John Christopher Wells, MA (Cantab), Ph.D. (London) (born March 11, 1939), is a British phonetician and Esperanto teacher at University College London, where he holds the departmental chair in Phonetics. He is a member of the five-person Academic Advisory committee to Linguaphone. A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with one of the most selective sets of entry requirements in the United Kingdom. ... Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. ... Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the universitys central administrative offices and its library The University of London is a federation of colleges and institutes which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ... 11 March is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... As a recently created language, Esperantos history is short and well-known. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... A professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) (prof for short) is a senior teacher, lecturer and researcher, usually in a college or university. ... Linguaphone is a company that helps people learn languages. ...

He is best known for his book and cassette Accents of English, the book and CD The Sounds of the IPA, Lingvistikaj Aspektoj de Esperanto, and the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. He is the author of the most widely-used English-Esperanto dictionary, and is also the inventor of the X-SAMPA ASCII phonetic alphabet. During the summer, John Wells directs a two-week course in phonetics which focuses on practical and theoretical phonetics as well as aspects of teaching phonetics. The course ends with written and oral examinations, for which for which the IPA Certificate of Proficiency in the Phonetics of English is awarded. A considerable part of John Wells' research focuses on the phonetic description of varieties of English. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... The Extended SAM Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. ...

External links

• J.C. Wells Homepage