THE BIRTH OF LANGUAGE

The miraculous birth of language. Preface (p. 7-33) by George Bernard Shaw.

Softcover. 1st thus. 192 p.; 18 cm. (Guild books ; no. 213) [Original title: The birth of language, 1937; Shaw's preface added to this edition] From the Shavian preface: `My grandfather swore "be the varchoo" of his oath: I prefer vert-yoo. Edge-i-cate is less refined than ed-you-cate. The late Helen Taylor, John Stuart Mill's stepdaughter, who as a public speaker always said Russ-ya and Pruss-ya instead of Rusher and Prussher, left her hearers awestruck. The indefinite article, a neutral sound sometimes called the obscure vowel, and the commonest sound in our language though we cannot print it except by turning an e upside down, was always pronounced by Mrs. Annie Besant, perhaps the greatest British oratress of her time, as if it rhymed with pay. In short, we are all over the shop with our vowels because we cannot spell them with our alphabet. Like Scott, Dickens, Artemus Ward and other writers of dialect I have made desperate efforts to represent local and class dialects by the twentysix letters of the Latin alphabet,but found it impossible and had to give it up. A well-known actor,when studying one of my cockney parts,had to copy it in ordinary spelling before he could learn it. My concern here, however, is not with pronunciation but with the saving of time wasted. We try to extend our alphabet by writing two letters insteadof one;but we make a mess of this device.With reckless inconsistency we write sweat and sweet, and then write whet and wheat, just the contrary. Consistency is not always a virtue; but spelling becomes a will o' the wisp without it. There is nothing for it but to design 24 new consonants and 18 new vowels, making in all a new alphabet of 42 letters, and use it side by side with the present lettering until the better ousts the worse.'(24-8) VG, sewn, in orig. green wrapper. Pages toned. Nº de ref. del artículo: 023070

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