Ida C. Ward
Encyclopedia
Ida Caroline Ward was a British linguist working mainly on African languages
who did influential work in the domains of phonology
and tonology. Her 1933 collaboration with Diedrich Hermann Westermann
, Practical Phonetics for Students of African languages, was reprinted many times. African languages she worked on include Efik
(1933), Igbo
(1936, 1941), Mende
(1944), and Yoruba
(published posthumously in 1952).
African languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
who did influential work in the domains of phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
and tonology. Her 1933 collaboration with Diedrich Hermann Westermann
Diedrich Hermann Westermann
Diedrich Hermann Westermann 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 implicitly...
, Practical Phonetics for Students of African languages, was reprinted many times. African languages she worked on include Efik
Efik language
Efik , also known as Riverain Ibibio, is the native language of the Efik people of Nigeria, where it is a national language. It is the official language of the Cross River State in Nigeria.The name Efik is also used for Ibibio-Efik....
(1933), Igbo
Igbo language
Igbo , or Igbo proper, is a native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group primarily located in southeastern Nigeria. There are approximately 20 million speakers that are mostly in Nigeria and are primarily of Igbo descent. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria. It is written in the Latin...
(1936, 1941), Mende
Mende language
Mende is a major language of Sierra Leone, with some speakers in neighboring Liberia. It is spoken by the Mende people and by other ethnic groups as a regional lingua franca in southern Sierra Leone....
(1944), and Yoruba
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
(published posthumously in 1952).
Works
- 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. (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.
- Westermann, Diedrich Hermann & Ward, Ida C. (1933) Practical phonetics for students of African languages. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute
- [Lilias E. Armstrong]] & Ward Ida C. (1926) Handbook of English Intonation, B. G. Teubner, Leipzig, Germany