EDUCATED SPEECH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

EDUCATED SPEECH.

FINDING A COMMON DENOMINATOR. • A stereotyped pronunciation of the English language is not likely in Britain, and for a great many reasons it would' bo a great pity if we could,. Broadcast-' ing, of course, has its effect, but it is not yet, nor ever will be, sufficiently potent to eliminate either local dialect or idiom. Nevertheless, the task of, finding a "common denominator of educated .speech," which the broadcasting authorities have been, engaged upon for the last two years, is as valuable as it is interesting, even though it modestly declares its aim to be no • more than to assist wireless announcers. • The work was done by a committee consisting of Mr. Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, as chairman, Sir Johnstone ForbesRobertson, Professor Daniel Jones, Mr. A. Lloyd James, Mr. George Bernard Shaw, and ,Mr. Logan Pearsall Smith. The findings of this committee have now been published in a booklet containing a list of recommendations ii regard to 300 words of doubtful pronunciation. It has an introduction by Mr. Lloyd James, who is a lecturer in phonetics, and who points out that dictionaries disagree among themselves, some offering alternatives which others ignore. "If the "8.8.C. quotes one standard dictionary, the critic quotes another, and there -is no end to argument," he says. Certainly the booklet doesn't end argument, because, as is inevitable, its recommendations are inconsisTent—how could they be otherwise in regard to a language which pronounces " plough "plow" and cough "eoff"? As instances, it recommends the pronunciation of "docile" as "dosyle" and "fragile" as "frag'ill." Again, the second syllable in accomplish is pronounced "com," but the first syllable of "combat" is pronounced "cum." "Constable," too, begins with "cun." Among other interesting rulings, "chastisement" has the accent on the first syllable—"the long 'i' i a obsolescent." Celtic has the sofe "c" pronounced as "s". In electricity the first syllable is ell— not eel. Falcon is pronounced fawkon, fauteuil as fotill, and finis as fynis. The committee prefers "sinneinaa" "to "kinnema" or "kyneema," and "finnanee" to "fy-nance"; also it gives the first" syllable of "envelope" as "enn" and not "on." On the whole, the committee have hit on* a. reasonable middle course between the Syclla of pedantry and the Charybdis of vulgarism. In a'few cases, however, the committee have given three optional pronunciations, and (they refuse to be dogmatic about the way. to talk English. They think that the south of England variety of pronunciation (e.£., the long vowel as in "dance") will tend to prevail merely because it is current in the metropolis. The educated speech of the capital- has a Jieavy handicap in its favour. TSiis in spite of the Cockney tongue of the masses, which can lead a bus conductor (as it did, in fact, reto demand extra money_for a passenger's suitcase with words which Bounded like: "You left a pie on your '< bag, sir." (You'll have to pay, etc.). (