NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 43, 15 October 1924, Page 30

NOTES

Good Language . Some time ago George Bernard Shaw appealed for more care in the pronunciation and enunciation of our words in ordinary speech. He said that most English people are like parrots. When the bird is first taught it speaks intelligibly but as time goes on only-those;who. have been constantly hearing it can understand. To point his moral by an example, he instances the fact that most of us often fail to catch the names of the persons to whom we are introduced, because the names are hurriedly muttered, English papers that try to be comic have invented a dreadful gibberish which they suppose to be the. speech of the stage-Irishman, but in reality it is like nothing , under the sun. Irish people always have a., difficulty in pronouncing English, for the same reason that Italians and French people because they are used to pure, open vowels and soft consonants, instead of the harsh northern jargon of the Saxon. And yet there are some who hold that, the educated Dublin man speaks the best English in the world, while there is some reason to think that the average Irishman writes the language better than the average Briton. We do not take kindly to making diphthongs of simple vowels. Although slender letters are not strange in the old tongue, we find the broad consonants, such as Italians and Spaniards love, easier and more congenial in our speech. Ninety per cent, of English people who learn Italian will not pronounce correctly 'the simple word fatto, which, to an Irishman comes naturally. Similarly, one can invariably detect an English tourist by the way he says scusi when he humps against you in the Vatican Museums. So that we may. console ourselves by reflecting that even if we cannot speak the foreign English tongue well, we can make a far better hand of all other foreign languages than the English people can. English " Brogue " Not even the most awful x attempts the comic papers make to represent the Irishman's brogue are as horrible as the dialects spoken in many parts, of England. The jargon of the Cockney (which we have here in no scant measure) is dreadful to hear. "Law" becomes "lor," "idea" is "idear," "cow" is pronounced as if spelled "kyeow,' r and the vowels are transformed and transmuted according to no law ever dreamed of by any German philologist. The average foreigner can at least understand the Dublin newsboy, whose voice is as rich in harmonics as the note of the tui, but even grave Scots professors are left wondering what was said by the man-in-the-street in London to whom they apply for directions as to how to get to the Abbey. And as for the Doric of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cornwall, etc., not even a Swiss waiter, who can'translate almost every kind of grunt, could cope with it. "Aa'll keep him agaat" ; "Where ar ta balm"; "Shoos fratching from t'morn ter neet"; "It's a dree soort"; "Tewing aboot," and similar puzzles are not Sanscrit but (according to the New York Daily News) the ordinary . speech of native-born English people. England is small enough and old enough to have taught its people to speak their own tongue, but instead of trying to do that English editors try to make the savages laugh by ridiculing Scots and Celts who make- a far better job of English than the London or Liverpool people do. Even the Frenchman who, when threatening; to strike a cabby, said "I shall blow your, nose, sare!" or the Kerryman wlnS tells you that he is "after coming," is a linguist and a philologist compared with the average London bus conductor. Not going x so far afield, it is frequently observed that the average product ""; of " our splendid New Zealand public schools, (which banish : religion to concentrate on other things) .makes shocking : attempts to; pronounce ; even common words.

Imitate the French, ' ' -"-^ . Everybody who, has heard native Gaelic speakers deal readily.;with slender "t" and trilled "r" and glide vowel '„ -i and guttural vowel must be amazed at the wonderful tradition of correct speech which.this remnant stands for nowa- ( ;■_ "; days. But we may find, its counterpart in modern France,./ where educated pepole are as careful to speak French well .;-:". as they are to write it correctly and beautifully. That ; ; ■ charming American essayist, Agnes Repplier, is worth quoting on this point: .. •, ™ "Educated Englishmen and Americans have generously '\ V; admired the careful art with which the educated French-, .--__ man uses his incomparable tongue. Santayana says thatthis precision is part of the : profound research and perfect - which has made French scholarship one of the:' glories of European culture.' Henry James compared the vowel-cutting of the French actor and orator to the gemcutting of the French lapidary. Lord Morley sorrowfully ..... ; • confessed that the French have more regard for their ■ '■ r language, . whether they are writing it .or speaking it, than ..the English have for theifs. f : . "It is a severe and conscientious, as well, as a tender and a proud regard. It is part of the intellectual discipline of the nation. < >' ~ ■'-- \] "For France, ever on the alert to guard this high inheritance, is far from the danger of complacency. She . watches sharply for any indication of slackness on the part . of her educators. It is not enough that a young engineer should be accurately informed'unless he can accurately voice his information; unless he can write a clear," concise, in- -■ telligent, and well-ordered report. A school boy is expected to be what Mr. James calls 'tidy' in his speech. Am actress is required to be articulate, pleasing and precise, to give to every word she utters its meaning and its charm. "The high-pitched, artificial, and eminently < ill-bred \ voices of many American actresses unfit them for their profession._ They can act intelligently, but they can' not speak agreeably. The stage has always been the exponent ... of correct vocalisation, of that delicacy, finality, and finish ■ ... which sets high-the standard of speech. It was left for an American dramatist to complain that he was compelled to rewrite his play in order to eliminate all the words which his leading- lady mispronounced. ' J • " "If some .Americans can speak superlatively well, why can not more Americans speak pleasingly? Nature is not to blame for our deficiencies. The fault is ours. The good American voice is very good indeed. Subtle and sweet inheritances linger in its shaded vowels. Propriety and a sense of distinction control its cadences. It has more animation than the English voice, and a richer emotional range. The American is less embarrassed by his emotions than is the Englishman, and when he feels strongly the truth, or the shame, or the sorrow his words convey, his :' ;; ' voice grows vibrant and appealing. He senses his mastery over a diction ' nobly robust and tenderly vulnerable.' The formed and finished utterances of an older civilisation entrance his attentive ear." ■

IRISH HISTORY COMPETITION '; The results for the Junior Division this year arenas follows: . -: ■ - ' ' •First Prize (Gold Medal), Sheila Campbell, St. Philomena's, South Dunedin ~ '.(■ Second Prize (Silver Medal), Neil McGurk, Petone Convent School; _ /-> -'■/'.'.■/ ." -/ Third 'Prize (Book Prize), John CosgrifF, Nightcaps '-.- Convent SchooL '' '" . *"V - Book Prizes: —Jack Summers, Petone; Leonore Mee, ; • •'.',.•... St. Philomena's . Jack Grace, Petone; Dorothea McTJowall, St. Philomena's; Vincent Burke, Petone; : Nellie Sullivan,"--;. ■. Petone; Gwen Q'Malley, Villa Maria; Kathleen Ryan, Ferry R oad Convent, Christchurch;v Wilfred Albertson,, ; . Port Chalmers; K. McCormack, Queenstown; Colleen Barry, ;r Newtown, Wellington. : - . - • ,\ \ ' 'V Honors Certificates:Lola Fox, St. Joseph Dunedin j '- - ' G., Lynch,;. Queenstown; .Elma Jenkins, ' St. *> Dominic's ; -. ■ , Cathie Ward,::Queenstown; Mary Harnett/ Teschemakersj ;;: - ;; ' "

Norah O'Brien, Teschemakers; Mary Dexter, Oamaru Convent School; Jessie Lindsay,- Port Chalmers Nellie Henagban, Teschemakers; Clare "O'Connell, Wi'ey's Bush; Constance Smith, St. Dominic's. (The Senior Division results have not yet come to hand. We hope to have them for our next issue. ■ — ; s