EL'LIS, ALEXANDER JOIN (1314-90). An English philologist and mathematician, born at Hoxton, Middlesex, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Ile was born under the surname Sharpe, but changed it to Ellis by royal license in 1825. He began the study of law in the Middle Temple, but gave it up for mathematics, first attracting attention by a translation of Ohm's Geist der mathematischen Analysis in 1817. It was as a phonologist and philologi•st, however, that Ellis was best known. Ile associated himself with Sir Isaac Pitman, with whom he formulated a system of printing NI 16(.11 he called Thonot ypy,' \ hich added several new letters to the alphabet corresponding to sounds used in spoken language. His work formed the basis for all modern English phonetics. His studies in phonology led him naturally to a study of philology, and lie took high rank as an authority on both early English pronunciation and modern English dialects. His greatest work
in this field \\1a entitled On Early English Pro nunciation, with Special Deference Shakspere and Chaucer, which was published at intervals between 18119 and 1339. Another field in which Ellis achieved distinction was in the scientific theory of music. to the literature of which he pontributed The ,Sensations of Tone as a Physio logical Basis for the Theory of Music (1875), based on a German work by Helmholtz, and The History of Musical l'i(ch (ISSO). His other works : Horse Taming ( 1342 ) ; Phonetics (1311); .1 Plea for Phonetic Spelling (1818); Original Nursery lekumes for Bogs and Girls (1818); ,Ilgehra Identified with Geometry (1S7-1): Practical Hints on the Quantitatire Pronunciation of Latin (1871) ; and Prmfancia lion for Singurs (18771.