Alfred Charles "Gim" Gimson (; 7 June 1917 – 22 April 1985) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
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. ...
.
Life
Gimson was educated at
Emanuel School London, and
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
, where later in 1966 he became Professor of Phonetics, and in 1971 head of the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics.
He was a pupil and colleague of
Daniel Jones, and is known for having updated and extended Jones's description of standard
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
pronunciation (
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
, or RP). Through his ''Introduction to the Pronunciation of English'', first published in 1962, Gimson became an authority on Received Pronunciation. He succeeded Jones as editor of the ''
English Pronouncing Dictionary
The ''English Pronouncing Dictionary'' (''EPD'') was created by the British phonetician Daniel Jones and was first published in 1917. It originally comprised over 50,000 headwords listed in their spelling form, each of which was given one or more ...
'', making significant changes to its content and presentation. He was known to generations of students and colleagues simply as 'Gim'.
Books
*
Arnold, G.F. and Gimson, A.C (1965). ''English Pronunciation Practice''. London: University of London Press
* Gimson, A.C (1962). ''Introduction to the Pronunciation of English''. London: Arnold. Fourth edition (1989) revised by Ramsaran, S.; sixth edition (2001) revised by Cruttenden, A.
* Gimson, A.C (1975). ''A Practical Course of English Pronunciation: A Perceptual Approach''. London: Arnold
* Gimson, A.C (ed.) (1977). ''
English Pronouncing Dictionary
The ''English Pronouncing Dictionary'' (''EPD'') was created by the British phonetician Daniel Jones and was first published in 1917. It originally comprised over 50,000 headwords listed in their spelling form, each of which was given one or more ...
''. London: Dent
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
A biography, by John Ch. Wells, Gimson’s successor at University College, London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gimson, A. C.
1917 births
1985 deaths
Linguists from the United Kingdom
Phoneticians
People educated at Emanuel School
Academics of University College London
20th-century linguists