THE KING'S ENGLISH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 820, 18 May 1910, Page 9

THE KING'S ENGLISH.

AND NEW ZEALAND SPEECH. .A MYSTERIOUS DIVERGENCE, i A curious mystery, apparently, attaches to the pronounced n'nd increasing divergence in tho pronunciation of tho language which is noticed by all thoughtful educationists in New Zealand. At tho conference of secondary assistant teachers, held at Wellington College yesterday, Mr. E. W. Andrews, of Nnpior, who presided, gavo an interesting address on the subject of "The New Zealand English." In his introductory remarks, tho speaker . said that, not content with his prominent position as rh* nior.eer of tho world's legislation, the New heir to nil the ages, had been at work improving his, mother tongue by speaking it with a voice and an accent that would stamp him at Home as an "illiterate and vulgar" person. "It is twenty years ngo," observed the speaker, "since I first noticed, on my arrival from England, that considerable differences existed between tho Home and the colonial speech, tho differences being then much more marked in the native-born school-children than in the adult]-, most of whom were, presui'iftbly, born in the OIi! Country, nnd spoke provincial, if not literary, English. These children had now grown up, and impressed their habits upon a new generation, so that tho locu! .pciiliarities have, of Into y.urs, been more painfully apparent." Tho Cause, A Mystery. Continuing, Mr. Andrews said that ho had been nt some pains fo truce the causes and growth of this divergence, but sti fur had concluded nothing definite, oxcept that one schoolmaster of long expcrienco had given it as his opinion that the new pronunciation cuddoiily became noticeable in 18SS. Perhaps, said the speaker, one might hazard a guess that, during tho Inst 25 years, greater facilities for land settlement, combined with cheaper mid more regular communication with tho Old World, have attracted _ a class of immigrant inferior to the earlier settlers in culture and social position, and that these newer colonists brought with them a number of local and vulgar pronunciations, many of which still survive, but represent, in the mass, no particular l'lnglish dialect. The New Zealand dialect, nnlike, tho provincialisms of Engluml, was not a matter of locality and occupation, not of social position, or of education. Tho same peculiarities were noticed wherever one went. Tho university graduate had the same faulty vowels as thn bushman; children if cultured parents reproduced these faults with tho same harsh voice and the same, aberrant pronunciation .as wero shown by children of a lower social standing. Ho desired to acknowledge the fact that very many New Zealandcrs born and bred did not speak the King's English with propriety and euphony, but the truth remnined thut n ■ dialvct, and that not a. defensible one, was gradually becoming fixed in the Dominion among the children and the younger adults. Ho did not wish it to Vh- understood tbat he was disposed to criticise adversely any irregularities that were the actual reproductions of recognised British provincial dialects. Nobody would object to the, "drawl" of the educated Scotchman; to the "broguo" of the educated Irishman, the "burr" of the Northumbrian, or the "buzz" of tho gentleman from Somerset. Ho must, however, receive as correct ■ English that which is accepted as the best by people of the best education and social standing in England. The Way Out. Tho only objection to the use in New Zealand of the beautiful and sonorous dialects of the Homeland, was, continued Mr. Andrews, the practical one: If a Now Zealander heard his language pronounced differently by his parents, his clergyman, his friends, his teachers, his inspectors, he would probably acquire a new and ugly polyglot speech of his own, reproducing tho laziest and most slipshod methods of the others, without adding to the world's stock of language representing any truly local individuality. Tho speaker went on to say that parental carelessness was at the root of much of tho difficulties encountered by teachers. The principles of voice-production were wrongly, vaguely, understood; no vocal and elocutionary training was imposed upon candidates for the teaching profession. Thero was not enough diflerenco between the environments of the Englishman and the New Zealnndor to produco tho existing- differences in pronunciation, but tho two dialects had been unnecessarily diverging for somo years, and tho causes- wero still at work. It should be tho teacher's aim to stay tho process, nnd, it possible, restore to the New Zealand speech the culture it had unfortunately lost. (Applause.)