Ida Caroline Ward (4 October 1880 – 10 October 1949) was a British linguist working mainly on

African languages The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SI ...

who did influential work in the domains of

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

and tonology. Her 1933 collaboration with

Diedrich Hermann Westermann Diedrich Hermann Westermann (24 June 1875 – 31 May 1956) was a German missionary, Africanist, and linguist. He substantially extended and revised the work of Carl Meinhof, his teacher, although he rejected some of Meinhof's theories only implici ...

, ''Practical Phonetics for Students of African languages'', has been reprinted many times. African languages she worked on include

Efik The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southern Nigeria, and western Cameroon. Within Nigeria, the Efik can be found in the present-day Cross River State and Akwa Ibom state. The Efik speak the Efik language which is a member of the ...

(1933),

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a t ...

(1936, 1941), Mende (1944), and Yoruba (published posthumously in 1952). Born in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, Ida Ward was the eighth child of a

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

wool merchant. She studied for a B.Litt degree at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

, as a member of the then recently founded Women's Hostel, graduating in 1902. Following this she taught as a secondary school teacher for 16 years before becoming an academic. From 1919 to 1932 she worked in the phonetics department at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

with the famous phonetician Daniel Jones; in 1932 she moved on to the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

in London, becoming a professor in 1944. In her books on African languages she gave a detailed account of the tones of the languages, and in her day was one of the leading authorities in the subject.Collins, Beverley and Inger M. Mees (1999)
''The Real Professor Higgins: The Life and Career of Daniel Jones''
Mouton de Gruyter, p. 257.

Works

*Ward, Ida C. (1923) ''Defects of Speech: Their Nature and Their Cure''. E.P. Dutton. * Armstrong, Lilias E. and Ward, Ida C. (1926) ''Handbook of English Intonation'', B. G. Teubner, Leipzig, Germany *Westermann, Diedrich Hermann and Ward, Ida C. (1933) ''Practical phonetics for students of African languages''. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute *Ward, Ida C. (1933) ''The phonetic and tonal structure of Efik''. Cambridge: Heffer. *Ward, Ida C. (1936) ''An introduction to the Ibo language''. Cambridge: Heffer. *Ward, Ida C. (1937) ''Practical suggestions for the learning of an African language in the field'', ''Africa'', supplement, vol. 10, no. 2. London. *Ward, Ida C. (1939) ''The Phonetics of English''. Heffer, Cambridge. *Ward, Ida C. (1939) ''The Pronunciation of Twi''. Heffer, Cambridge. *Ward, Ida C. (1941) ''Ibo dialects and the development of a common language.'' Cambridge: Heffer. *Ward, Ida C. (1944) 'A phonetic introduction to Mende', in Crosby, K.H., ''An introduction to the study of Mende''. Cambridge: Heffer. *Ward, Ida C. (1952) ''An introduction to the Yoruba language.'' Cambridge: Heffer & Sons.

Works

References

Further reading