How can phonetics be so important?

Simply phonetics. The science of speech. Thats my profession () You can spot an
Irishman or Yorkshireman by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place
him within two miles in London () Professor Henry Higgins (Pygmalion - Shawn,1913).
Professor Higgins stands out the prominence of phonetics in the culture. Language
deeply marks the sociolinguistic aspect a person belongs to. People associated with the
Elite societies such as ,the Eynsford Hill family, show a clear educated standard language
wheres people from lower classes as the flower girl,Eliza Doolittle, speaks a non standard
cockney accent truly stigmatized by the former. Despite of the physical appearance either
of them might have, what clearly denotes their class aspects, as Higgins says, is the
phonetics.

To start with, the Eynsford Hill family and other characters of Pygmalion such as Colonel
Pickering represent the people of the upper classes in the Victorian era in Britain. They
generally meet at Covert Garden, a large market in London. Being people well-dressed,
they also care about the way of speaking and having good manners. For instance, Mrs
and Miss Eynsford Hill are well-educated and well-dressed women, culturally and
linguistically competent.

Secondly, people who belongs to the lower classes tend to be very careless about their
way of speaking, a poor diction and bad manners. In the novel characters like Eliza
speaks in an inappropriate manner with many grammar mistakes. For example she says
phrases as follows: if you was talking; if you was a gentleman; you was my father
knowed, etc. That clearly shows the lower level in her education.

Contrary to what most people believe, either being well-dressed or to have good manners
not always makes you belong to an upper class. A person well-educated truly has a good
diction thus an amusing phonetics. In particular, a part of the novel reveals when Eliza is
in Covert Garden ,after having been educated by Higgins, gets angry because Mrs.
Eynsford Hill talks about her aunt who died of influenza. In a great excitement her old
accent is exposed to the audience.

Taking everything into account, I strongly believe that Phonetics clearly denotes how well-
educated a person is. That is why Professor Higgins stands out the prominence of it in
the culture of a person. In the Victorian era families of the Elites speak a standard
language ,whereas people from lower classes speak a non standard cockney accent.
However, phonetics can dierentiate one social class from another leaving out the way of
dressing of either of them can have.

Augusto Chocobar.