John C. Wells

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John Wells at the Esperanto World Congress 2008 in Rotterdam

John Christopher Wells (born March 11, 1939 ), MA ( London ), Ph.D. (London), is a British linguist and until his retirement in 2006 was Professor of Phonetics at University College London . He is a member of Linguaphone's five academic advisory group .

His best-known publications are Accents of English , The Sounds of the IPA , Lingvistikaj Aspectoj de Esperanto and the pronunciation dictionary Longman Pronunciation Dictionary . He is the author of an English-Esperanto dictionary and the inventor of the phonetic ASCII alphabet X-SAMPA .

John C. Wells researches mainly in the field of the phonetic description of the variants (varieties) of English .

Wells regularly leads two-week phonetic summer courses with a focus on practical and theoretical phonetics and phonetics lessons. The course can be completed after successful oral and written exams with the IPA Certificate of Proficiency in the Phonetics of English .

Wells was secretary of the International Phonetic Society , editor of its journal and from 1989 to 1995 president of the World Esperanto Federation . He was chairman and is honorary chairman of the British Esperanto Association. He is also a member of the British Academy and the Akademio de Esperanto .

Works

Essays

  • 1962 - A specimen of British English . In: Maître Phonétique No. 117, pp. 2–5.
  • 1967 - Specimen. Jamaican Creole . In: Maître Phonétique , No. 127 p. 5.
  • 1970 - Local accents in England and Wales . In: J.Ling. , No. 6, pp. 231-252.
  • 1979 - Final voicing and vowel length in Welsh . In: Phonetica . 36.4-5, pp. 344-360.
  • 1980 - The brogue that isn't . In: JIPA vol. 10: 74-79 (1980). Can be read on-line.
  • 1985 - English accents in England . In: P. Trudgill (Ed.): Language in the British Isles . Cambridge University Press. 55-69.
  • 1985 - English pronunciation and its dictionary representation . In: R. Ilson: (Ed.): Dictionaries, lexicography and language learning . Oxford: Pergamon.
  • 1994 - The Cockneyfication of RP? In: G. Melchers u. a. (Ed.): Nonstandard Varieties of Language . Papers from the Stockholm Symposium 11-13 April 1991. 198-205. Stockholm Studies in English LXXXIV. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
  • 1996 - Why phonetic transcription is important . In: Malsori (Journal of the Phonetic Society of Korea) 31-32, pp. 239-242.
  • 1997 - What's happening to Received Pronunciation? In: English Phonetics (English Phonetic Society of Japan), 1, pp. 13-23.
  • 1997 - Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation? In: Medina & Soto (eds.): II Jornadas de Estudios Ingleses , Universidad de Jaén, Spain, pp. 19-28.
  • 2000 - British English pronunciation preferences. A changing scene . In: Journal of the International Phonetic Association (1999) 29 (1), pp. 33-50.
  • 2001 - Orthographic diacritics . In: Language Problems and Language Planning 24.3.
  • 2002 - John Wells . In: K. Brown, V. Law (Eds.): Linguistics in Britain. Personal histories . Publications of the Philological Society, 36. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • 2003 - Phonetic symbols in word processing and on the web . In: MJ Solé u. a. (Ed . ): Proc. 15th Int. Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona , pp. 2.8: 6

Monographs

  • 1962 - A study of the formants of the pure vowels of British English . Unpublished MA thesis, University of London.
  • 1971 - Practical Phonetics . London: Pitman. ISBN 0-273-43949-9 (together with G. Colson).
  • 1972 - with Taylor Starck: Old High German Glossary Dictionary (with references to all Old High German and related glosses). Heidelberg 1972 ff.
  • 1973 - Jamaican pronunciation in London. Publications of the Philological Society xxv. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-14730-6 .
  • 1989 - Lingvistikaj aspektoj de Esperanto . Rotterdam: Universala Esperanto-Asocio. ISBN 92-9017-021-2 .
  • 1990 - Longman Pronunciation Dictionary . Longman. (ESU Duke of Edinburgh's Prize.)
  • 1993 - Hutchinson Dictionary of Difficult Words . Edited by John Ayto. Oxford: Helicon.
  • 1994 - Longman Interactive English Dictionary . CD-ROM incorporating a spoken version of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. ACT Multimedia / Harlow: Longman, ISBN 0-582-23694-0 .
  • 2000 - Longman Pronunciation Dictionary . Second edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 0-582-36468-X (cased edition), ISBN 0-582-36467-1 (paperback edition).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wells, John C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wells, John Christopher (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British linguist and professor of phonetics at University College London
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1939