In spite of inevitable deficiencies in their knowledge, 17th-century writers on phonetics can be said to have succeeded in laying the foundations of a true general phonetics. They include some famous names, such as John Wallis and Isaac Newton, but many of them have remained virtually unknown until comparatively recent times, in spite of having contributed significant insights. A brief mention is given here of the work of thirteen of these early writers on phonetics, followed by a fuller account of William Holder (1616–1698), probably the best phonetician of his time. He was not an orthoepist, nor was he concerned to describe the sounds of English. His book had a practical purpose – to provide a theoretical basis for techniques of teaching the deaf. Possible ambiguity in the 17th-century use of ‘letter’ is explained before examining Holder’s description of the sounds of speech. This includes his interesting use of the hylomorphic distinction between ‘matter’ and ‘form’. The description of vowels is almost inevitably less satisfactory than that of the consonants, but his phonetic terminology and general framework would not be out of place in a modern introduction to phonetics. He deserves more attention than he has received, both for his theoretical contribution and for his pioneering work in techniques of teaching the deaf.
Abercrombie, David. 1948. “Forgotten Phoneticians”, Transactions of the Philological Society 1948.1–34. (Repr. in Abercrombie 1965:45–75.)
Abercrombie, David. 1949. “What Is a ‘letter’?”. Lingua 2.54–63. (Repr. in Abercrombie 1965:76–85.)
Abercrombie, David. 1965. Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics. London: Oxford Univ. Press
Abercrombie, David. 1986. “Hylomorphic Taxonomy and William Holder”. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 16.4–7. (Repr. in Fifty Years in Phonetics: Selected papers by D. Abercrombie, 33–36. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1991.)
Allen, W. Sidney. 1953. Phonetics in Ancient India. London: Oxford Univ. Press.
Amman, Johann Conrad. 1692. Surdus Loquens. Amsterdam: Wetstein (Transl. into English by Daniel Foot as The Talking Deaf Man, London: T. Howkins, 1694; facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1972.)
Amman, Johann Conrad. 1700. Dissertatio de Loquela. Amsterdam: J. Wolters. (Transl. into English by Charles Baker as A Dissertation on Speech, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1873; facs. repr., Amsterdam: North Holland, 1965.)
Bulwer, John. 1644. Chirologia. London: T. Harper.
Bulwer, John. 1648. Philocophus. London: H. Moseley.
Cooper, Christopher. 1685. Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae. London. (Ed. by J. D. Jones, Halle/S.: Max Niemeyer, 1911; facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1968.)
Cooper, Christopher. 1687. The English Teacher. London: J. Richardson for the author. (Ed. by Bertil Sundby, Lund: Gleerup, 1953; facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1969.)
Cordemoy, Géraud de. 1668. Discours physique de la parole. Paris: Florentin Lambert. (English transl., A Philosophicall Discourse concerning Speech, London: John Martin, 1668; repr. with an introduction by Karl D. Uitti, New York: AMS Press, 1974.)
Daines, Simon. 1640. Orthoepia Anglicana. London. (Ed. by Martin Rösler & Rudolf Brotanek, Halle/S.: Max Niemeyer, 1908; facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1967.)
Dalgarno, George. 1661. Ars Signorum. London: J. Hayes. (Ed by Thomas Maitland, The Works of George Dalgarno of Aberdeen, Edinburgh: T. Constable, 1834; facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1968.)
Dalgarno, George. 1680. Didascalocophus; Double Consonants. Oxford: at the Sheldonian. (Ed by Thomas Maitland, The Works of George Dalgarno of Aberdeen, Edinburgh: T. Constable, 1834.)
Ekwall, Eilert, ed. 1907. Dr. John Jones’s Practical Phonography (1701). Halle/S.: Max Niemeyer.
Elliot, Ralph W. V.1954. “Isaac Newton as a Phonetician”. Modern Language Review 491.5–12.
