English as She Should be Spoke

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 810, 4 February 1955, Page 17

English as She Should be Spoke

[HE QUEEN’S ENGLISH -to the layman it is puzzling, contradictory and paradoxical. That is why he often finds himself involved in arguments: What is the correct pronunciation of "controversy"? Is it grammatical to split an infinitive? Should we be ashamed of talking with a New Zealand accent instead of practising ‘standard English, and anyway, who does talk standard English, and why is it standard? Because of these arguments, which may occur anywhere from the classroom to smoko-time in a woolstore, the new programme’ by Professor Arnold Wall on The Queen’s English will no doubt be as popular as its predecessor, The King’s English, broadcast up to 1951 by the late Miss Cecil Hull. Professor Wall will give his talks of 13 minutes fort-

nightly from 3YA on a main national stations link at 9.15 p.m., beginning on Tuesday, February 8. Professor Wall will start by paying tribute to the work of Miss Hull. He will discuss doubtful meanings and pronunciations; origins and meanings of Christian names and surnames; questions of grammar and idiom; standard English and its relations to New Zealand and Australian speech; Americanisms in standard, New Zealand and Australian speech, and similar topics, as well as answering the queries of listeners, Professor Wall was born in Ceylon and educated in England, where he got his B.A. and M.A. degrees, his thesis for the former being on the Scandinavian dialect in the English language. After being on the staff of the, Cambridge Tutorial College and studying as a research student at Christ's College, he came to New Zealand, where he was Professor of English at Canterbury University College. He is a philologist, botanist, mountaineer, poet and author of many scientific works, the most widely known probably being his works on the flora of New Zealand. Listeners who have queries for Professor Wall should send them to him at Station 3YA, Box 1484, Christchurch.