Geoffrey Alan Lindsey is a British

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, writer and director. He has written episodes for television series including the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

'' and ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...

'', and runs a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel focusing on linguistics.

Television

Lindsey trained in directing at the Bournemouth Film School, where he wrote and directed the short film ''The Band Parts'' starring

Graham Fellows Graham David Fellows (born 22 May 1959) is an English actor and musician. He first came to public attention when he released the 1978 single "Jilted John" - a track which mocked the punk-rock vocal stylings of the time. The single reached #4 i ...

. In 1999 he was selected for the Carlton Screenwriters course. This led to his writing the anthology tribute ''

Inspector Morse Endeavour Morse, GM, is the namesake character of the series of "Morse" detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, a Detective Chief Inspector in the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England. On television he was portrayed by John ...

: Rest In Peace'', and to his first television episode commissions. As a lead writer on the soap opera ''

Family Affairs ''Family Affairs'' is a British soap opera that aired on Channel 5. It debuted on 30 March 1997, the day of the launch of said channel and was the first programme broadcast on the channel. It was screened as five thirty-minute episodes per w ...

'', he wrote the UK's first ever interactive soap episodes. Lindsey directed

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...

in the short ''How to Use Your Coconuts'' for the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

of ''

Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film based on the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) and ...

''. With BreakThru Films, he wrote and directed the short film ''The Clap'' starring

Steve Furst Steven Jonathan Furst (born 3 September 1967) is a British comedian, actor and writer. He appeared in the Orange mobile phone cinema adverts in the UK (with Brennan Brown), playing the role of Eliot, a spoof studio executive, and has appea ...

which was a finalist in

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...

Classic Shorts 2005. For BreakThru Films' , Lindsey wrote the screenplay, and selected and arranged the musical score performed by

Lang Lang Lang Lang (; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with major orchestras around the world and appeared at many leading concert halls. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Phi ...

. He also directed Lang Lang and

Heather Graham Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. The accolades she has received include nominations for two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and an Independent Spirit Award. After appearing in tel ...

in the live action segments of the feature-length '' The Flying Machine''.

Academic career

Lindsey holds a BA in Linguistics from UCL and an MA and PhD from

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Cal ...

. His PhD thesis, ''Intonation and Interrogation: Tonal Structure and the Expression of a Pragmatic Function in English and Other Languages'', was completed in 1985. He is an Honorary Lecturer in Linguistics 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 ...

(UCL), where he serves as the director of the Summer Course in English Phonetics. In addition to his academic roles, Lindsey is a pronunciation coach and gives workshops on contemporary English pronunciation at UCL and internationally. He has also been featured as a studio guest on the

radio series Fry's English Delight, where he discussed intonation with

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

. Lindsey has argued that the

phonetic transcription Phonetic transcription (also known as Phonetic script or Phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or ''phonetics'') by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the ...

systems for

Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...

that are used in many dictionaries are outdated, as the upper-class accent of the 20th century has died out. He has proposed a replacement transcription system for a more modern form of British English. For this reason, Lindsey has created ''CUBE,'' an online pronouncing dictionary which is designed to reflect current pronunciations in Southern British English. ''CUBE'' was co-edited by Péter Szigetvári, a Hungarian professor of English at ELTE. Lindsey runs a YouTube channel focusing on linguistics. As of April 3, 2025, he has published over 70 videos, gathered 300 thousand subscribers and over 25 million views.

Transcription system of British English vowels

Geoff Lindsey vowels 1.png, Diphthongs
Examples:
as in /flɪjs/ ,
as in /fɛjs/ ,
as in /prɑjs/ ,
as in /gəwt/ ,
as in /tʃojs/ ,

Geoff Lindsey vowels 2.png, Long monophthongs
Examples:
as in /nɪː/ ,
as in /skwɛː/ ,
as in /pɑːm/ ,
as in /nəːs/ ,
as in /θoːt/ ,
as in /kjɵː/ Geoff Lindsey vowels 3.png, Short monophthongs
Examples:
as in /trap/ ,
as in /drɛs/ ,
as in /kɪt/ ,
as in /strʌt/ ,
as in /lɔt/ ,
as in /fɵt/ ,
as in /kɔmə/

Publications

* * *

References

External links

* * * * http://www.cubedictionary.org/ (Lindsey’s pronouncing dictionary) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsey, Geoff Alumni of Arts University Bournemouth British film directors British soap opera writers British television writers Education-related YouTube channels English-language YouTube channels Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Diction coaches 20th-century births