ILLITERACY
Sir,-Recently the Chancellor of the Otago University disclosed what he called a drifting standard of candidates’ qualifications for University Entrance examinations; and certainly the many examples of faulty spelling fully bore out his statement. But if this be true of the younger genération, what can be said of those supposed to have arrived at years of discretion-and [I include in particular the announcers at the broadcasting stations--who, either of malice aforethought or sheer affectation, continuously give over the air ludicrous and sometimes impossible pronunciations of everyday English words? I could give already nearly one hundred instances. Surely they are far more to be condemned! And the same illiteracy extends to the so-called music which is served out day after day-Sundays included: the air is polluted by plagiarists, pirates, crooners, jazz fiends, modernistic atrocitymongers and gutterbrows generally, to an ever-increasing extent.
J. D.
PARKIN
(Timaru).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19480206.2.14.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 450, 6 February 1948, Page 5
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145ILLITERACY New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 450, 6 February 1948, 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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