DISTINCT ACCENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22345, 17 February 1936, Page 6

DISTINCT ACCENT

NEW ZEALAND SPEECH DISTORTION OF VOWELS ENGLISH VISITOR'S OPINION Accents -which an English visitor notices in New Zealand speech vary with towns and cities and with the typo of person met, but, generally speaking, there is a certain way of sounding some vowels, particularly such as that in a word like "cow" which would justify the supposition that there is ii distinct New Zealand accent. That is the opinion held by Mr. W. Grierson, a tourist from London, formerly of the jstaff of the Bank of England, who has been visiting C/hristchurch. With very many of the better educated people in the cities of New Zealand there was scarcely anything of an accent, Mr. Grierson said, but with others there was a method of pronunciation —some might consider it a distortion of vowels —which remotely ap- ' proached the Cockney manner of speech. Some New Zealand parents he had met recognised the prevalence of this distinct New Zealand accent, and were trying to arrange that their children should , not be subjected to its influence. But the New Zealand accent, if it could be called one, said the visitor, was infinitely preferable to the Oxford accent. That was a perversion of English which had been spoken in England for generations, and seemed the outcome of an attempt to get as far away as possible from Cockney tones. Unfortunately those who used it had gone too far in the opposite direction. The 2scw Zealand accent, he stated, was quite distinct from the Australian accent. Almost all Australians he had met called their country "Austrylia." "That seems to typify the 'Austrylian' accent," said Mr. Grierson. - One other speech tendency which he deprecated was the use by radio announcers of a slow manner of talking. 'lt was obvious to listeners, he said, that what they announced was read from a paper, and there seemed no reason for halting speech. Mr. Grierson stated that he admires New Zealand and its people very much. His principal attraction in the Dominion is fishing.