A PHONETIC ANTHEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1937, Page 23

A PHONETIC ANTHEM

When during the Coronation celebrations the National Anthem is inevitably sung in all quarters of the British Empire there will almost certainly be many queerly pronounced versions, however anxious thesingers may be to approximate to the1 highest standards of the; King's. English, says the "Manchester Guardian." As an example'; of the sort of thing that,may occur in the less word-perfect places (peopled, by "lesser breeds without the law"), this version, '''sung in ' Argentina in. 193(1 when the: Prince of \Wales visited, that qountry, 'may be cited: , ' ; . God siey au greichas Kin: Lon In? an novel Kin;.. ' God siev di Kin, Sendjim victories. , Japi and glorias, . Lon to rein over as: .: . ■ , , God siev di Kin; Die chas est quiifts in s.tpr On jim bi pliesed tv po?"' ■,';.'' God siev di Kill.' . . •.,'•*,'■ Lon mci ji defend; ou lus And ever guiv as cos ,'■"■'',"' ' Tv sim wit jart and vois: ' ' God siev di Kin! ■■ .■■"■' • ».■ This phonetic rendering, which. was as near the real pronunciation as possible, was sqng by thousands of Argentinian school children in the Prince's honour. They had had the general | trend of the words explained.to them beforehand, but of course '■ the actual sounds they emitted meant nothing whatever to thPi* minds, ■;