Phoneticians as Reformers 01

Late 19th century London must have already been a melting pot of people of all over the country. After the Enclosure and the Industrial Revolution, many people who used to be farmers living in the countryside moved to the cities and settled as the working class. You could imagine all kinds of dialects spoken there. From the preface of "Pygmalion", we can see the grief of Shaw towards the English and the language of his days.

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot spell it because they have nothing to spell it with but an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants - and not all of them - have any agreed speech value. Consequently no man can teach himself what it should sound like from reading it: and it is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.

Henry Higgins of "My Fair Lady" also sings as above his irritation towards the English in "Why can't the English?"

What Shaw idealized must be "one common language", universalized in grammar, in sound, and phonetically sincere in writing. He further writes in the preface of his play:


The reformer we need most today is an energetic phonetic enthusiast: that is why I have made such a one the hero of the play.


Shaw considered phoneticians not just as scholars, but as reformers of language; professionals who can save the language from "evils".

to be continued.

Wouldn't it be Loverly

The title of the song in my previous article (Abso-bloomin-lutely) was "Wouldn't it be Loverly". Some of you might have thought that the word "Loverly" is misspelled, but it isn't.

The word loverly is not in most dictionaries. The only one I found the definition in was Merriam Webster (American English Dictionary) :  resembling or befitting a lover.

I could not find definition in any English English dictionaries.

Eliza imagines about her ideal comfortable life:

Someone's head resting on my knee

Warm and tender as he can be

Who takes good care of me

Aow wouldn't it be loverly?

The word loverly in this context could mean as the above definition. However, this story is set in 1912 London (although it was written by an American lyricist, he was strictly instructed to write the song lyrics following the original story written by Bernard Shaw), and the word would mean the same as "lovely".

Then why is it spelled with an "r"?

Eliza speaks Cockney, accent of the working class, so the word lovely would sound like loverly when she says it, so the spelling is phonetically faithful to her speech.

Ain't it loverly?

Abso-bloomin-lutely in "My Fair Lady" Affixation

Another article from my favourite movie "My Fair Lady"

Eliza is a common flower girl, her life is far from grand, but with her Covent Garden fellows, giving herself airs and graces, she imagines her ideal life singing "Wouldn't it be Loverly?"

All I want is a room somewhere
Far away from this cold night air
With one enormous chair
Aow, wouldn't it be loverly?

Oh so loverly sitting
Absobloominlutely still
I would never budge 'till spring
Crept over me winder sill


Eliza dreams of a modest decent life like a lady, but she uses a word that a lady would not use - absobloominlutely.

This word is now Googlable, but it is not in the English dictionary I have around me. It is a variation of "absolutely" with the word "blooming" inserted. You could say that "blooming" is an infix intensifying the meaning "absolutely".

For Eliza, the word "blooming" is a casual intensifier but I presume it was quite a shocking swear word in the early 20th century. Later in the movie, Eliza gets too excited watching a horse race and shouts,
"Move your BLOOMIN' ARSE!!"
All the upper class people at the race are aghast, some ladies fainting, at her words.

blooming : a mild swear word, used to emphasize a comment or a statement, especially an angry one. (OED)

100 years later, the word has become mild. Once shocking, but now not so, so people come up with a new expression that can replace it, and also apply the same rule in forming new words - absof*ckinlutely.

Now, I say that word is shocking. I would not dare use it, cannot even write the whole word. (However, you can hear it used in the American drama, "Sex and the City")

Language and Mind 05 language and independence and “My Fair Lady”

I have an alternative way of enjoying “My Fair Lady”(a duchess or a flower girl) – the story is about a girl being transformed into a lady, but I can also see it as the history of England, the fall of the Empire.

The story is set in England in 1912. The British Empire, with its colonies and territories, was at its height, holding nearly a quarter of the world’s population, and covering also a quarter of the earth’s land area. It was truly, “the Great Britain”. The people in those days must have been very proud of their mighty country.

In the movie, Professor Higgins seriously tells Eliza, who is so fed up with learning English, the majesty and grandeur of the language, what great project she is trying to conquer. For me, he sounds like “the British Empire” itself speaking, talking of conquering new land, new territory.

……

I know your head aches.

I know you're tired.

I know your nerves are as raw as meat in a butcher's window.

But think what you're trying to accomplish.

Just think what you're dealing with.

The majesty and grandeur of the English language....

It's the greatest possession we have.

The noblest thoughts that ever flowed through the hearts of men...

...are contained in its extraordinary, imaginative... and musical mixtures of sounds.

And that's what you've set yourself out to conquer, Eliza.

And conquer it you will.

……

Higgin’s words are a revelation to Eliza. She suddenly grasps what she is trying to do, and she enjoys her capability to speak the beautiful language like her professor. After this, Eliza is no longer the whining, crying student bossed round by Higgins, and gains confidence and independence from him.

To me, this scene and the following story overlap the state and the history of the then British Empire. From the end of 19^th century to 20^th century, the British Empire starts to give independence to its white colonies – Canada, Australia, New Zealand – letting the country self-govern, but still keeping the influence strong over them.

What happened to Eliza? You have to see for yourself if she gained her full independence.

Language and Mind 04 a duchess or a flower girl

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.

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.