New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-22

My chief interest in "Pygmalion"
has been that Of a phonetician, and 1t
is mainly as a phonetician that ] de-
sire to speak of Mr.. Shaw's latest
venture. "What an absurd subjects!
some will exclaim. "Can there posi-
bly, be anything dramatic in science
which treats of the nature and pro
duction of specch-sounds? - The play
itself will answer triumphantly these
questions. The authors choice OF
subject has been profound, unerrlng.
His purpose has not been simply to
amuse, as was, perhaps, Mollere's when
he wrote the delightful scene IN when
Monsieur Jourdain, Of the bourgeois
gentilhomme, is given lesson IN pho
netics by his professor OF philosophy.
IT cut deeper, and the author knew
that he was Analysing one OF the toun-
tain springs of character. The primer
plcs by which the London fiOwer-glrl,
speaking her unspeakable Cockney dla-
lcct. acquires in the space OF few
months the language and address OF a
duchess arc significant, and have moth
ing in common with the irrelevant
hypnotism OF Trilby. They arc sig
nificant because they arc scientific,
and, because they are scientific, the
lesson Of "Pygmalion" is true lesson.
But how did Bernard Shaw, dram
atist and literary critic, know that
there existed science OF phonctlcs,
and that its methods and conclusions
we're more accurate by far than those
of the experts in handwriting, who
have contributed so eXuberantly to de-
tcctive stories and to detective plays
While VIC cannot be sure in the case OF
one possessing such large intellectual
curiosity, il is probable that he learned
of the new science through his friend,
Mr.. William Archer. In any event,
M. Shaw appears to be aware of the
latest word in phonetics. His qualit-
cations in phonetics are apparent both
in the development of his moth and IN
the stage directions at the commence
ment Of Act II. This act takes place
in the phonetic laboratory OF the hero,
Higgins (what a Shavian name for
heroD, and we see the usual instru-
ments for experimental phonetlcs,
such as a photograph, laryngoscopc,
tuning forks, an apparatus for mauo-
metric flames, TO be utilized IN meas
uring the air pressure of consonsnts,
etc.
II is thoroughly Characteristic OF
Shaw that phonetics appears to nm
"smiable" because 1t is useful, that Is,
because it enables one to diyest HIM
self OF vicious accent learned in IN
fancy. and to put on in its place the
elegant mantle of so-called polite
pronunciation and intonation. There
are in England phoneticians like Mr..
Daniel Jones, of University College.
London, who can accomplish marvels
in the more or less complete eradiea-
tion of dialect peculiarities. The best
laboratory in existence for all such
purposes is that of the Able Rousselot
at the College de France. The able Is
considered the founder Of experimental
phonetics, study whose purpose, at
first purely scientific, has only re-
Gently assumed a social or economic
value. II is the construction, so 70
speak, of this last arch of the bridge
which inspired Shaw TO see in phonet-
les dramatic motif. as yet unutiliEed.
The spoken language is lar more I'M
portant than We believe. II has been
called the garment OF the soul. If the
soul exists, while we cannot see IL or
touch it, weigh it or photograph it,
we can hear it. Nothing in the world is
so intimate part of US as our spoken
words, neither clothes nor furniture,
houses, books, friends, ideas manners
even. Surely, therefore, whatever af-
fects our spoken language is vitality
important: accent, intonation, prOnun-
citation, vocabulary, syntax. In recast-
ing, in reforming the speech of the
gutter-snipe flower girl, as ne calls
her, Higgins, the phonetieian and hero,
does a heroic act; he reeasts and re-
forms her soul