125 years

It’s 125 years since the International Phonetic Association was founded. I have been looking at my copy of its journal, lə mɛːtrə fɔnetik, for 1910. A century ago the Association’s quarter-centenary was celebrated in the form of an artiklə də fɔ̃ by Paul Passy entitled œ̃ kaːr də sjɛkl (‘A Quarter of a Century’). In it he records — in phonetically transcribed French — the Association’s “immense success” in the reform of language teaching, the development of phonetic research, and (in third place) the popularization of phonetic notation (la vylɡarizɑːsjɔ̃ d l ekrityːr fɔnetik).

Daniel Jones was to marry Passy’s niece Cyrille the following year, in 1911.

Meanwhile in 1910 we read [At the University of London, starting on the tenth of October, D. Jones will deliver a whole series of phonetics courses for various categories of student (English Phonetics, French Phonetics, Old English, Old French, Experimental Phonetics). These courses will end with three examinations, on English phonetics for foreigners, French phonetics, and English phonetics for the English.]

There’s an enthusiastic paragraph from DJ himself on the subject of Atkinson’s Mouth Measurer. This was before he became disillusioned with experimental phonetics. Mr Atkinson’s invention was later rendered obsolete by the development of x-ray imaging. It’s interesting to see that the overseas price is given with the then standard orthographic abbreviations for shillings (s.) and pence (d.). You’d think Jones might have written “8ʃ. 6p.”. Or even “eit n sikspəns”.