ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 75, 29 November 1940, Page 4

ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE

Sir,-You are improving very fast. Your articles on the first six or seven pages are really very good. I'm glad to see you got some from John Guthrie... You have had some valuable notes on the pronunciation of Maori by the Rev. R. T. Kohere, valuable because the true pronunciation is almost lost. The young Maoris are hopelessly at sea, just as the young Scots are with their tongue. Probably there were local differences among the Maoris as there were in Scotland where the Forfarshire accent gave fat and far and fan, while Ayrshire said what and whaur and whan, and an Englishman said w’at and were and w’en. It’s impossible by any spelling to express to an English eye the sound of what and whaur and whan for they are sounds unknown to him. He can’t say wh. He says w’en without the slightest touch of an aspirate and doesn’t know it. Thackeray, when he wished to represent the Irishman’s emphatic grip of the wh in what, spelt it phwat. That’s not correct, but it’s a good attempt at the impossible task of representing to English eyes a sound unknown to Englishmen. The fact is _ that the wh in Maori was the same sound as the wh in an Irishman’s what, and the Scottish what was almost the same. It was neither f, nor fw, nor phw, and no English letters can represent it to English eyes. The English don’t know the sound, just as we can’t see colours beyond the ultra-violet. The sound of a in Maori is also a stumbling block to an Englishman, and no trouble to an Irishman or a Scot, because the pronunciation of English has changed since the time of Chaucer, while the Scot, the Irishman, the Yankee, the French, Germans and Maoris have endeavoured to preserve their pronunciation unchanged. English pronunciation is now completely different from that of any other people, while a Scot finds himself at home in French or German or Maori much more than he does with English. The trouble is that young Maoris are learning to speak as their pakeha neighbours do and the true Maori

| ds glmost lost.

THOS.

TODD

(Gisborne).

WHEN THE MOVIES WERE YOUNG Sir,-I have just read the article by Rudall Hayward and it was interesting. I remember " The Bloke from Freeman’s Bay." Was not " Darkie Bestic" in it? I also remember "My Lady of the Cave" and my former headmaster (H.T.G.) in the laughable scene where he tripped. Yes, they were good pictures. Honours must go to Mr. Hayward. I would like to hear from "H.T.G." if this should catch his eye.-

STANLEY

DEVERELL

(Kati Kati).