Visible Speech

Script invented in 1867 by Alexander Melville Bell, representing the movements of human vocal organs (tongue position, lip shape, vocal cord vibration) as symbols. His son Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) used this system in deaf education. The phonetics professor Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (basis for the musical My Fair Lady) was modeled on the Bells' work. A precursor to both the modern IPA and speech synthesis technology.