orthoepist

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or·tho·e·pist

(ôr-thō′ə-pĭst, ôr′thō-ĕp′ĭst)

A specialist in orthoepy, especially one of a number of scholars of the 1500s and 1600s who proposed reforms of English spelling so that it would more systematically reflect pronunciation.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

orthoepist

(ɔːˈθəʊɪˌpɪst; ˈɔːθəʊˌiːpɪst)

(Linguistics) someone who is skilled in orthoepy

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

orthoepist - a practitioner of orthoepy (especially one of the 17th or 18th century scholars who proposed to reform English spelling so it would reflect pronunciation more closely)

phonologist - a specialist in phonology

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References in periodicals archive ?

Vowel 19 is /u/, to square with remarks by the eighteenth-century orthoepist Alexander Douglas suggesting a value that might be spelled with <oo>, and which 'approaches nearer' Vowel 6 = /u:/ (p.150; Jones 1991).

A. Jack Aitken, Older Scottish Vowels

Earlier writers on the language, however, tended to have fewer scruples in this context, and some of Ellis's severest criticism is reserved for those who, like the orthoepist and lexicographer John Walker, sought to correct and refine pronunciation in the 'belief that it is possible to erect a standard of pronunciation which should be acknowledged and followed throughout the countries where English is spoken as a native tongue'.(16) Walker in fact comes in for particular censure in Ellis's work, prompting a rhetorical tirade which disturbs the habitually even tenor of his prose:(17)

John Walker and Alexander Ellis: antedating 'RP.' (literary term 'received pronunciation')

(11) Taking account of spelling, orthoepists' writing, and rhyme and homophone lists among other sources, Dobson cites many examples in which the contemporary-spelled doe, do, dow, dough, or doo might be rhymed with our contemporary to, tow, two, toe, go, goo, shoe, who, woo; Dobson, English Pronunciation, 1,18, 418, and 433-4; 2.514-15.

The Hamlet First Quarto (1603) & the Play of Typography

Keywords: orthography, regularisation of spelling, standardisation, morphological spelling, suffixes, orthographic variation, early printers, orthoepists, spelling reformers, Early Modern English

Towards regularisation: morphological spelling in several editions of the Kalender of Shepherdes

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