Henry Sweet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 15 September 1845 |
| Died | 30 April 1912(1912-04-30) (aged 66) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Balliol College |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Phonetics,Old English,language teaching |
| Institutions | Early English Text Society,Philological Society,Oxford University |
Henry Sweet (15 September 1845 – 30 April 1912) was an Englishphilologist,phonetician andgrammarian.[1][2]
As a philologist, he specialized in theGermanic languages, particularlyOld English andOld Norse. In addition, Sweet published works on larger issues of phonetics and grammar in language and theteaching of languages. Many of his ideas have remained influential, and a number of his works continue to be in print, being used as course texts at colleges and universities.
Henry Sweet was born inSt Pancras, London. He was educated atBruce Castle School andKing's College School, London.[1][3] In 1864, he spent a short time studying atHeidelberg University.[1][4] Upon his return to England, he took up an office job with a trading company in London.[4] Five years later, aged twenty-four, he won ascholarship inGerman and enteredBalliol College inOxford.[4]
Sweet neglected his formal academic coursework, concentrating instead on pursuing excellence in his private studies.[4] Early recognition came in his first year at Oxford, when the prestigiousPhilological Society (of which he was later to become president) published a paper of his onOld English.[4] In 1871, still an undergraduate, he editedKing Alfred's translation of theCura Pastoralis for theEarly English Text Society (King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care: With an English Translation, the Latin Text, Notes, and an Introduction), his commentary establishing the foundation for Old Englishdialectology.[1] He graduated in 1873, nearly thirty years old, with a fourth-class degree inliterae humaniores.[4] Subsequent works on Old English includedAn Anglo-Saxon Reader (1876),[5]The Oldest English Texts (1885) andA Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (1896).[1]
Sweet, like his contemporaryWalter Skeat, felt under particular pressure from German scholars in English studies who, often state-employed, tenured, and accompanied by theircomitatus of eager graduate students, "annexed" the historical study of English. Dismayed by the "swarms of young program-mongers turned out every year by German universities," he felt that "no English dilettante can hope to compete with them—except by Germanizing himself and losing all his nationality."[6]
In 1877, Sweet publishedA Handbook of Phonetics, which attracted international attention among scholars and teachers of English in Europe.[1] He followed up with theElementarbuch des gesprochenen Englisch (1885), which was subsequently adapted asA Primer of Spoken English (1890).[1] This included the first scientific description of educated London speech, later known asreceived pronunciation, with specimens of connected speech represented inphonetic script.[1] In addition, he developed a version ofshorthand calledCurrent Shorthand, which had both orthographic and phonetic modes.[7] His emphasis on spoken language and phonetics made him a pioneer inlanguage teaching, a subject which he covered in detail inThe Practical Study of Languages (1899).[1] In 1901, Sweet was madereader in phonetics at Oxford.[8]The Sounds of English (1908) was his last book on English pronunciation.[1]
Other books by Sweet includeAn Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary (1886),The History of Language (1900[9]), and a number of other works he edited for the Early English Text Society. Sweet was also closely involved in the early history of theOxford English Dictionary.[4]
Despite the recognition he received for his scholarly work, Sweet never received a university professorship, a fact that disturbed him greatly, although he was appointed reader. He had done poorly as a student at Oxford, he had annoyed many people through bluntness, and he failed to make every effort to gather official support.[4] His relationship with theOxford University Press was often strained.[4]
Sweet died on 30 April 1912 in Oxford, ofpernicious anemia; he left no children.[2]
InWho's Who, 1911, Sweet gave his recreations as:
Climbing, gardening, chemistry, alphabets, in boyhood; swimming, skating, European languages and literatures, in youth; riding, fishing, cycling, literary controversy, spelling and university reform, oriental languages and literatures, in middle age; sociology, spiritualism, music, literary composition, in old age—looked forward to flying: real flying, not with bags and stoves![3]
Sweet has retained a reputation as "the man who taught Europe phonetics".[4] His work established anapplied linguistics tradition in language teaching which has continued without interruption to the present day.[4]
A bibliography andCollected Papers were published byH. C. Wyld.
In the preface to his 1913 playPygmalion,George Bernard Shaw stated that "[Henry] Higgins is not a portrait of Sweet, to whom the adventure of Eliza Doolittle would have been impossible; still, as will be seen, there are touches of Sweet in the play."[1]Leslie Howard portrayed the character of Higgins in the 1938 filmPygmalion; Henry Higgins was notably portrayed byRex Harrison in the 1956 stage musicalMy Fair Lady and its1964 screen adaptation.
TheHenry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas (founded 1984) is named after him. It holds annual colloquia, and publishes the journalLanguage and History.
