ANNOUNCERS' VOICES.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 47, 17 May 1940, Page 30

ANNOUNCERS' VOICES.

The Editor, "The Listener," Sir,-I am not surprised that my letter on the above subject should have provoked the criticism voiced by F. C. Beckett, in your issue of April 12. There must be quite a number who share his views, otherwise the type of emasculated English which one. hears so much over the air would not have come into existence at all. That many may share his views, however, by no means proves their infallibility. My criticism, moreover, was directed at the system rather than at the announcers who are its victims. Tt is not a question of what one has been accustomed to that governs the writer’s tastes. I have not been brought up on beer, and I am willing to wager that Mr. Beckett was not weaned on champagne (as his rather erratic use of metaphor would suggest). In any case, G. K. Chesterton rated beer above bubbly and I consider his opinion worth having. Intrinsically there is merit in either beverage, each is, one might almost say, the expression of a national characteristic and therefore not lightly to be dismissed. If an announcer has q natural Irish accent, by all means let him use it. If he is Scots, then let us hear a rolled "r" occasionally. But in the name of all that is worthwhile in dialect, language, literature and culture generally, let us exorcise this demon of uniformity. In trying to please everybody, the BBC and all other broadcasting authorities which have tried to cultivate a standard accent have succeeded only in awakening the ridicule of the majority. Standard English as she is spoke by the orthodox announcer is neither fish, flesh, fowl nor good red herring. And to that extent we are the losers. In any case, the accent employed even by some of our leading announcers is not always above suspicion, and if I am to be forced into a philological discussion, I might mention that time and again I have noticed the slurring of an intrusive "r" in such suffix-forms as "-ia," "-a," etc. And why should

the announcer not adopt an American accent when announcing such a title as " Boogy-boogy-boo"? It is an American title, is it not? And it is customary to use Italian, German, Czech and other pronunciations where the context demands it. The subject of announcer accent is a rather more important one than perhaps Mr. Beckett realised when he first wrote. As for the NCBS, its chief virtue, in my view, is its common or garden humanity which is of more value to the community than the somewhat Olympian indifference of the NBS, so teminiscent of the gods of old Lucretius, "who haunt the lucid interspace ’twixt world and world." Yours. etc..

CIRCUMFLEX

Auckland, April 26, 1940.