Ellis, ALEXANDER JOHN

Ellis, ALEXANDER JOHN (formerly Sharpe, the name having been changed by royal license in 1825), a learned philologist, was born on the 14th June 1814, and educated at Shrewsbury, Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated sixth wrangler in 1837. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864, and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1870, was president of the Philological Society during 1872-74 and 1880-82, was a member of the Mathematical Society and LL.D. of Cambridge. He wrote numberless papers of great learning on mathematical, musical, and philological questions, and did more than any other scholar to advance the scientific study of phonetics, of early English pronunciation, and of existing English dialects. Of his many and valuable books the most important are Essentials of Phonetics (1848); Universal Writing and Printing (1856); Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Chaucer and Shakespeare (6 parts, 1869-89); Practical Hints on the Quantitative Pronunciation of Latin (1874); and a translation of Helmholtz's Sensations of Tone (1875; 2d. ed. 1885). This esteemed contributor to the present work died 28th October 1890.