Pygmalion Study Guide

Shaw starts out telling his readers that the English do not value their language and do not teach their children to speak it properly. Part of the problem is that the language is not spelled the way it is pronounced. For this reason, phoneticians are needed to reform the English language. Among the great phoneticians, Shaw mentions Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis and Tito Pagliardini, but holds none in higher regard than Henry Sweet. (read more)