SPOKEN ENGLISH

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1932, Page 5

SPOKEN ENGLISH

k NEW ZEALAND’S VARIANT. ,T ; " —-—■—- i '■- '7/■ V ; “A FLAT INTONATION.* < is no reason, Sir James Farit thinks, why the English spoken in' New. Zealand should not equal the -finest spoken English in the world. He sug- . gested this on Friday in an address the Wellington . East Girls’ College prize- ' y. giving ceremony, having drawn attention first to a New Zealand accent—distinguished by a peculiar flat tion—which should not .be allowed 'to grow general. The voice that appeals j ■*£’. to. Sir James is soft,- gentle and low. There was undoubtedly in this ‘ coiin*'try, he said, a tendency, toward loos* / pronunciation and loose accent. Ther® was a tendency also to broaden vowels, •/“ which should be correctedbefore it wa« / too late. He was not saying that New, Zealand speech was riot generally good . j was good. And as compared with the speech, of some of. New sister Dominions it was excellent. ~/ New Zealand was bad as far as accent ; was concerned. In some 1 parts-of .the country arid in some of the .prrinary, ... ■ schools there was a New Zealand a©cent, which, they should be careful y.J to let grow. : 7-? It was inevitable, Sir. James sup*» posed, that every country should poe-; sess some variation frbrix .the best stand- ' / ard in the pronunciation of Engusq. ; “But my- point,” -he;’said,-.. “is:_. -v should it be so unpleasant and hard and flat as some of our New - Zealander® / ; 'i : make it?” ••/ *• .'/ '/ If New Zealanders were to nave ® variant from the highest standard English, let it be soft and pleasant, Jw-; j said. English people had told him when;. he was High Commissioner that they. could tell some New Zealanders' by theur//./ peculiar flat intonation arid hard, metams •- sort of accent. He himself had not do- j ticed it particularly, but strangers did. //;; i But on the general question he not sure whether New Zealanders should bow to the inevitable in the form distinctive accent for New Zealand. Why >•-< should they not aim at the. .high®*. .Standard? They lived in anew coyntry; they had no dialects, no shires/ n» obstacles of any kind. //;• After all, it was -a very important .//,, attraction for everybody to haveanrfe, . r pleasant voice, particularly for gurta / 75 and women. The chief charm in a woman, Sir James thought, was her voice. “The voice, after all,” he said, a» toc®» soft, gentle and low voice, is the thing to aim at now and in your after yem- /. “Let us speak, indeed, the Kings English,” he said. “I have heard : the King speak frequently, and the Prine® -. ■ < of Wales speak frequently. their Y® 10 ** are excellent—wonderful. There w n« , affectation of any kind, that times meets .with in misguided peopta. /. Nor is there that slovenliness, rior ar® there the vulgarisms-which we sometime® : meet with' in our little country. New R^concluding,. Sir James congratulat1 ed the girls on their singing and vote® . ■ . [ production, and. stressed the' . of studying English. I he said, “that, to put it broadly, a; girl . who knows her English has got SO per - ! conf, of her education. That.'is .the sub- ■ / : ject which in after life is going to b®