NBS PRONUNCIATION
Sir -I apologise for being insufficiently lucid regarding the pronunciation of "ack-sent." I meant to imply that it is pronounced here’ as if hyphenated, with almost equal stress on each syllable. Mr. Reed will find that, in any dictionary, the syllable "ak" is accented. In my letter it was not, and this was an omission. To illustrate my point I suggest that any who disagree should say in rapid succession, "frequent, decent, recent,’ and follow up quickly with "accent." It will be quite clear which is "out of step." The value of the "e" in "ent" differs according to whether the combination occurs in the stressed or the unstressed syllable. In the other group are descent, repent, detention, in each of which it will be seen that the "e" in the unstressed syllable suffers a of value. I may be out of step here, but that is because I had to adapt myself in England. Well-edu-cated New Zealanders speak of hospiddles, edjication, ishue (issue), New Zilland-and I repeat that this is just slovenly and without excuse. At the other extreme is that "naiceness" ‘(to
which Mr. Alexander refers), which gushes hideously from a widespread in-feriority-complex and which is almost worse. (Quite common in England, but not in the BBC). To add to my musical howlers I have this-Walton’s Fakayde Suite!
H. M.
BRACKEN
(Auckland)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460809.2.14.4
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 372, 9 August 1946, Page 5
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226NBS PRONUNCIATION New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 372, 9 August 1946, Page 5
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