![]() ![]() For those who don’t know Ladefoged basically *was* phonetics in the 20th century. When they were adapting the musical for the Hollywood film they got none other than Peter Ladefoged, who had just started at UCLA, to come and consult on the film. It is based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, and in that play Henry Higgins is based on phoneticians of the Victorian era, particularly Henry Sweet, who basically introduced Europe to phonetics.Ībove: phonetics in My Fair Lady, from Vincent van Heuven‘s Beyond the Segments page. In fact, the film is grounded in rather authentic turn-of-the-century attitudes and applications of speech science. I remember the ridiculous outfits, and a feeling of general discomfort at the way old dude Henry Higgins bullies a young woman into being something she ain’t… isn’t. I remember watching My Fair Lady when I was a child. 432 notes The Real Phoneticians of My Fair Lady
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