PRONUNCIATION
Sir,-Since I regard The Listener as one of the few critical publications in the Dominion, I wish to protest against the distortion of our language by wrongful or corrupt pronunciation, The words which give a key to my complaint all end in "sume," and are given a’ deal of publicity over the NBS. I do not know how conshume, preshume, reshume, etcetera, came into being, and can find. no foundation in the basicse from which they derive. Fortunately experience teaches that these corruptions will not pass into common use; naice, lurve, the Oxford accent and the curates’ affectation still prevail with those who wish to be different from and superior to their fellow humans, but
thank goodness they have not become part and parcel of our heritage. However, the danger is there; the power of broadcast has yet to bear fruit on custom, so I would pray the "would-bes" to stop muckin’ abaht with "the richest language in the world."
B. S.
BARNETT
(Napier).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450112.2.10.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 290, 12 January 1945, Page 5
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165PRONUNCIATION New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 290, 12 January 1945, Page 5
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