William Bullokar

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William Bullokar was a 16th-century printer who devised a 40-letter phonetic alphabet for the English language. [1] Its characters were presented in the black-letter or "gothic" writing style commonly used at the time and also in Roman type. Taking as his model a Latin grammar by William Lily, [2] Bullokar wrote the first published grammar of the English language, in a book titled Brief Grammar for English, which appeared in 1586. [3]

Contents

Bullokar's alphabet. Bullokar's alphabet in Bullokars Booke at large, 1580, p. 20.jpg
Bullokar's alphabet.

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References

  1. Clair, Colin (1976). A History of European Printing. Academic Press. p. 270. ISBN   978-0-12-174850-0 . Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  2. "The History of English Grammar". lawyerment.com. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  3. Valeika, Laimutis; Buitkiene, Janina (2003). An Introductory Course in Theoretical English Grammar (PDF). Vilnius Pedagogical University. p. 7. Retrieved 20 April 2017.