This paper examines the role of William Perry (1747-post 1805), an active Scottish schoolteacher and lexicographer, in the prescription of norms for a `correct' pronunciation of standard English, being perfectly in line with the language guardians of the time. Although Perry shares a few characteristics with Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788) and James Buchanan (fl. 1753-1773), as he himself maintains in the Preface to his The Royal Standard English Dictionary, first published in Edinburgh in 1775, he also reveals a certain dissatisfaction with the way `the sounds of words are expressed' by the other two 18th-century scholars. Therefore, the paper examines the `more rational method' proposed in his attempt to better represent the sounds of the English language.

William Perry's The Royal Standard English Dictionary (1775): a provincial's attempt to ascertain and fix a standard to the pronunciation of the English tongue

STURIALE, MASSIMO
2006-01-01

Abstract

This paper examines the role of William Perry (1747-post 1805), an active Scottish schoolteacher and lexicographer, in the prescription of norms for a `correct' pronunciation of standard English, being perfectly in line with the language guardians of the time. Although Perry shares a few characteristics with Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788) and James Buchanan (fl. 1753-1773), as he himself maintains in the Preface to his The Royal Standard English Dictionary, first published in Edinburgh in 1775, he also reveals a certain dissatisfaction with the way `the sounds of words are expressed' by the other two 18th-century scholars. Therefore, the paper examines the `more rational method' proposed in his attempt to better represent the sounds of the English language.
2006
William Perry; 18th-century Pronouncing Dictionaries; Standard Spoken English
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/25421
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