THE BEST ENGLISH

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 37, 6 May 1927, Page 4

THE BEST ENGLISH

WHERE IT IS SPOKEN

Where is the best English spoken? For year Inverness has boasted that it is there that the English language is to be heard at its best, while a similar claim has been made by the people of Dublin. But it appears that, after all, it is to the famous clubs of London the world must come if it would hear the best-spoken “King’s English.” Discussing the subject with a “Daily Mail” reporter, Sir Edward Denison Ross, director of the School of Oriental Studies. London Institution, and Professor of Persian in the University of London, declared: “The best English in the world is taught on the London stage and talked in the great London clubs. It is the middle-aged clubmen of London who are the true guardians of the best-spoken English, while the best written English is preserved in the leader columns of our foremost newspapers. In public life the best English is spoken by orators like the Earl of Balfour and Mr. Winston Churchill.” Dr. R. W. Chambers, Quain Professor of English at University College, London, says: “Undoubtedly the best English is spoken in

London. But this is not to say that the best English is spoken only in London. I do not think it is generally realised that even in London the English language varies among educated London people.” According to Mr. J. H. G. Grattan, senior lecturer in English, University College, London, it is the best English spoken in London that is the best English of all. If a foreigner came to learn the best English it would be better for him if he could not mix with cultured people, to go to Norwich, where the less educated people speak far better English than the less educated people of London. The English of the poorer people of Wales is superior to that of the poorer people of any other place. Sir Donald Macdonald, a former provost of Inverness, says that the soft Celtic voice, the melodious Celtic intonation, and the pure Celtic pronunciation explain to a considerable extent the quality of the Inverness English.