The Phonetic Murder

Professor Arthur Lloyd James of London University is one of the greatest living authorities on the English language and its pronunciation. He taught British Broadcasting Corp. announcers to pronounce Cholmondeley in two syllables (chumly) and Llanfairpwllgyngyllgogerychwryndrobwllllantsiliogogogoch in liquid labials (pronounced Hlan-fair-poohl-gooin-gill-gogery-coorin- dro-boohl-hlant-seeleo-gogo-goch).* He was engaged by the Government to train R. A. F. pilots to speak clearly by radio telephone. His pronunciation handbooks are regarded as standard for the King's English pure and undefiled, and he wrote the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on pronunciation. Declaring that BBC announcers were "too haw haw" in their diction, he is responsible for the nickname "Lord Haw-Haw" given to Nazi Propagandist William Joyce.

At the beginning of the Blitzkrieg Professor James and his wife, Concert Violinist Elsie Owen, moved from London to Oxford. Before Christmas they visited London and ran smack into one of its most violent air raids. Severely shaken, the professor and his wife were taken to a nursing home, later went back to their London house, where they slept in the basement.

Answering an anonymous phone call last week, London police visited the James home. In the dining room they found the professor, a chubby, moon-faced man with thinning grey hair and bushy black eyebrows, wandering dazedly. On his cuffs and under his fingernails were bloodstains. In the bedroom lay the body of his wife, her head bashed in and innumerable stab wounds in her body. They also found a hammer, poker and large carving fork.

From the professor's unphonetic mumblings police gleaned this explanation: "I thought my powers were failing, and I could not cope with my work. Rather than expect my wife to face a bleak future I decided she should die. . . . We were so happy. I wanted her to die while she was like that. ... I thought I would also kill myself."

The Crown began its investigation, but Britons knew the answer: cracked war nerves.

* Railway porters just call it Hlanfair P. G.

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