Robert Robinson (phonetician)
Encyclopedia
Robert Robinson was an English
phonetician living in London
in the early 17th century who created his own phonetic alphabet and wrote The Art of Pronuntiation.
.
's Bodleian library
.
The Art of Pronuntiation contains two parts. The first Vox Audienda, attempts in a very elementary and far from satisfactory way to give an account of the sounds of English in articulatory terms. The second, Vox Videnda is more interesting, as it sets forth an ingenious, if occasionally defective, alphabet to represent these sounds. Unlike other attempts at a phonetic English character (such as that of Alexander Gil), Robinson's alphabet
breaks entirely free from the basis of the Roman alphabet, using characters that bear only an accidental resemblance to Roman letters, while having a systematic relation to each other.
Robinson's alphabet is not only phonetic but to some extent featural
, as voicing is not represented on the letters themselves, but by means of diacritic
s, in a mode that takes some account of assimilative voicing and devoicing of consonant clusters; English stress accent is also indicated by diacritics. Nasal stops are marked by a modification of the letters representing oral stops.
Included in The Art of Pronuntiation is Robinson's transcription of a Latin poem
(presumably of his own composition), which exemplifies the idiosyncratic pronunciation used in English Latin schools of his time — and also, with sound-changes concurrent with those taking place in English, down to the 19th century
, and thus provides valuable evidence as to the traditional adaptation of Latin to English phonology
.
(unpublished in his lifetime) of several poems by Richard Barnfield
into this alphabet. These transcriptions provide very valuable evidence as to the pronunciation of English in Robinson's time; a pronunciation which, perhaps due to Robinson's youth or place of origin, contains many features that are more modern than Gil's, and which exemplify (even within a single text) several contemporary changes occurring in the pronunciation of English.
. The long vowels are implied to be midway in quality between the neighbouring short vowels. In his alphabet, however, he treats them as pairs, with the long vowels being in shape inverted forms of the short vowels. Although interpretation of his symbolism is necessary, very approximately his vowels can be assigned as follows:
Representative words are:
The vowel assignments must be taken as extremely approximate, better reflecting the relationships between the vowels than their precise sound.
Robinson's diphthongs are: or perhaps [ai] in [plɐin] / [plain]) "plain" (ModE [pleɪn]). This sound was in process of merging with [aː] (e.g. "day" both [dɐi] and [daː], "against" both [aɡɐinst] and [aɡaːnst]), hence the inference that it may have been [ai]. in [θɒʍts] "thoughts" (ModE [θɔːts]) in [fɛin] "fine" (ModE [faɪn]) in [fɛw] "few" (ModE [fjuː], [fjʊw]) in [vɪw] "view" (ModE [vjuː], [vjʊw]) in [kɔin] "coin" (ModE [kɔɪn]) in [ɡɾɔwnd] "ground" (ModE [ɡɹaʊnd]) but also in [sɔwl] "soul" (ModE [soʊl]) and likewise "cold", "gold", etc. in [mʊwn] "moon" (ModE [muːn], [mʊwn])
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
phonetician living in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the early 17th century who created his own phonetic alphabet and wrote The Art of Pronuntiation.
Biography
Almost nothing is known about Robinson's life. He was relatively young, according to his own account, in 1617, and therefore may have been born not long before 1600. He may also have survived past 1660, earning a living as a schoolmasterSchoolmaster
A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...
.
Works
His only known published work is The Art of Pronuntiation, a handbook of English phonetics, published in 1617, and apparently a poor seller, as only one copy survives, in OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
's Bodleian library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
.
The Art of Pronuntiation contains two parts. The first Vox Audienda, attempts in a very elementary and far from satisfactory way to give an account of the sounds of English in articulatory terms. The second, Vox Videnda is more interesting, as it sets forth an ingenious, if occasionally defective, alphabet to represent these sounds. Unlike other attempts at a phonetic English character (such as that of Alexander Gil), Robinson's alphabet
Phonetic alphabet
Phonetic alphabet can mean:* phonetic transcription system: a system for transcribing the precise sounds of human speech into writing.** International Phonetic Alphabet : the most widespread such system...
breaks entirely free from the basis of the Roman alphabet, using characters that bear only an accidental resemblance to Roman letters, while having a systematic relation to each other.
Robinson's alphabet is not only phonetic but to some extent featural
Featural alphabet
A featural alphabet is an alphabet wherein the shapes of the letters are not arbitrary, but encode phonological features of the phonemes they represent. The term featural was introduced by Geoffrey Sampson to describe Hangul and Pitman Shorthand...
, as voicing is not represented on the letters themselves, but by means of diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s, in a mode that takes some account of assimilative voicing and devoicing of consonant clusters; English stress accent is also indicated by diacritics. Nasal stops are marked by a modification of the letters representing oral stops.
Included in The Art of Pronuntiation is Robinson's transcription of a Latin poem
Latin poetry
The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus are the earliest Latin literature that has survived, composed around 205-184 BC, yet the start of Latin literature is conventionally dated to the first performance of a play in verse by a...
(presumably of his own composition), which exemplifies the idiosyncratic pronunciation used in English Latin schools of his time — and also, with sound-changes concurrent with those taking place in English, down to the 19th century
19th century
The 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...
, and thus provides valuable evidence as to the traditional adaptation of Latin to English phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
.
Unpublished works
Even more significant than Robinson's published work, however, is his transcriptionTranscription
Transcription may refer to:*Transcription , a business which converts speech into a written or electronic text document*Transcription , software which helps convert speech into text transcript...
(unpublished in his lifetime) of several poems by Richard Barnfield
Richard Barnfield
Richard Barnfield , English poet, was born at Norbury, Staffordshire, and brought up in Newport, Shropshire.He was baptized on 13 June 1574, the son of Richard Barnfield, gentleman. His obscure though close relationship with Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars...
into this alphabet. These transcriptions provide very valuable evidence as to the pronunciation of English in Robinson's time; a pronunciation which, perhaps due to Robinson's youth or place of origin, contains many features that are more modern than Gil's, and which exemplify (even within a single text) several contemporary changes occurring in the pronunciation of English.
Robinson's phonetics
Robinson distinguishes ten vowels in English, which he clearly considers to be distinct in quality as well as lengthVowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
. The long vowels are implied to be midway in quality between the neighbouring short vowels. In his alphabet, however, he treats them as pairs, with the long vowels being in shape inverted forms of the short vowels. Although interpretation of his symbolism is necessary, very approximately his vowels can be assigned as follows:
- First pair: Short [ʊ] Long [oː]
- Second pair: Short [ɔ] Long [ɒː]
- Third pair: Short [ɐ] Long [aː]
- Fourth pair: Short [ɛ] Long [eː]
- Fifth pair: Short [ɪ] Long [iː] or [ij] (according to Robinson, "almost extended to the inward place of the consonants")
Representative words are:
- [lʊv] "love" (ModE [lʌv]), [ɹoːz] "rose" (ModE [ɹoʊz])
- [hɔt] "hot" (ModE [hɒt]), [kɒːz] "cause" (ModE [kɔːz])
- [sɐd] "sad" (ModE [sæd]), [naːm] "name" (ModE [neɪm])
- [bɛst] "best" (ModE [bɛst]), [pleːz] "please" (ModE [pliːz])
- [ɾɪtʃ] "rich" (ModE [ɹɪtʃ]), [kwiːn] "queen" (ModE [kwiːn])
The vowel assignments must be taken as extremely approximate, better reflecting the relationships between the vowels than their precise sound.
Robinson's diphthongs are: or perhaps [ai] in [plɐin] / [plain]) "plain" (ModE [pleɪn]). This sound was in process of merging with [aː] (e.g. "day" both [dɐi] and [daː], "against" both [aɡɐinst] and [aɡaːnst]), hence the inference that it may have been [ai]. in [θɒʍts] "thoughts" (ModE [θɔːts]) in [fɛin] "fine" (ModE [faɪn]) in [fɛw] "few" (ModE [fjuː], [fjʊw]) in [vɪw] "view" (ModE [vjuː], [vjʊw]) in [kɔin] "coin" (ModE [kɔɪn]) in [ɡɾɔwnd] "ground" (ModE [ɡɹaʊnd]) but also in [sɔwl] "soul" (ModE [soʊl]) and likewise "cold", "gold", etc. in [mʊwn] "moon" (ModE [muːn], [mʊwn])