Jack Windsor Lewis
Born1926
Died11 July 2021 (aged 94)
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhonetician
Notable workA Guide to English Pronunciation, A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English
Websitewww.yek.me.uk

Jack Windsor Lewis (1926 – 11 July 2021)[1] was a British phonetician. He is best known for his work on the phonetics of English and the teaching of English pronunciation to foreign learners. His blog postings on English phonetics and phoneticians are prolific and widely read.

Early life

Windsor Lewis was born in Cardiff, and educated at local schools.[2] After National Service, he studied at the University of Wales, Cardiff, in 1948-51, graduating with an honours degree in Medieval English. He went on to study phonetics at University College London 1954-55 & 1956-57, and obtained the Certificate of the International Phonetic Association (1st Class) in 1957.

Career

Teaching posts

Other teaching work

Jack Windsor Lewis has been a guest lecturer at over eighty other universities, at the British Institute of Recorded Sound, for the British Council and other bodies in various countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, the (now) Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, the (now) Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Tunisia.

Other professional activities

He has acted in an advisory capacity for the BBC and ITV, for OUP, CUP and other publishers, and for West Yorkshire Playhouse and other theatres. He has worked with police forces and legal practices on many occasions 1975–86, mainly involving court appearances as "expert witness". (One notable case he was involved in was the Yorkshire Ripper manhunt). He has been an examiner at various times for the College of Speech Therapy and for the International Phonetic Association.

Publications

His publications have included many articles, textbooks and A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English.[3] John C Wells has written of this work "in 1972, his best-known work was published: A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English (OUP). In some countries English as a foreign language means British English, in others American: this was the first pronouncing dictionary to cover both. Like Jack's other books, it is innovative and even daring in its readiness to abandon the outdated and embrace the new."[4][5]

In 1974 he recast for A. S. Hornby the treatment of pronunciation in the third edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English giving, for the first time in any major EFL dictionary, its (100,000) entries in American pronunciation as well as British. This lead has been widely followed and is now standard practice in dictionaries that include English pronunciation.

Other publications include:

References

  1. ^ Ashby, Michael (14 July 2021). "Jack Windsor Lewis (1926–2021)". International Phonetic Association. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Brief CV". Jack Windsor Lewis. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  3. ^ Windsor Lewis, Jack (1972). A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0194311236.
  4. ^ Wells, John (1989). "Retirement of Jack Windsor Lewis". University of Leeds Review: 295–6.
  5. ^ Wells, John. "Retirement of Jack Windsor Lewis". Jack Windsor Lewis. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  6. ^ Windsor Lewis, Jack (1969). A Guide to English Pronunciation. Oslo: Scandinavian Universities Press. ISBN 978-8200022251.
  7. ^ Hornby, A.S.; Cowie, A.P.; Windsor Lewis, J (1974). Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English (3rd ed.). Oxford. ISBN 978-0194315647.
  8. ^ Windsor Lewis, Jack (1975). "Linking /r/ in the General British pronunciation of English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 5 (1): 37–42. doi:10.1017/s0025100300001195. S2CID 145796380.
  9. ^ Windsor Lewis, J. (1990) HappYland reconnoitred, in Studies in the Pronunciation of English, pp. 159-67, ed. S. Ramsaran, London:Routledge
  10. ^ Windsor Lewis, Jack (2014). "Phonetics in Advanced Learner's Dictionaries". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 44 (1): 75–82. doi:10.1017/s0025100313000340. S2CID 232344973.
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