Henry Sweet

Henry Sweet ( born September 15, 1845 in London, † April 30, 1912 in Oxford ) was a British philologist, linguist and one of the founders of phonetics.

Sweet received his education at King 's College School in London, at the University of Heidelberg ( there later Dr. phil. Hc ) and at Balliol College, Oxford. Sweet specializing in Germanic languages, in particular the Anglo-Saxon language, an early form of English, Old Icelandic and West Saxon. Sweet published also on important problems of phonetics and grammar, and some of his ideas are still being discussed, as well as some of his publications are still in use in university lectures. His History of English sounds is considered a milestone in phonetics.

Sweet 1901 lecturer at Oxford. He published numerous books for the Early English Text Society. Despite his influential and highly successful publications, he had never held a chair at the university, making him very angry. The position was perhaps denied him, because he had no good degree ( he was already more interested in his private projects ) and many people had applied by his blunt expression against him.

George Bernard Shaw portrayed in the character of Professor Higgins Sweet in his play Pygmalion, later also known as My Fair Lady. From 1895 Sweet was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

Publications

• A History of English Sounds ( 1874)
• An Anglo - Saxon Reader ( 1876)
• A Handbook on Phonetics (1877 )
• First Middle English Primer (1884 )
• An Icelandic Primer (1895 )
• The Student's Dictionary of Anglo - Saxon ( 1896)
• The History of Language (1900; 1995: ISBN 8-185-23104-4; 2007: ISBN 1-432-66993-1 )