Ellis, Alexander John. 1869. On Early English Pronunciation. Vol.I1. London.: Asher & Co. for the Philological Society.
Firth, John Rupert. 1946. “The English School of Phonetics”. Transactions of the Philological Society 1946. 92–132. (Repr. in Papers in Linguistics 1934–1951 by J. R. Firth, 92–120. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1957.)
Hjelmslev, Louis. 1953. Prolegomena to a Theory of Language. Transl. by Francis J. Whitfield. Baltimore: Waverly Press. (2nd rev. ed., Madison, Wis.: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1961.)
Holder, William. 1669. Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: with An Appendix concerning Persons Deaf and Dumb. London: T. N. for J. Martyn. (Facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1967. Also repr., with an introd. by Robert W. Rieber & Jeffrey L. Wollock, New York: AMS Press, 1975.)
Hulsker, Jos L. M.1988. “Petrus Montanus as a Phonetician and a Theoretician”. HL 9:3.335–359. (Repr. in The History of Linguistics in the Low Countries ed. by Jan Noordegraaf, Kees Versteegh & Konrad Koerner, 85–108. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1992.)
Hume, Alexander. 1617. Of the Orthographic and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue. (Ed. from the original ms. in the British Museum by Henry B. Wheatley, London: Early English Text Society, 1865.)
Jespersen, Otto. 1889. The Articulations of Speech Sounds. Marburg: N. G. Elwert.
Kemp, J. Alan. 1972. John Wallis’s Grammar of the English Language. With translation and commentary. London: Longman.
Ladefoged, Peter. 1967. “The Nature of Vowel Quality”. Three Areas of Experimental Phonetics by P. Ladefoged, 50–142. London: Oxford Univ. Press.
Montanus, Petrus. 1635. De Spreeckonst. Delft: Jan Pietersz Waalpot. (Ed. by Willem J. H. Caron, Groningen: L.J.B. Wolters, 1964.)
Robinson, Robert. 1617. The Art of Pronuntiation. London: Nicholas Okes. (Ed. by Eric John Dobson, The Phonetic Writings of Robert Robinson, London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1957.)
Salmon, Vivian. 1972. The Works of Francis Lodwick. London: Longman.
Shapiro, Barbara J.1969. John Wilkins: 1614–1672. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
Stevenson, R. Scott & Douglas Guthrie. 1949. A History of Oto-laryngology. Edinburgh: Livingstone.
Subbiondo, Joseph L.1978. “William Holder’s Elements of Speech (1669): A study of applied English phonetics and speech therapy”. Lingua 461:169–184.
Subbiondo, Joseph L.1987. “John Wilkins’ Theory of Articulatory Phonetics”. Papers in the History of Linguistics: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS III), Princeton, 19–23 August 1984 ed. by Hans Aarsleff, Louis G. Kelly & Hans-Josef Niederehe, 263–270. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Sweet, Henry. 1908. The Sounds of English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Vos, Andries A.1962. Tradition and Innovation in Petrus Montanus, The Art of Speech, 1635. Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh Univ.
Walker, John. 1791. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language. London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson and T. Cadell.
Wallis, John. 1653. Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae. Oxford: L. Lichfield. (Facs. repr., Menston: Scolar Press, 1969; see also Kemp 1972.)
Wallis, John. 1678. A Defence of the Royal Society. London: T. S. for Thomas Moore.
Wilkins, John. 1668. An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language. London: for Sa. Gellibrand, and for John Martyn. (Facs. repr. Menston: Scolar Press, 1968.)
Wyld, Henry Cecil. 1953. A History of Modern Colloquial English. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Isermann, Michael M
2011. Conceptual History Coming Home. Language & History 54:1 ► pp. 90 ff.
1995. Phonetics: Precursors to Modern Approaches. In Concise History of the Language Sciences, ► pp. 371 ff.
Koerner, E. F. Konrad
1993. Historiography of Phonetics: the State of the Art. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
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