Another entry on our formidable phonetician, Henry Sweet
As we saw in my previous entry Phoneticians as Reformers 02, phoneticians in the 19th century devoted their knowledge in inventing new systems of writing or orthography. They tried to find ways to sincerely represent their speech sound and words, to record more efficiently than longhand. Bernard Shaw invented the Shavian alphabet, Isaac Pitman invented the Pitman Shorthand, and our Henry Sweet was no exception. Sweet invented the Current Shorthand, and it is alluded in Shaw's "Pygmalion"
Henry Higgins in "Pygmalion" introduces himself to Colonel Pickering as the author of ''Higgins' Universal Alphabet'. Higgins seems to have invented and patented his shorthand, and in act three of the play, we find out that uses his shorthand in his regular correspondence:
Mrs. Higgins
No use, dear. I'm sorry; but I cant get round your vowels; and though I like to get pretty postcards in your patent shorthand, I always have to read the copies in ordinary writing you so thoughtfully send me.
(note: Bernard Shaw did not use apostrophes when he wrote.)
This scene is written from Shaw's experience of when he used to receive postcards from Henry Sweet in his Current Shorthand. There even was a manual published by the Claredon Press for a four and sixpenny in his days.
Shaw highly praises Sweet's Current Shorthand. He says in the preface of "Pygmalion" as below.
... the whole point of his Current Shorthand is that it can well express every sound in the language perfectly, vowels as well as consonants, and that your hand has to make no stroke except the easy and current ones with which you write m, n, and u, l, p and q, scribbling them at whatever angle comes easiest to you... .... His true objective was the provision of a full accurate, legible script for our language...
Current Shorthand may have been perfect in describing the language, but it was not so widely received. Why? We have to see how sweet Sweet was in life.
to be continued.
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