks, were protective. The Boldenarum was rather noteworthy as an example of butterfly life living on terms of amity with an ant population. He had taken the larvse from an ants' nest, where the ants were running over them. The meeting, over which Mr. A. Bathgate presided, gave cordiai thanks to the lecturers. ■ ■' ' '■

" * suppose you will soon be giving up your motor and getting an airship? ' •' Not at all," replied Mr Chuggrins. "There's no fan in going away up thereand frightening a few eagles?." For influenza take Woods' Great Peppermint Cure; never fails; Is 6d, 2s 6d.—{Adrt.}