SIR,-Since the article headed 'Sidelight ' ants ' a number
of questions which appear to be addressed to me, may I be allowed to answer them ?
Contributor is ready to assume that respon- sibility. I do not know " what the retention of the aspirate in ` which' and what' " is a sign of, and 1 regret I have no information as to the state of the " arteries of the North." ISlaY I, in turn, be permitted to ask a couple of questions ?
Is your contributor in a position to show that the pronunciations which he condemns are due to the desire of educated people to Pander to the tastes of " corner boys of an
Puter suburb " ? This interesting theory deserves to be made more widely known and rt series of articles on the subject would be most welcome. Can your contributor maintain that the real automaton, whether chromium-plated or not, is the living language which changes as it grows older rather than the frozen English he advocates ? Finally, may I point out that the language standards of a given social or geographical group are determined by the speech-habits of native speakers and not by the preferences of any self-appointed authority. 1 fear your ,o.ntributor may find it difficult to accept this. kils conception of correct usage is apparently that of most other people who, if pressed, would modestly admit that there is only one
good pronunciation: their own.—Yours faith- fully,
A. CLASSE The Phonetics Department, The University, OlnAgow, 14/.2
Previous page
