Kiwi English

Well said, Gay Johnson (Letters, December 4)! I am also driven to distraction by the majority of New Zealanders mis-pronouncing ‘‘women’’. Many of these people have degrees (hopefully not majoring in English!).

A relative recently informed me that is not correct to say ‘‘wimmin’’ in the South Island. I see it as ignorance and inability or lack of desire to pronounce words correctly. Are the school teachers not teaching the children how to correctly pronounce words? Of course they are not because they cannot do it themselves. A child recently told me that the head of English at her school says ‘‘anythink and somethink’’.

We can no longer laugh about the way Australians speak – New Zealanders’ speech has become slovenly. Say it properly you thickos, it is ‘‘wimmin’’.

And while I am whingeing, what about another new word, ‘‘congradulations’’. In our day it was spelt with a T. Shirley Kittelty, Te Atatu South

Gay Johnson’s letter would have resonated with many readers. My pet hate is how so often the letter ‘‘c’’ is being omitted from ‘‘picture’’, one of the worst offenders being John Key. To me, the ‘‘big pitcher’’ smacks of an overweight baseball player.

Another trend I have noticed (as an expat Brit of some 50 years standing) is how words rhyming with ‘‘known’’ are pronounced as two syllables, surely a uniquely New Zealand affectation and a solecism of which Key (and several news presenters) – is also guilty. Frank Bailey, Hamilton