To people interested in the history of English pronunciation, the names of John Walker and Thomas Sheridan are not unfamiliar. Of these two men, the more important from the point of view of modern pronunciation, in particular American pronunciation, is unquestionably Walker; for almost invariably, where these two men disagreed, it has been Walker's decisions which have prevailed—especially in America, until today many of our pronunciations of individual words, as well as our ideas about proper pronunciation are traceable to Walker, not Sheridan. Walker's influence was made possible by the constant republication of his works in the nineteenth century and—more indirectly, but perhaps more pervasively—by his tremendous effect on succeeding dictionary writers.