Ladefoged, Peter Nielsen

▪ 2007

      British-born American linguist and phonetician (b. Sept. 17, 1925, Sutton, Eng.—d. Jan. 24, 2006, London, Eng.), traveled to remote villages around the world in an effort to record and analyze some 60 endangered languages. He also played an integral role in advancing the field of forensic phonetics, used in police work and in courtrooms. Ladefoged taught phonetics in Nigeria and at the University of Edinburgh, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1959. After joining (1962) the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, he established UCLA's phonetics lab and served (1966–91) as a professor of phonetics in the department of linguistics. For the film My Fair Lady (1964), Ladefoged coached actor Rex Harrison for his role as Professor Henry Higgins, an Edwardian-era phonetician, and was heard on the recordings of vowel sounds. Ladefoged's most notable books included A Course in Phonetics (1975; with Ian Maddieson) and The Sounds of the World's Languages (1996).

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