BROADCAST ENGLISH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 393, 3 January 1947, Page 5

BROADCAST ENGLISH

Sir,-As a listener I can enjoy any sort of programme that contains good music; I also like to listen to some of the ZB serials, but there is one thing that awakens a sort of homicidal tendency in my make-up: that is to hear a super-soap salesman blather about "lather" when I would much rather hear it rhyme with "father," as the inventors of the language intended it to. And when some announcers find it necessary to talk about Covent Garden they pronounce it Co-vent Garden. I was under the impression that every decently educated man or woman knew that the term was a corruption of Convent Garden and that centuries of English people have placed the accent on the first syllable as, Cov-ent Garden. With the New Zealand pronunciation of the word "ate" nothing can be done, I suppose, since children are taught in school to make it rhyme with eight. This reminds me of an incident which I am assured actually happened. After World War L, a man of my acquaintance settled in New Zealand and raised a family. One of his sons, born in the Dominion, one day, referring to his school lunch, said that he "ate" it in the school playground. His father corrected him and told him that in England the word was pronounced "et." "My teacher says it’s ‘ate,’" said. the boy. "Well," said Dad, "you can tell your teacher she’s wrong. It’s ‘et.’" After a little more argument the youngster said, "That’s the worst of you ‘homeys,’ you know it all, don’t. you?" I am told that father rebuked the little New Zealander in the old-fashioned "homey" way, and that whether he "et" it, or "ate" it he took his next meal standing up.

HOMEY

(Christchurch),

More letters from listeners will be found on page 42

LETTERS FROM LISTENERS

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