Dennis Ward – författare

Dennis Ward, who died aged 84, was the first Professor of Russian at Edinburgh University. Having graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge, with first class honours, Ward successfully established an honours degree course and a full Russian and Slavonic studies department at Edinburgh, where he worked from 1949. Ward's Russian Pronunciation Illustrated was first published by Cambridge University Press in 1966. Its illustrated format is designed to easily transport the reader through the vowels and dipthongs of the Russian language, whatever their native tongue. Each sound that Professor Ward introduces the reader to is presented alongside a series of lively illustrations, and workable examples of words, phrases and whole sentences. A pioneer for the teaching and learning of Russian, Professor Ward has here created an engaging and entertaining volume which will be of use to any student of Russian wishing to get to grips with the pronunciation of this fascinating language.

The Phonetics of Russian is intended to help those studying Russian to pronounce the language well, and to give students of general phonetics a knowledge of the phonetic system of Russian. In addition it serves as a reference book on Russian pronunciation. On its publication in 1969 it replaced The Pronunciation of Russian by Trofimov and Jones. The book provides a straightforward outline of the necessary general phonetic theory and the system of transcription and contains a precise description of the way in which the sounds of Russian are articulated, and how they are affected by the neighbouring sounds. The fundamentals of Russian intonation are described and there is a chapter of passages for practice in Russian pronunciation in which the phonetic transcriptions include accents marking both tone and stress. The Russian text and the English translation of the passages are provided. Throughout the book constant attention is paid to the problems of the learner and advice given for mastering the sounds.