PRONUNCIATION AND CROONING
Sir,-Regarding the pronunciation of certain words on the air which is objected to by listeners, I wish to put before you a different angle to the subject. I have even heard in the Educational session pronunciation which gives a different. meaning from what is intended. Here are a few examples: "Raleigh spread his cloak to receive the queen descending from her ‘couch’!" "So and so, a person of outstanding ability, was appointed as ‘Cha-man’ to the meeting." Was it a cleaning-up job? Again, from 4YA comes the "wobbling" of birds. The weather man used to speak of an "approaching guile." The inability to use the letter "r’ at the end of a word, as when "water" becomes "watah," is found also with negroes. I don’t know how we got it here. "Here" becomes "Hae-aw," suggesting a Chinese gentleman. These same so-called teachers enjoy mimicking the dialects of Britain. Well, I prefer native dialects to this hash which, if persisted in, is not fair to the scholar, unless spelling is altered to suit. Again, nearly every morning there comes over the air the moans of a cowboy in distress with the stomach ache. This, I understand, is called crooning. A sick cow nearby adds her voice to this depression, Next item, the hungry, noisy calves burst into the separating room, and the ensuing clatter of cans, etc, with dogs and cowboy joining in is-jazz! One writer to your paper upholding this devil’s own din as music stated that it was highly technical and most difficult to execute. Maybe, but it’s a sight more difficult to put up with. Still, as music for a primeval war dance of junglefolk, inciting them to smash things, or even at times for a kind of dance for social purposes in the tribe, it would be highly successful. Do.you think room could be found for, say, Bracken’s poems, or even for old songs of the Australian bush-of bushranging or gold-digging? One I have in mind I would like to hear, a favourite of Otago men in the last war-*Take Me Back to Bendigo." What about it? Something for those of us with memories of old New Zealand.
WALTER A.
KENT
. (Catlins).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 4
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368PRONUNCIATION AND CROONING New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 4
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