Richard John Lloyd (1846-1906) was a British linguist and phoneticist. He researched the acoustics of vowel sounds and articulation, which he deemed “minute phonetics”. His field of work did not become popular until the late 20th century, around 100 years after his original work.

Life

He was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

on 14 October 1846, into the well-established family business of Richard Lloyd & Brothers. At first entering the family business, he only attended university later in life, graduating from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1875 with a BA. In 1890 the university awarded him an honorary doctorate (DLitt). In 1897 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

John Gray McKendrick John Gray McKendrick (12 August 1841 – 2 January 1926) was a Scottish physiologist. He served as Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow from 1876 to 1906, and was co-founder of the Physiological Society. Early life McKe ...

, Alexander Buchan,

James Thomson Bottomley James Thomson Bottomley (10 January 1845 – 18 May 1926) was an Irish-born British physicist. He is noted for his work on thermal radiation and on his creation of 4-figure logarithm tables, used to convert long multiplication and division ca ...

and

Magnus Maclean Magnus Maclean FRSE MIEE MICE LLD (1 November 1857 – 2 September 1937) was an electrical engineer who assisted Lord Kelvin in his electrical experiments and later became Professor of Electrical Engineering in Glasgow (one of the first to hold su ...

. He took a particular interest in

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

, and became vice-president of the

International Phonetic Association The International Phonetic Association (IPA; , API) is an organization that promotes the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. The IPA's major contribution to phonetics is the International Phoneti ...

. Lloyd worked as a customs official and port gauger after he left the university. Lloyd was reported missing on 29 August 1906 while attending an Esperanto Congress in Geneva, and his body was found in the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

at Seyssel in France, close to the Swiss border. It was surmised he had fallen in while walking along the river's bank. His daughter Eirene Theodora married Thomas Jones.

Publications

*''Northern English: Phonetics, Grammar, Texts''

References

1846 births 1906 deaths Academics from Liverpool Alumni of the University of London Linguists from the United Kingdom Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-linguist-stub

Life

Publications

Further reading

References