17 OCTOBER 1970, Page 19

Laura Norder

Sir: Congratulations to Stella Hagan, but it is the 'educated' who are murdering the English language. When I rebuked some proletarian youth for pronouncing 'Severn' as if it came after six, and 'pattern' as if it was the name of an American last-war general, they pointed out that these pronuncia- tions are exactly those of the sac announcers and news-readers.

True: and it is not the working-

class who speak of har-purchase and far fighting by far men, al- though no doubt they will in time if they follow the advice so fre- quently given in our schools: 'Base your pronunciation on the BBC, It is the best in the world'—Oh what tars!

John A. Yates Bell Green. Coventry