NEW ZEALANDERS' SPEECH

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1932, Page 6

NEW ZEALANDERS' SPEECH

ITS DEVELOPMENT. MAY BE PLEASANT VARIANT OF ENGLISH. AUCKLAND, February 2. The opinion that New Zealand may develop a pleasant variant of the English language as spoken was expressed by Professor F. Sinclair, formerly English Lecturer at Melbourne and Pert*-' Universities, who arrived by the TJhmaroa, this afternoon to assume tile Chair of English at Canterbury College. He paid a tribute to the capacity of Australian students, and expressed the hope that his experience in the Dominion would be as satisfactory as in the Commonwealth. Professor Sinclair said he had noticed a great improvement in spoken English in Australia in the<past few years, and he would be interested to se e how New Zealanders compared in this respect with Australians. “My impression, and it is only an impression. is that you give more attention to the historic side of language study, and perhaps less to the literary side,” he said. “Of course,' 1 am not dogmatising. I am very greatly interested in the presentation of a good type of English speech. By that I do not mean the ‘stage curate’ style of English or pedantic or bookish English. I think we might well have a distinctively New Zealand type of English that- would he a pleasant variant in the same manner as a good type of Scotch or of Welsh.” New Zealand Accent. “No doubt there is jNew Zealand accent, and 1 would like to see it be a pleasant {me and not a disagreeable variant of standard English. Too often we are liable to compare the best type of English with our average and to overlook the fact that the mass of people in England do not speak well. A distinctive variant is inevitable in New Zealand, and we should be careful to see that it is pleasing. Our speech is not simply a matter of vowels and consonants. It is a matter, also, of tone and quality of voice, and where the quality of the voice is pleasing other defects are to some extent mitigated.” Asked whether he considered that English speech was being adversely influenced by talking pictures, the professor replied that he had never heard a talkie.

Mr Sinclaire (who is accompanied by Mrs Sinclaire) was born in New Zealand, but Ims been resident in Australia for the past twenty years. *