"DO NEW ZEALANDERS SPEAK BADLY?"
‘Sir,-If speech is an art, as Mrs Barnard stated so emphatically in Question Mark on April 4, then she is doomed to disappointment. Not every English-speaking person is endowed with artistic talent. Speech is a reflection of our environment and surely the accent of a Canadian, American, Englishman or New Zealander is more
colourful than ugly. How dull it would be if they all spoke standard English. If money, time and trouble are spent on speech training, one can expect to hear carefully-controlled speech, but does it matter so very much? Speech is essentially a form of communication. If Mrs Barnard sought to convince us of her case for Standard English, surely her own speech should have measured up to it. Twenty-two "um’s" and "ah’s" in one very long sentence make for very tedious listening. The next time I hear some Burns tead aloud I shall find it very difficult to convince myself that it would sound more beautiful in Standard English. I am sure I shall continue to be one of the large number of "uneducated" speakers who prefer the dialect.
DILYS
BEARDSLEY
(Christchurch).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570426.2.18.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 924, 26 April 1957, Page 11
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190"DO NEW ZEALANDERS SPEAK BADLY?" New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 924, 26 April 1957, Page 11
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