PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23649, 5 November 1938, Page 6

PASSING NOTES

"Am I mistaken, or was there a clash of arms? lam not mistaken, it was the clash of arms: Mars is approaching, and in his approach gave the signal of war." Not by 120 millions of Americans on Sunday last was this said, but by the poet Ovid in the first decade of the Christian era, writing his Fasti in elegiac distiches:

Fallor, an arma sonant? Non fallimur. arma sonabant Mars venit, et venlens belllca signa dedit. A modern Ovid, versifying our modern Calendar, might adopt Ovid's lines just as they stand for at least one day of the year. No greater windfall for the annalist, cartoonist, caricaturist, satirist, preacher, crowd-psychologist and war-strategist has happened in our day and generation. And no doubt the fertile imagination of the American journalist will improve the story as the days go by. But the incident has a serious side. It was a new "Message from Mars," taunting the American isolationist. It was an ominous warning to the world to clean up its radio situation For what happened on Sunday last in America is happening daily throughout the world in a smaller milder, slower, less spectacular but not less ominous way. It reveals how easily the whole internal struc ture of a nation may be white-anted in the midst of war or disintegrated in the midst of peace. All that is wanted is an unscrupulous transmitter.

In correspondence held over from last week's notes is raised in animated fashion the whole question of the pronunciation of Maori place names in New Zealand. Writes an Oamaru correspondent: In your Notes last week you comment on the pronunciation of Maori place . names—the English way, mutilated, deformed and wrong; the Maori way (used by certain radio announcers), right and "as pure as a mountain stream." What authority you can produce for this astounding statement I do not know. You would have been nearer the mark had you put the statement the other way round. If we should pronounce placenames "as God made them," why not pronounce "Paris" in the French way, "Madrid" in the Spanish way, and adopt the initial sound given by the Arab in "Koran," or the initial click that the Zulu uses in "Cetewayo"? It is hopeless for English people to reproduce the native pronunciation. A 8.8. C. announcer would be laughed at in Aberdare if he pronounced the name in the usual Welsh way, just as the New Zealander announcer is laughed at if he pronounces Maheno, Awatea, Oamaru, etc., in the Native way The New Zealander is not bilingual, the Maori generally is. A Maori using his native tongue to a Maori would use the Native pronunciation, but a courteous Maori speaking English to a white man uses, as far as he is able, the current pronunciation. Even the Maoris of this district place the accent in "Maheno" on the second syllable.

This correspondent continues: It is impertinent and offensive for some of our radio announcers to imply that not a single inhabitant of the County of Waitaki knows how to pronounce its name. By using the Maori or pseudoMaori pronunciation of common place-names, ships, racehorses, etc., radio announcers and others make themselves the laughing-stdck of the community. The introduction to your Oxford Dictionary will tell "ou that "pronunciation must be the actual living form of the word." The living form of names like Wakatipu is what the bus driver, the local parson or doctor or grocer uses. There is also the authority of the 8.8. C. Advisory Committee on Spoken English behind which I contend. If you have a copy of "The Broadcast Word" by A I.loyd James (professor of phonetics at the School of Oriental Studies, London) you will find the whole problem discussed at length. 8.8. C. pamphlets on broadcast English p™> splendid and authoritative. When I hear our radio announcers rnisoronounce simnle words like "Maheno" or "Wakari" I almost feel an urge to strangle them. But perhaps they are not to blame: superior officers may have blundered. Perhaps it is a case of A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

Quite fairly put, despite its touch of irritation. Why should every discussion on pronunciation be so provocative? The English practice in dealing with well-known foreign place-names is well known. But there is a tradition governing it which, being a. mere tradition, acts inconsistently. Fully anglicised are such place-names as " Paris," " Bruxelles," " Roma," " Koln." Incompletely anglicised are Madrid, Berlin, Dresden. And quite unanglicised are " Rouen," " Versailles," "Bordeaux," "Toulouse," ".Lyons": while " Marseilles," " Calais," " Cher bourg" are shaky. Such tradition born largely of necessity, and struggling with a bewildering multitude of foreign pronunciations, has surely no raison d'etre in New Zealand, where the pronunciation presents no difficulty. The men who first transliterated Maori pronunciation into English spelling, being Scotsmen, used the sound values familiar to their Scottish and Continental pronunciation of Latin. And blessings on them. The result of their work is seen in the almost completely phonetic character of Maori spelling. An hour's school tuition would be all that is required to change the whole situation. But these transliterators reckoned without their hosts of descendants. Then work has been largely wasted The result is a whole system of arrant humbug. We give a place a Maor name on the plea of its euphoniousness, and then pronounce it anglice English names of New Zealand places have for the same reason been changed to Maori, substituting for the English poetry of meaning an ineuphonious meaninglessness of the Maori. The time may come when the " Gentle Annie " and the " Roaring Meg " —names renowned in Otago gold rush history—will be renamed "euphoniously" in meaningless Maori, and then pronounced in ineuphonious English. If the various YA's of New Zealand can change the trend of this nefarious process, all health to them!

