THE BEST ENGLISH

Waikato Times, Volume 115, Issue 19272, 2 June 1934, Page 4

THE BEST ENGLISH

“ If I were asked,” writes Professor H. C. Wyld, “ among what class the ‘ best ’ English is most consistently heard at its best, I think, on the whole, I should say among officers of the British Regular Army. The utterance of these men is clear-cut and precise, yet free from affectation; at once downright and manly, yet in the highest degree refined and urbane.” Professor Wyld, it may be remembered, is the originator of the name “ Received Standard English ” for that type of English which all would speak if they could, since it grates on no ear, has pre-eminently the qualities of sonority and distinctness, and comes from the speaker naturally and without effort.

It is not, it is true, the sole property of the officers of the British Regular Army for it is widely spread throughout the country; but as among them “ it is most consistently heard at its best,” it is from them presumably that it will be more willingly taken as a model than from others (comments The Times). No speakers are habitually in litter physical condition for speaking, freer from pedantry, or more accustomed, since the imperative is not everybody’s mood, to give commands.

It may be regretted that their voices are not more often heard in public, for in these days of broadcasting many more public speakers are heard than formerly, and they address much wider audiences. Hence, as Professor Wyld indicates, a restiveness among those accustomed to the best English when they are exposed through the wireless to English which is less good. Though there is nothing to be said against genuine dialect when the listeners are prepared for it there are class and family pronunciations, tolerable enough within a class or family, which are distressing to outsiders.

In various forms they go by the name of Modified Standard, of which one extreme, according to Professor Wyld, is the over-refined and affected. This is worse than plain vulgarity. The whole utterance is pervaded with an atmosphere of unreality, the speakers give the impression that they are trying to cover up some terrible natural defect They have no linguistic or social background. The case, however, for Received Standard English, such as officers in the British Regular Army speak,, rests primarily not on background, but on demonstrable phonetic superiority. Sonority and distinctness are in fact the tests of any speech, which is not put to its full use if its distinctive sounds are maltreated or never exercised.