A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language
by John Walker
A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language is dictionary authored by John Walker, a British elocutionist and lexicographer. Born in 1732, Walker worked as an actor with various theatre companies in England and Ireland before leaving acting in 1768.[1] After opening a school in Kensington in 1769, Walker began teaching elocution to young men who were studying for the bar.[2] A leader in the mechanical school of elocution, Walker taught his pupils detailed rules about voice production and developed a theory of voice inflection to explain how a voice’s pitch can go up or down within a single syllable.[3]
Walker published several works, including Exercises for Improvement in Elocution in 1777 and The Melody of Speaking in 1787.[4] Walker’s most influential work was his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, which was originally published in 1791 in Britain and in the United States for the first time in 1803.[5] In his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, which has been reprinted over 100 times since its publication, Walker sets out 545 rules for the correct pronunciation of words in the English language, including rules for people with Irish or Scottish accents to follow in order to produce more “cultured” accents.[6] Walker’s work became one of the foremost authorities on English linguistics, and his system of using marks and numbers to indicate stressed syllables has remained influential in modern linguistics.[7]
Bibliographic Information
Author: John Walker
Title: A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language
Published: Philadelphia: Printed by Budd and Bartram for H. & P. Rice, 1803.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in full brown leather binding with gilt lettering on the spine. Purchased from Black Swan Books.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ Joan C. Beal, "Walker, John (1732–1807)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed 20 Oct 2013]
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ “Learning English Timeline,” British Library website, accessed on October 15, 2013, http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126750.html
- ↑ Ibid.
