David Abercrombie (linguist)

David Abercrombie (19 December 1909 – 4 July 1992) was a British phonetician who established the Department of Phonetics at the University of Edinburgh. He was a student of J. R. Firth and Daniel Jones. He retired as Professor of Phonetics in 1980 and died in Edinburgh at the age of 82.

Biography[]

Abercrombie was born in Birkenhead on 19 December 1909. His father, Lascelles Abercrombie was a poet and his mother was Catherine, née Gwatkin, one of his three younger siblings was Michael Abercrombie, biologist. He grew up in , before returning to Merseyside on the outbreak of World War I, and moving to Leeds in 1922, when his father became the chair of English Literature at Leeds University.^[1]

He attended Leeds Grammar School as a child before studying at English at Leeds University.^[2] He went on to complete his post graduate education in phonetics at University College London under Daniel Jones.^[3]

In 1948, he gained a position at the University of Edinburgh teaching Phonetics by 1964 he was appointed a Professor.^[4]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Abercrombie, David (1964). English phonetic texts. London: Faber and Faber.
• Abercrombie, David (1965). Studies in phonetics and linguistics. London: Oxford University Press.
• Abercrombie, David (1967). Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Abercrombie, David (1991). Fifty years in phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Kelly, J. (1993). "David Abercrombie". Phonetica. 50: 68–71. doi:10.1159/000261926.

External links[]

• Works by David Abercrombie at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about David Abercrombie at Internet Archive

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