John David Michael Henry Laver, (20 January 1938 – 6 May 2020) was a British

phonetician Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

. He was emeritus professor of speech sciences at

Queen Margaret University Queen Margaret University is a university, founded in 1875 and located in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Scottish Queen Saint Margaret. History The university was founded in 1875, as ''The Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic ...

, and served as president of the

International Phonetic Association The International Phonetic Association (IPA; French: ', ''API'') is an organization that promotes the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. The IPA's major contribution to phonetics is the Interna ...

from 1991 to 1995.

Life and career

Laver was born in Nowshera,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His father was in the Indian and later British Army. He was raised in India for six years and spoke Hindustani and English, and later lived in Egypt, Libya, Kenya, and Cyprus up until the age of ten. After attending a boarding school in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, Laver entered the

Royal Air Force College Cranwell The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force military academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to become commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and ...

to pursue a career as a military pilot, which he eventually gave up. He subsequently entered the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 1958 and graduated in 1962 with a degree in French language and literature. At Edinburgh, he was introduced to phonetics and to the Department of Phonetics headed by David Abercrombie, under which he obtained a

postgraduate diploma A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PG, PDE) is a postgraduate qualification awarded after a university degree, which supplements the original degree and awards them with a graduate diploma. Countries that award postg ...

in 1963. From 1963 to 1966, Laver was a lecturer at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

, Nigeria. Formally, his post at Ibadan lasted for three years, but in the second year he was substituted by John Kelly while Laver returned to Edinburgh in exchange. In 1966, he was appointed a lecturer at Edinburgh, where he received a PhD in 1975, presenting the thesis ''"Individual features in voice quality"'' supervised by Abercrombie. In 1985, he was appointed Professor of Phonetics at Edinburgh, where he later received a

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

. He was president of the

from 1991 to 1995. He was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

(FBA) in 1990 and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(FRSE) in 1994. In the 1999 New Year Honours, he was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) for services to phonetics. In 2013,

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

awarded him an honorary doctorate. With Ronald E. Asher, Laver served as general editor of ''The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Speech and Language'' for

Wiley-Blackwell Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

, which involved nearly 40 contributors and was completed in 2013 after about 25 years of preparation. During a period of Laver's illness, however, Wiley-Blackwell withdrew from the contract, reverting copyright to the contributors. He died in Scotland on 6 May 2020 after a long illness.

Personal life

Laver married his colleague Sandy Hutcheson in 1974.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laver, John Phoneticians Linguists from the United Kingdom Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the British Academy People from Nowshera District 1938 births 2020 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Academics of Queen Margaret University