The movie "My Fair Lady" is my starting point in my interest in language. It is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 'Pigmalion'.
A common flower girl Eliza meets Higgins, a snobbish misogynistic professor of phonetics. Eliza speaks in Cockney, and Higgins says that from her disgusting, depressing speech, Eliza 'incarnates insult to the English language.' He considers that a person's way of speaking classifies him / her. Then, Higgins agrees to a wager with his friend to transform this common flower girl into a lady presentable in a high society by training her speech.
A common flower girl Eliza meets Higgins, a snobbish misogynistic professor of phonetics. Eliza speaks in Cockney, and Higgins says that from her disgusting, depressing speech, Eliza 'incarnates insult to the English language.' He considers that a person's way of speaking classifies him / her. Then, Higgins agrees to a wager with his friend to transform this common flower girl into a lady presentable in a high society by training her speech.
I was living in Australia when I first watched this movie, and I, whose first encounter with English was Aussie English, thought that Eliza's speech was perfectly acceptable, nothing wrong at all. So the idea that a person's way of speech distinguishes from others was really striking for me, and since then, I concentrated on how people spoke and their accent.
In the movie, Eliza successfully masters beautiful speech and makes her social debut at an Embassy Ball, being offered the hand of the prince for the first dance. Everyone at the ball is convinced that Eliza is a lady, and even a professional phonetician believes that she is a princess under an incognito.
Having acquired beautiful English, Eliza is at a loss what to do, where to go. Now that she had been made a lady and everyone treats her like a lady, she realizes that she is not fit to go back to being a flower girl at Covent Garden. Not just the people around her but Eliza herself thinks that language has transformed her and cannot be the same as before.
Speak poorly, you are treated poorly.
Speak properly, you are treated properly.
Having acquired beautiful English, Eliza is at a loss what to do, where to go. Now that she had been made a lady and everyone treats her like a lady, she realizes that she is not fit to go back to being a flower girl at Covent Garden. Not just the people around her but Eliza herself thinks that language has transformed her and cannot be the same as before.
Speak poorly, you are treated poorly.
Speak properly, you are treated properly.
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