From a Tapanui correspondent on the same subject: Dear "Civis," —1 was much interested in your par on Maori pronunciation. I have always held that when we have so many Maori place-names the correct pronunciation should be taught in the schools.

According to the Maori dictionary, there are only two ways of pronouncing the letter "a"—as in "haka." The first "a" is pronounced as in "father," and the second as the final " a " in " flora." If this is the case I cannot-see how you make out that "taki" (in Waitaki, etc.) is correctly sounded to rhyme with "ducky." Would you please explain? While on the subject, what about "Manapouri"? Should this be in

Ave syllables—Ma-na-po-u-ri—with the "a's" as in "haka"?—l am, etc., Rata.

An authoritative phonetic examination of Maori pronunciation has—strange to say—not yet been done. New Zealand abounds with authorities on English phonetics, which is taught in schools, and phonetic research into this unexplored field of Maori would be easy. The common English spelling of Maori words is at best a compromise. It is the best that can be done with the letters at our disposal. But the application of a phonetic alphabet to Maori vowels and consonants would give us the exact shade of each sound. No authoritative pronouncement on Maori pronunciation is intended in this column. But when the English " a " in " father " has in New Zealand from half a dozen to a dozen different sound-values, each demanding its sDecial phonetic symbol, the "a" of "father" presented as a key vowel to the Maori " a " is of little significance. The normal Maori " a " seems not to be an English vowel at all, but the middle, neutral or natural usual in French., and by far the commonest variety of "a" throughout the world. Its quality resembles most closely the "u" of the English "duck." it is the normal Hindu " a "—-which explains the existence of such double spellings as " Narbada " and " Nerbuddah " for the same Indian fiver, and also explains why Gandhi's name is pronounced something like " Gundy," and Sastri's as " Sustry." The Dresence of this "a " in Maori explains why the geyser known as " Waimangu " is usually sooken of as " Wairnunga." The "a " of Waitaki certainly resembles this "a" much more than any of the multifarious " a's " of " father " that one hears in New Zealand. Regarding my correspondent's second query —Manapouri has certainly five syllables. Had it only four, it would be spelt " Manapori."

An election echo: Dear " Civis," —Perhaps you could refresh my memory as to the authorship of the line, "He gave up to party what was meant for mankind." I fancy it was Pope, or if not Pope, it was Goldsmith, in the course of a series of epitaphs on his friends. I plump for Pope on Pitt. This reproach could not be levelled at Mr Sexton, whose disappearance from the House of Representatives I seem to mourn in solitude. His speech struck me as the best of the series delivered officially over the air before the election. Had I been a constituent of Franklin I would have voted for John Massey all the same, as Independents are a luxury one could not afford with Socialism knocking at the door. There is pathos in the manner in which the National Party played into the hands of Labour by countenancing that foolish letter of instructions to candidates. Mr Nash is not a fool, nor is Mr Fraser, nor is Mr Lee. Mr Lee has learned to write in a hard school. His wits have been sharpened by circumstance. Until I heard his broadcast speech I was unaware of Mr Sexton's existence, and I have no particular axe to grind in proffering this- twig against the overwhelming current of opinion that the Parliament of New Zealand is better without him. Personally, I hope that he will make his voice heard in the future. But perhaps I should have done better had I emulated the Psalmist who wrote, "I held.my tongue and spoke nothing, but it was pain and grief to me."—l am. etc., Disciplicus.

Had "Disciplicus" not plumped for " Pope on Pitt," he would' have been half right. For the line in question is by Goldsmith on Burke. A contest of epitaphs had taken place after a club dinner at the St. James's Coffee House. Garrick had led off with his well-known epigram: Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel, but talked like Poll. Several more were written by the company. Goldsmith reserved mis revenge, and shortly afterwards set about his poem " Retaliation," left incomplete at his death. In his " Retaliation" he epigrammatises epitaphs on the Burkes (Edmund and Richard), Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Cumberland the dramatist. John Ridge the Irish barrister, Dr Douglas (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), and others. On Edmund Burke he wrote: Here lies ou. good Edmund, whose genius was such, We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much; Who. born for the Universe, narrowd his mind And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote; Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, And thought of convincing, when they thought of dining; Though equal to all things, for all things unfit, Too nice for a statesman too proud for a wit; For a patriot too cool: for a drudge. disobedient; And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient. In short, 'twas his fate unemployed. on in place, sir. To eat mutton cold and cut blocks with a razor. Which adequately explains why Burke, intellectually the greatest star in the galaxy that comprised such stars as Chatham. Fox, Pitt Sheridan, and Grattan. was nevertheless "the dinner-bell of the hfjuse of Commons' Civis.