THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23691, 24 December 1938, Page 9

THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH

It, was noticeable in the broadcast of the launching ceremony of the great liner which ohe named after herself that Queen Elizabeth pronounced "launch" with the vowel sound almost as in " alms," whereas (says the Manchester Guardian) in the' evening news bulletin the 8.8. C. announcer pronounced it as in "walk." Both pronunciations are permissible, of course, but the Queen used the one that seems general among seafaring people. The Oxford English Dictionary prefers the "aw" sound, but in older dictionaries the " ah" sound is usually given first place. There is a record of the word being written as "lawnche" about the beginning of the fifteenth century, and as " lanch " a century and a-half later. Marlowe wrote of "the face that launched a thousand ships," and the " launch " spelling seems to have become general after the seventeenth century. The word is an adaptation of the Old French "lancher" or "lander," to hurl or throw, coming from the Latin " lancea," a lance or spear. It might be noted that the word launch used to describe a type of ship's boat has a different derivation, coming by way of the Spanish "lancha" from the Malay word meaning "speedy."