PRONUNCIATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 344, 25 January 1946, Page 5

PRONUNCIATION

Sir,-New Zealanders are taught English by teachers born in the Dominion of parents also born here. Consequently they tend to pronounce words as they are spelt. The-trouble is that while English pronunciation has changed with the centuries orthography has. been static-

a perfectly absurd position. Radio, which gives access to every ear and intellect, is a unique weapon for universalising our mother tongue and eliminating dialects and oddities, but that is some, task when we speak one language and write another, Isn’t it ridiculous to regard as sacred archaic spellings which often bear little relation to the spoken tongue?

G. H.

SCHOLEFIELD

(Wellington).

Sir,-Why all ‘this discussion about pronunciation? In a language with as many dialects as English there will always be differences of opinion, yet who is to say who is right» and who is wrong? Even the BBC seems incapable of making up its mind. Moreover, a language is not static-it is a living thing, and living things change. Hence we now have "ski" instead of "she" and the accented syllables in such words as er eee LE er Te (FFP ee Oe eae gO PGE IM OM Ee ee

lh i i i i ht "municipal," "orchestra" and "adversary’ jump about in a disconcerting fashion, Yet each pronunciation has been current for a considerable period. Half of the speech faults of New Zealanders are the result of laziness and all the education in the world won't overcome that. As for the "harsh-voiced boy" who spoke of "Biz-ett"--good luck to him! That is at least preferable to the pseudocultured longerie, Shongsong, Treest, daybootongs, and Deboozy of the average announcer, which are neither French nor English. This, of course, does not exctise the racing announcer who insists on horses being "bought into line" at every meeting: one of the three "R’s" must have been dropped from his education, Anyway, George the Wog has a succinct word which covers the whole controversy (not quite sure of the accented syllable in that word) very aptly: "maleesh." I’m sorry I can’t give the "a" the full, guttural, Arabic value, but actually I think the Arabs are wrong-they should pronounce it the way I do!

BRUCE F. R.

SCOTT

(Timaru).

Sir-Much has appeared in your columns about pronunciation. Why the fuss? Here is the word-there is the Concise Oxford. I recommend it to New Zealanders. Why emulate the ostrich?

J. B.

HYATT

(Karori).