BROADCAST ENGLISH.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 92, 28 March 1941, Page 4

BROADCAST ENGLISH.

Sir-I have read with much interest the letter signed John Doe concerning the mispronunciation of commonly-used English words, such as we hear over the air and in Parliamentary debates, etc. The incorrect placing of the accent is responsible for mistakes in’ such words as municipal (munic-ipal,

not municipal); industries (in-dustries not indust-ries); formidable (for-midable, not formid-able); deficit (def-icit, not defic-it); mandatory (man-datory, not mandat-ory); controversy (con-troversy, not controversy); inventory (in-ventory, not invent-ory); Admiralty (Ad-miralty, not Admiral-ty); bureau (accent on last syllable, not bu-reau); adult (accent on last syllable, not ad-ult); discipline (dis-cipline, not discip-line) and many others. Another difficulty seems to be whether vowels should be pronounced long or short, as in the following: penalize (peen-alize, not penn-alize); mobilize) (mow-bilize, not mobb-ilize); basic (bay-sic, not bass-ic); pageant (padge-ent, not page-ent); volt (as in vault, not as in bolt); livelong (live as in let live, not as in live bird), etc. The following words are generally acknowledged to have alternative pronunciations, either of which may be accepted as correct: patriotic, finance, gala, centenary, hydatids, quinine, neither, tribunal, apparent, abdomen, plebiscite, emaciated, etc. In this connection there is the well-known story of the Irish professor, who, when asked if the word " neither 4 should be pronounced "nigh-ther" or " nee-ther,"

replied that it was " nay-ther."-

J.

VOSS

(Christ-

church).