IMPERIAL ENGLISH.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIII, Issue 2988, 4 September 1912, Page 2

IMPERIAL ENGLISH.

THE BEST ACCENT FOUND AMONG MAORIS.

" The most perfect English accent is iound among the Maoris ot New Zealand," said Professor Firth, of Australia, at the Imperial Teachers' Congress at Caxton Hall, London, S.W., recently. " In New Zealand the pronunciation of English is good, but it is exquisite among the melodious Maoris. Where any sign of degeneracy in speech is noticed it is due to importations from. Australia." Prolessor Stanley Kidd, of Rhodes University College, Grahamstown, South Africa, asserted that in the overseas dominions there was a great peril of a growth ot pronunciation which recognised no standard at all, or one very different from that of England. "If English is to be the common Imperial language it is highly important that we should aim at homogeneous pronunciation." Dr Hoogenhout, of Pretoria, said they were aware of deficiencies in South Africa and were giving prizes to the children showing the clearest accent. Nasalisation (speaking through the nose) was the chief defect.