"GOOD ENGLISH"
Sir,-A good deal of nonsense is being written and published about pronunciation and good English. Educated people know that speech is not a matter of education, but of association. The biggest dunce turned out of Eton speaks beautiful English: it is the only English he knows and has always heard. We deplore the effort to destroy our beautiful dialects and their age-old English words. I knew a gentleman with several letters after his name: his colloquial English was broad Yorkshire. He delighted in it and Was unselfconscious: also his broad accent offended neither gentle nor simple. Only his’ classical words were refined. He was witty and charming and natural and till a big lad lived in a miner’s cottage. Early associations are never eradicated. You bend your talk
to be understood in America: you talk "pidgin" in the Pacific, but ever return to the English of your mother’s knee.
BACTERIUM
(St. Heliers).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19470919.2.14.3
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 430, 19 September 1947, Page 5
Word count
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154"GOOD ENGLISH" New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 430, 19 September 1947, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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