Chapter 1 What is Sociolinguistics
Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw A phonetician changes a lovely flower girl into a lady by changing her working class talk into speech of an assistant
For once or twice, she succeeds in passing off as an educated lady with perfect pronunciation and choice of words
But in the end, she is seen through—her speech, particularly her accent betrays her
One of the often quoted quotations is “Once you open your mouth, you are placed
” (Pygmalion :Greek Mythology A king of Cyprus who carved and then fell in love with a statue of a woman, which Aphrodite brought to life as Galatea
) Your speech contains a lot of information about yourself—your place of birth, education, work experience, personal interest, your mood, the state of mind, etc
1 The purpose of this chapte