Generations of students of English have benefited from the changes that Sweet wrought in the understanding of the historical and contemporary forms of the language.' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This clear, concise and authoritative dictionary is the ideal reference for the student of Old English literature and language. Henry Sweet (1845-1912) was educated at King's College School, London, the University of Heidelberg and Balliol College, Oxford. He was an active member of the Philological Society and served as its president from 1876 to 1878. He was a member of the Royal Danish Academy and a corresponding member the Munich and Royal Prussian Academies of Sciences. Despite his outstanding intellectual abilities and talent for teaching, it was only in 1901 that he was given a readership in Phonetics at Oxford University. The character of Professor Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion was partly based upon Sweet.