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From: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall)
Subject: Re: Shavian alphabet
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Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 16:21:39 GMT
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Joseph Hennessy, MD <Tekmerion@MAILHOST.NET> wrote:
>It was, curiously I suppose, Shaw who dictated the provision that "the 
>pronunciation resemble that recorded of His Majesty our late King George 
>V and sometimes described as Northern English...." So Shaw stepped back 
>even further than George VI. I wonder why.... 

Didn't George VI have some kind of speech impediment, and perhaps
Shaw didn't consider his pronunciation a model of "standard" English?

>Another provision was that 
>copies of the publication be presented "to public libraries in the 
>British Isles, the British Commonwealth, the American States North and 
>South and to national libraries everywhere in that order." By American 
>States I presume he meant all the nations of North and South America. It 
>is nonetheless a curious use of "States."

I'd always assumed that this meant states of the U.S.  That
would make sense if you assume that he wanted to give priority 
to distributing the book to English-speaking countries.  
I also assumed that putting the northern U.S. first was a
political statement, but that's just a guess.  In fact, 
when I lived in New Hampshire (a northern U.S. state),
there was a copy of Androcles in our public library with a
bookplate stating that it had been a gift of Shaw's estate,
but there isn't a copy in the local public library where I
live now (a southern U.S. state).  Maybe the money ran out
before they got this far down the list.  

