Dear Parents
PRONUNCIATION AND ACCENTS
Last week’s assembly addressed the issue of names, correct pronunciations and accents. With English being such a complex language, not least with spelling and pronunciation, how does one explain the spelling difference and pronunciation in “stuff” and “enough” and then “though”. It defies the general spelling rules and therefore is learnt and practised as an exception.
The same can apply to names, particularly with reference to different language groups and nationalities. For instance, “Jean” could be pronounced in two ways as with “Kyley”” and so on, and one gets told which one it is by the bearer of the name. Similarly, we use names of different language groups, where a letter in a name might be silent, the inflection is different and, in the case of South Africa with twelve official languages, there can be clicks, the letter “x” may be pronounced as a click in certain languages.
With different home languages, we cannot get the pronunciation of each other’s names perfect, but we can try. To try is to recognise each other fully; to make an attempt and get close to the correct one, shows that we care about the other person and his heritage.
Our various accents form part of this obviously. A person from abroad would probably never have experienced the pronunciation of certain letters in Afrikaans and isiXhosa, for instance, but we respect how they try to get close to the pronunciation. Accents can reveal a lot about our language, cultural background, geographical location, even education and, in some circles, “class”. But they can also be used in a mocking way to denigrate a certain group, normally taking on the stereotype somehow created amongst some people. This is discriminatory and completely unacceptable at our school.
The message to our boys was quite simple:
Respect everyone: try as much as you can to pronounce each others’ names correctly – it shows that you care about who they are. Never mimic another’s accent to mock or imply a common behaviour – it is properly discriminatory and has no place here.
DURBANVILLE EXCHANGE
We look forward to the Durbanville Exchange over the next two days with a full range of interactions: Chapel, music, chess, tennis, hockey and rugby. In addition, a number of our families will be hosting Durbanville boys overnight. My thanks in advance to you for this.
All the best
Kind regards
GREG BROWN
HEADMASTER |
