Speech in the Past & Present

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 10, 1 April 1926, Page 29

Speech in the Past & Present

<sy MISS LUCY COWAN, Ghristchurch

O PINNING the memory round to wane of the nineteenth century, when our worthy pioneers were the principal speakers; when chips of all nationalities tilled the land, built fences, coaches and railroads, connecting up with the evergrowing cities in a continuous endeavour to get into touch with the Old Blocks, of which they were a part, one wonders how the speech of to-day has withstood the test of the English examination master.

The burr and rock-like consonant of the sturdy Scot, mingled with the mellowing round-vowelled brogue of the Irish, sent the echoes reverberating round the hills in response to the loud call on the faithful sheepdog. There followed on the Lowlands the queer mixture of Northern and Midland English, the occasional French accent, and, in their wake, the Cambrian or European who, once they touched the sunny Southern shores, decided to throw in their lot and lanuage with the rest. The respect in which the man of education was held would cause the soul of the present-day schoolmaster to long for the “good old times” when

professor, doctor, pastor, and cultured man were the well-equipped leaders of the rising generation in town and country. The ■ old-fashioned family circle readings, an entertainment in which every household member delightedly participated, formed a link between past and present gnerations; but the value of that conversational exercise is now, unfortunately, the missing link. Let the average youth of to-day endeavour to make himself under-

stood on the radio, and his poverty of articulative consonantal sounds will make his listeners-in wonder where he learned English. Truly the English spoken abroad is the reflex of the language in the home. A revival of circle readings would restore intellectual appreciation of the written word, nullify those minor failings in diction, such as “w'y,” “w’en.” Vere,” “w’at,” and “w’ich,”—merely an isolated omission— the speech of the present generation would become as expressive and entertaining as the most perfect English introduced into our country by the finest of early pioneers.