Alexander John Ellis FRS | |
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| Born | Alexander Sharpe (1814-06-14)14 June 1814 Hoxton, Middlesex, England |
| Died | 28 October 1890(1890-10-28) (aged 76) Kensington, London, England |
| Education | Shrewsbury School,Eton College |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | mathematician and philologist |
Alexander John EllisFRS (14 June 1814 – 28 October 1890) was an Englishmathematician,philologist and earlyphonetician who also influenced the field ofmusicology. He changed his name from his father's name, Sharpe, to his mother's maiden name, Ellis, in 1825 as a condition of receiving significant financial support from a relative on his mother's side.[1] He is buried inKensal Green Cemetery, London.
He was bornAlexander John Sharpe inHoxton, Middlesex, to a wealthy family. His father, James Birch Sharpe, was a notable artist and physician who was later appointed Esquire ofWindlesham. His mother, Ann Ellis, was from a noble background, but it is not known how her family made its fortune. Alexander's brother James Birch Sharpe junior died at theBattle of Inkerman during theCrimean War. His other brother, William Henry Sharpe, served with theLancashire Fusiliers after moving north with his family toCumberland, due to military work.
Alexander was educated atShrewsbury School,Eton College andTrinity College, Cambridge (BA 1837). Initially trained in mathematics and the classics, he became a well-known phonetician of his time and wrote the article on phonetics for theEncyclopaedia Britannica in 1887. Through his work in phonetics, he also became interested in vocal pitch and, by extension, in musicalpitch, as well asspeech and song.
Ellis is noted for translating and extensively annotatingHermann von Helmholtz'sOn theSensations of Tone. The second edition of this translation, published in 1885, contains an appendix which summarises Ellis's own work on related matters.
In his writings on musical pitch and scales,[2] Ellis elaborates his notion and notation ofcents for musical intervals. This concept became especially influential incomparative musicology, a predecessor ofethnomusicology. Analyzing the scales (tone systems) of various European musical traditions, Ellis also showed that the diversity of tone systems cannot be explained by a single physical law, as had been argued by earlier scholars.
Inpart V of his seriesOn Early English Pronunciation, he distinguished forty-two different dialects in England and theScottish Lowlands.[3] This was one of the first works to apply phonetics to English speech and has been cited continuously by linguists since publication.
He was acknowledged byGeorge Bernard Shaw as the prototype of Professor Henry Higgins ofPygmalion (adapted as the musicalMy Fair Lady).[4] He was elected in June 1864 as aFellow of the Royal Society.[5]
Ellis's sonTristram James Ellis trained as an engineer, but later became a noted painter of the Middle East.[6]
Ellis developed two phonetic alphabets, theEnglish Phonotypic Alphabet (together withIsaac Pitman),[7] which used many new letters, and thePalaeotype alphabet, which replaced many of these with turned letters (such as ⟨ə⟩, ⟨ɔ⟩), small caps (such as ⟨ɪ⟩), and italics. These letters, as well as two of his own creation, ⟨ʃ⟩ and ⟨ʒ⟩, were passed on toHenry Sweet'sRomic alphabet and from there to theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
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