VALUE OF GOOD ACCENT

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1930, Page 3

VALUE OF GOOD ACCENT

THE ENGLISH THE | KING SPEAKS. •WHERE RADIO CAN BE USEFUL. The value of a good accent as a social asset was discussed by Mr. F. G. Blandford, in a lecture on “Alodern English Pronunciation” at the Cambridge University Local Lectures munmer meeting. “In England,” he said, “It is regarded as a social disqualification if a person does not speak the type of English which we are now discussing. People regard- good speech as good manners. The principle in pronunciation is to give the least shock to the least number.” 1 People' who spoke a less desirable accent tried to alter it for the better. “On the whole,” said Mr. Blandford, ’’women are more pliable in this way. An assistant in a milliner's or . dressmaker’s shop in London is a good example of a girl of humble origin who talks English perfectly to. her: customer, but when talking to her colleagues in the staff room uses a very different English. Alany maids talk standard English to their mistresses and lapse into fruity cockney immediately they get back to the kitchen.” Referring to the trend of modern English. Air. Blandford said: “We .are considering tlie King's English,. and we arc also considering the Prince of 'Wales’ English. The King and the Prince do not talk the same type of English, and an analysis of the Prince of Wales’ pronunciation gives evidence of a very particular change. Yet the social environment and the outlook on life of the King and the Prince are the same. The pronunciation of the. Prince is that of a young man, and the King and Queen t*alk a perfectly different type of English. That is an indication of change.” Mr. Blandford concluded with a reference to the English of Americans. “Standard English,” he said, “is the kind of English we would like to' teach all foreigners, like the Americans, but,, lie added, “there is less tendency to get ‘nasalisation’ in America and more tendency to get it in London.” Air. Blandford said to a. reporter afterward that as millions of people heard the 8.8. C. pronunciation, it certainly made for standard English. “Speaking perfectly broadly, the announcers speak very serviceable English. In, detail there are a great many words in their published iist which 1 would pronounce differently. but that always happens. I think the 8.8. C. Committee has done its work extremely well. “I think the ideal accent is that which betrays neither your mother’s birthplace nor your father s income. ’