Edward Sapir Quick Facts

Edward Sapir is a German-born American linguist, anthropologist, and essayist.

Profile

Birth Name: Edward Sapir
Date of Birth: January 26, 1884
Place of Birth: Lauenburg, Pomerania, Germany
Date of Death: February 4, 1939
Place of Death: New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA
Cause of Death: Stroke
Interred at: Sapir Family Cemetery, Alton, Belknap County, New Hampshire, USA
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: White
Religion: Jewish
Father: Jacob David Sapir (1861-1931)
Mother: Eva Sapir née Seagal (1863-1938)
Siblings: Max Sapir
Spouse(s):

Florence Delson (b. 1889 d. 1924 m. 1910 to until her death)
Jean Victoria McClenaghan Sapir (b. 1899 d. 1977 m. 1926 to until his death)

Children (from first marriage):

Son - Herbert Michael Sapir(1913)
Daughter- Helen Ruth Larson(1914)
Son - Philip Sapir

Children (from second marriage):

Son - Paul Edward Sapir
Son - J. David Sapir

Alma Mater: Columbia University
Edward Sapir is known for: Classification of Native American languages; postulation of Linguistic Relativity or Sapir–Whorf hypothesis; ethnolinguistics; development of modern concept of the phoneme.
Edward Sapir is criticized for: NA
Edward Sapir was influenced by: Franz Boas
Edward Sapir influenced: Morris Swadesh, Li Fanggui, Benjamin Whorf, Mary Haas, Harry Hoijer, Zellig S. Harris, G. L. Trager, and Charles F. Voegelin.

Quotes

“Were a language ever completely "grammatical" it would be a perfect engine of conceptual expression. Unfortunately, or luckily, no language is tyrannically consistent. All grammars leak.” ― Edward Sapir, Language (1921) p. 39

Major Works

Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture: A Study in Method (1916)
Language (1921)

Did You Know?

Edward Sapir was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family.
His parents emigrated to United States in 1890 when he was only five years old.
In the United States his family first started living in Richmond, Virginia and then shifted to Lower East Side of New York City.
At the age of fourteen, Sapir won a prestigious Pulitzer scholarship in recognition of his aptitude for academics and languages.
After attending Columbia University from 1900-1904 on the previously attained Pulitzer scholarship, Sapir graduated in 1904 with a B.A. in linguistics.
In 1905, with Dr. Boas' encouragement, Sapir completed an M.A. in German.
Sapir spent 1907-1908 as a research associate at the University of California at Berkeley.
He earned his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1909, with a dissertation on the Takelma language of southwestern Oregon.
In 1910, he was appointed director of anthropology in the Geological Survey of the Canadian National Museum, a post he held until 1924.
His younger brother Max died of Typhoid.
Sapir’s parents divorced in 1910.
Before going to Canada, Sapir had a short affair with the Anthropologist Margaret Mead.
In 1910 Sapir espoused Florence Delson, a distant cousin, who also had Lithuanian Jewish roots.
Florence had long been suffered from both physical and mental illness and she died in 1924.
After Florence’s death Sapir started to raise his three children alone. However, eventually, his mother aided him in raising the children.
He opted to write poetry, compose music, and study psychology to overcome depression ensued from his wife’s demise.
In 1925 Sapir accepted the invitation to join the department of anthropology at the University of Chicago.
In 1926 he was married again, to Jean McClenaghan who was sixteen years younger than Sapir.
From the second marriage Sapir had two children.
In 1931, he accepted an offer to become Sterling Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at Yale University.
His son, J. David Sapir, is a linguist, anthropologist specializing in West African Languages, especially Jola languages. He is Emeritus professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. Besides, he is also a photographer.
Edward Sapir died at the age of fifty five of stroke.

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November 1, 2018