author
Henry Sweet
1845–1912
A pioneering scholar of language, this English philologist helped shape modern phonetics and deepened the study of Old English. His work also inspired one of literature’s most famous language teachers.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in London on September 15, 1845, Henry Sweet became one of the most influential language scholars of his time. He studied at King’s College School, Balliol College, Oxford, and Heidelberg, and built a reputation for unusually wide learning in phonetics, grammar, and the history of English.
Sweet is especially remembered for his work on phonetics and for bringing new rigor to the study of Old English and other Germanic languages. At Oxford, a readership in phonetics was created for him in 1901, reflecting how important his research had become. His books and teaching helped make the scientific study of speech sounds far more systematic.
He died on April 30, 1912, but his influence lasted well beyond his lifetime. Sweet is often mentioned as an inspiration for the character behind Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, which gives a glimpse of how visible and distinctive he was in the world of language study.