Retorts

"Proper" English

So New Zild dates back to last century eh? Does this give it enough provenance to make it acceptable to those who would claim it to be a diabolical invention of lazy youth and purveyors of poor grammar?

You can hear how differently we have spoken over the years when you listen to the archival material played on National Radio from time to time.

Yes, it's clear that the speakers are colonials, but their patterns and intonations are distinctively different enough to mark the recordings as historical (and not just because of all the cracklings in the background!).

Shakespearian purists once used to wince when the Bard's immortal words were mangled by American actors. Yet it has been claimed that the closest usage to pure Elizabethan English currently extant is to be found in the Appalachian Mountains.

And I recall a radio interview with a linguistics professor who said it was relatively easy to teach Ulster-born Liam Neeson how to do a North Carolina accent, compared to his co-stars who were US born but blessed with clipped New York tones.

For all the research one can do, and all the formulation of rules of pronunciation shifts and grammar changes, it is still the human ear and brain which ultimately decides on the significance of what we say and how we say it.

K.Kerr, Auckland