John Wells’s phonetic blog

That’s what a journalist wrote in the Guardian’s cookery supplement a few days ago (incidentally, getting the number concord wrong in eleva...

In my first year at secondary school, which I entered at age 12½, we were given taster classes in science: an hour a week each of chemistry,...

Thirty or so years ago I was staying for a few days with a friend who lived in Antwerp, when I was struck down by illness. I was admitted...

Unlike some people, I have never been reluctant to allow my contact details to be available to anyone and everyone. Back in the days befor...

I should never have accepted the call from that cheese company’s PR people ( blog, 25 August 2006 ). Now, alas, I’m regarded as an expert ...

While I was away I was saddened to hear that John Trim had died. He was the teacher who first taught me phonetics and the one who advised m...

I recently came across a spoof German ‘translation’ of the London tube map , the work of one Horst Prillinger. He made it as long ago as 2...