Lilias Armstrong (1882–1937) was an English phonetician. Her book on English intonation, written with Ida C. Ward, was in print for fifty years. She also provided some of the first detailed descriptions of tone in Somali and Kikuyu. Armstrong grew up in Northern England. She graduated from the University of Leeds, where she studied French and Latin. She taught French in an elementary school in the London suburbs before joining the University College Phonetics Department, headed by Daniel Jones, where she was eventually appointed as a reader. Her works include the 1926 book A Handbook of English Intonation (co-written with Ward), the 1934 paper "The Phonetic Structure of Somali", and the book The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu, published posthumously in 1940. She was the subeditor of the International Phonetic Association's journal Le Maître Phonétique for more than a decade, and was praised in her day for her teaching. Jones wrote in his obituary of her that she was "one of the finest phoneticians in the world".

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilias_Armstrong

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1798:

After having been invested as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Hangerli

1885:

Sino-French War: French troops under General François Oscar de Négrier defeated a numerically superior Qing Chinese force at Núi Bop in northern Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_N%C3%BAi_Bop

1912:

The Boy Scout Association was incorporated throughout the then British Empire by royal charter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scout_Association

1948:

Burma achieved independence from the British Empire, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first president. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sao_Shwe_Thaik

2007:

Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

blossom: 1. A flower, especially one indicating that a fruit tree is fruiting; (collectively) a mass of such flowers. 2. The state or season of producing such flowers. 3. (figuratively) A blooming period or stage of development; something lovely that gives rich promise. 4. The colour of a horse that has white hairs intermixed with sorrel and bay hairs. 5. (intransitive) To have, or open into, blossoms; to bloom. 6. (intransitive) To begin to thrive or flourish. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blossom

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people.   --Isaac Newton https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton