NEW ZEALAND SPEECH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 273, 15 September 1944, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND SPEECH

Sir-"Arundle" and Dr. Crompton are typical of the people to whom I referred, people who try to improve our language but stultify their efforts by concentration on some pettifogging béte noir and so succeed merely in conveying an impression of conservative snobbery. New Zealand is a nation and the language spoken (call it New Zealandese or New Zealandic or what you will) is as distinctive as Australian, American, Canadian or South African;

and no attempt to induce the great bulk of the population to speak in the emasculated tones used by some BBC speakers or some of the "Lord Haw Haw" school will be successful. I do not know who the "educated New Zealanders" referred to may be, but I do know that much of the speech from New Zealand radio stations, including that of many announcers, is very good, and is representative of the speech of the average citizen of this country. At the same time, there is room for improvement, but not by the introduction of "English" forms which are alien to our make-up. To speak of "encouraging local shibboleths and differences within English-speaking nations" is just piffle. Churchill himself speaks of the "Commonwealth of Nations which make up the British Empire"; everyone, except Dr. Crompton realises that they are separate nations; but there is no disunity despite the fact that 50 per cent of the people of the Empire do not speak English at all, and that each county in England has a different dialect. If the "better pronunciation" enthusiasts will realise these facts, they will have a chance of accomplishing something towards an improvement in the general level of our speech.

J.S.

L.

(Upper Hutt).