Martin J. Ball FRCSLT FRSA

FLSW The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

is Honorary Professor in Linguistics at

Bangor University Bangor University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal charter, Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 ...

in Wales. Until August 2017 he was Professor of Speech-Language Pathology (Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics) at

Linköping University Linköping University (LiU; ) is a public university, public research university based in Linköping, Sweden. Originally established in 1969, it was granted full university status in 1975 and is one of Sweden's largest academic institutions. T ...

in Sweden. He holds joint Irish-UK-US citizenship. As of June 2019 he lives in Cork, Ireland.

Early life

Martin J. Ball was born in

Tywyn Tywyn (; ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the location of the Cadfan Stone, a ...

Merionethshire Merionethshire, or Merioneth ( or '), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was located in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. Name 'Merioneth' is a ...

, and lived in

Llwyngwril Llwyngwril () is a coastal village, in Llangelynnin, Gwynedd, Llangelynnin community, two miles north of the village of Llangelynnin and eleven miles south-west of Dolgellau. It is in the county of Merionethshire, Wales, although currently admini ...

until his family moved to England in the mid-1950s. He has one sibling, an older sister, Mary.

Education

He attended

Exeter School Exeter School is a private co-educational day school for pupils between the ages of 3 and 18 in Exeter, Devon, England. The younger year groups are based at Exeter Pre-Prep School in Exminster, which was previously known as The New School. In 20 ...

from 1963 to 1970. From 1970 to 1973 he was an undergraduate at the University College of North Wales (now

), obtaining a B.A. (Hons) in English and Linguistics. In 1976 he was awarded an M.A. in Phonetics and Linguistics from

Essex University The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass universities. The university comprises three campuses in the county, in Southend-on-Sea and ...

. In 1981 he received a certificate in Welsh as a second language from the

University of Wales The University of Wales () is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first universit ...

. He was an external doctoral student at University College Cardiff (now

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

) from 1980 to 1984, and was awarded a PhD in 1985. In 2015 he was awarded the higher doctorate of D.Litt. by Bangor University for a thesis by publications in the area of

clinical linguistics Clinical linguistics is a sub-discipline of applied linguistics involved in the description, analysis, and treatment of language disabilities, especially the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. The study of ...

Career

His first position was for one calendar year in 1977 as assistant lecturer in linguistics at the University of Al Fateh in Sebha, Libya. From 1978 to 1986 he was Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the Cardiff School of Speech Therapy, South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education (now

Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff Metropolitan University () is a public university located in Cardiff, Wales. Formerly known as the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC; , ) which was established in 1996. The university offers degree courses in a variety of d ...

). He was Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the Polytechnic of Wales (now

University of South Wales The University of South Wales (USW) () is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport. The ...

) from 1987 to 1991. In 1991 he was appointed to a position at

Ulster University Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

, being promoted to Reader in 1994, and Professor in 1997. From August 2000 until the summer of 2014, he was Hawthorne-BORSF Endowed Professor II & IV and co-director of the Doris B Hawthorne Center for Special Education and Communicative Disorders in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the

University of Louisiana at Lafayette The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a Public university, public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus Universi ...

. In 2014, he moved to Sweden to take up his recent position, which he left at the end of July 2017. He took up an honorary position at Bangor University, Wales, while residing in Cork, Ireland, where his wife Nicole Müller assumed the position of Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

in February 2017. In 2022 he was appointed Visiting Professor at

Wrexham Glyndŵr University Wrexham University (; ) is a public university in the north-east of Wales, with campuses in Wrexham, Northop and St Asaph. It offers both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as professional courses. The university had students in ...

. In 1987 he founded, and edited until the end of 2020, the journal of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics and served as president of the

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association The International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) is an international scholarly association devoted to the study of phonetics and linguistics in relation to speech disorders and language disorders. Specifically its mission ...

(ICPLA) between 2000 and 2006. He is an honorary Fellow of the

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (abbreviated as RCSLT) is the professional body for speech and language therapist, speech and language therapists in the United Kingdom and is a registered charity. It was established on 6 Januar ...

(London), elected 2004. In 2014, he was elected a Fellow of the

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

. Professor Ball has published widely in the areas of

and Celtic linguistics, including 35 books, 50 book chapters, and 100 journal articles. From the mid-seventies, he was an active member of the GB Liberal Party, but since 2010 has been a member of

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

along with membership of

Cymdeithas yr Iaith The Welsh Language Society (, also often abbreviated to Cymdeithas yr Iaith or just Cymdeithas in English) is a direct action pressure group in Wales campaigning for the right of Welsh people to use the Welsh language in every aspect of their l ...

Cymraeg and Yes Cymru.

Selected publications

*(2021) Ball, M. J. (ed.) ''Manual of Clinical Phonetics''. London

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

. *(2019) Ball, M. J., Fletcher, P. and Crystal, D. (eds.) ''Grammatical Profiles: Further Languages of LARSP''. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. *(2016) Ball, M. J. ''Principles of clinical phonology. Theoretical approaches''. New York: Psychology Press. *(2016) Ball, M. J. and Müller, N. (eds.) ''Challenging sonority: Crosslinguistic evidence''.

Equinox Publishing (Sheffield) Equinox Publishing Ltd is an independent academic publisher incepted in 2003 by Janet Joyce and based in Sheffield. It publishes textbooks, anthologies, monographs, and reference books in the areas of archaeology, linguistics, cultural history, r ...

. *(2010) Ball, M. J., Müller, N. and Rutter, B. ''Phonology for communication disorders''. Hove: Psychology Press.

References

External links

* Websit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Martin J. Living people 1951 births People from Tywyn Academic staff of Linköping University Academics of Bangor University People from Merionethshire People educated at Exeter School 21st-century American linguists Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales Alumni of Bangor University Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts