Geoff Lindsey is a British linguist, writer and director. He has written episodes for television series including the BBCsoap operaEastEnders and The Bill, and runs a YouTube channel focusing on linguistics.
Lindsey trained in directing at the Bournemouth Film School, where he wrote and directed the short film The Band Parts starring Graham Fellows. In 1999 he was selected for the Carlton Screenwriters course. This led to his writing the anthology tribute Inspector Morse: Rest In Peace, and to his first television episode commissions. As a lead writer on the soap opera Family Affairs, he wrote the UK's first ever interactive soap episodes.
Lindsey is also a pronunciation coach and gives workshops on contemporary English pronunciation, at University College London (UCL)[2] and internationally. He was interviewed on intonation as the studio guest of Stephen Fry on the BBC radio series Fry's English Delight.[3] He has argued that the phonetic transcription systems for Received Pronunciation that are used in many dictionaries are outdated, as the upper-class accent of the 20th century has died out. He has proposed a replacement transcription system for a more modern form of British English.[4]
For this reason, Lindsey has created CUBE, an online pronouncing dictionary which is supposed to reflect current pronunciations in Southern British English.[5][6]CUBE was co-edited by Péter Szigetvári, a Hungarian professor of English at ELTE.[6]
Lindsey runs a YouTube channel focusing on linguistics.[9] Throughout his channel's lifetime, he has gathered over 250 thousand subscribers and over 20 million views as of 18 June 2024.
Transcription system of British English vowels
Diphthongs Examples:[6] ɪj as in /flɪjs/ fleece, ɛj as in /fɛjs/ face, ɑj as in /prɑjs/ price, əw as in /gəwt/ goat, oj as in /tʃojs/ choice, ʉw as in /gʉws/ goose, aw as in /mawθ/ mouth
Long monophthongs Examples:[6] ɪː as in /nɪː/ near, ɛː as in /skwɛː/ square, ɑː as in /pɑːm/ palm, əː as in /nəːs/ nurse, oː as in /θoːt/ thought, ɵː as in /kjɵː/ cure
Short monophthongs Examples:[6] a as in /trap/ trap, ɛ as in /drɛs/ dress, ɪ as in /kɪt/ kit, ʌ as in /strʌt/ strut, ɔ as in /lɔt/ lot, ɵ as in /fɵt/ foot, ə as in /kɔmə/ comma
Publications
Lindsey, Geoff; Nevins, Andrew (2017). Sonic Signatures: Studies Dedicated to John Harris. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ISBN978-90-272-0831-6.
Lindsey, Geoff (2019). English After RP: Standard British Pronunciation Today. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-030-04356-8.
Lindsey, Geoff (2023). SMART Speech: 5 Practice Techniques for Teachers and Learners of Pronunciation. English Speech Services. ISBN978-1-7393374-0-7.