William Bullokar
Encyclopedia
William Bullokar was a 16th-century printer
who devised a 40-letter phonetic alphabet
for the English language
. Its characters were in the black-letter or "gothic" writing style commonly used at the time. Bullokar also wrote the first published grammar of the English language, which appeared in 1586.
Printer (publisher)
In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses. With the invention of the moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450, printing—and printers—proliferated throughout Europe.Today, printers are found...
who devised a 40-letter phonetic 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...
for the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. Its characters were in the black-letter or "gothic" writing style commonly used at the time. Bullokar also wrote the first published grammar of the English language, which appeared in 1586.
Works
- Booke at large, for the Amendment of Orthographie for English speech, Henrie Denham, 1580
- Bref Grammar for English, 1586
- Bullokar, William, Booke at Large for the Amendment of English Orthographie (1580) with A Bref Grammar for English (1586), Facsimile ed., 2 vols. in 1, 1977. Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ISBN 9780820112879.