Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir (pronunciation: suh PEER), (1884-1939) was an American anthropologist-linguist, a leader in

Related Topics:
1884 - 1939 - American - Anthropologist - Linguist

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American structural linguistics, and one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Related Topics:
Structural linguistics - Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

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Sapir was born in Lauenburg, Germany, now Lębork in Poland, on January 26 1884. In 1904 he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in German, but his linguistic interests proved to be much broader. In the next two years he took up projects studying the Wishram and Takelma languages in the field. While at Columbia he met his mentor, anthropologist Franz Boas, who was probably the person who provided the most initial impetus for Sapir's study of American languages.

Related Topics:
Germany - Lębork - Poland - Columbia University - Wishram - Takelma - Franz Boas

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He taught at the University of Chicago and later at Yale University, where he became the head of the Department of Anthropology. He was one of the first who explored the relations between language studies and anthropology. His students include Fang-kuei Li and Benjamin Whorf.

Related Topics:
University of Chicago - Yale University - Fang-kuei Li - Benjamin Whorf

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Sapir proposed an alternative view of language in 1921, asserting that language influences the ways in which people think. Sapir's idea was adopted and developed during the 1940s by Whorf and eventually became the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

Related Topics:
1921 - 1940s - Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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Sapir died on February 4, 1939 of heart problems.

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His specialty among American languages were the Athabaskan languages. Among the languages and cultures studied by Sapir are

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Wishram Chinook, Navajo, Nootka, Paiute, Takelma, and Yana. Although noted for his work on American linguistics, he was also prolific in linguistics in general, as depicted by his book Language, which provides everything from a grammar-typological classification of languages (with examples ranging from Chinese to Nootka) to speculation on the phenomenon on language drift and the arbitraryness of associations between language, race, and culture. He was also at least a minor participant in the international auxiliary language movement; in his paper The Function of an International Auxiliary Language, Sapir argued for the benefits of a regular grammar and a critical view of the fundamentals of language unbiased by the idiosyncracies of national languages in the choice of an international auxiliary language.

Related Topics:
Wishram - Chinook - Navajo - Nootka - Paiute - Takelma - Yana - Chinese - International auxiliary language

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