RADIO PRONUNCIATION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 22

RADIO PRONUNCIATION

TO TH* EDITOR Or THE PRESS. Sir, —I have noticed some correspondence in “The Press” concerning the mispronunciation of words. May I say, as regards foreign words, such as Prague, that it is quite excusable. I would point out, however, that there is no excuse for the mispronunciation of words in everyday use, such as those hereunder, which I have heard from the YA stations recently:—Det-erent. for de-terent, Na-tional for national, seketary for secretary, fruntier for frontier, advursaries for ad-vcr-saries,

vorce for di-vorce, domisil for dom-i----cile, mo-bile for mobil (e), poplers for poplars, gondler for gon-do-la, familyah for familiar, ghee-gaw for gigue, bross for brass, skejul for schedule, vea for via, Waimukariri for Waimakariri. There are others too numerous to mention. One never hears such blunders as these from Dayentry. As such palpable errors are of common occurrence, I suggest that headquarters look into the matter, and have some of their announcers ‘properly trained in the standard pronunciation of the language. One announcer seems to delight in using the alternative pronunciation of some words, but it does not sound very pleasant over the air. Why is the almost universal and customary pronunciation not used?— Yours, etc., ANOTHER AMUSED LISTENER. September 30, 1938.