Edward Sapir (1884–1939)

Author of Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech

76+ Works 854 Members 6 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

Edward Sapir, an American anthropologist, was one of the founders of both modern linguistics and the field of personality and culture. He wrote poetry, essays, and music, as well as scholarly works. Margaret Mead noted that "it was in the vivid, voluminous correspondence with [Edward Sapir] that show more [Ruth Benedict's] own poetic interest and capacity matured." In the field of linguistics, Sapir developed phonemic theory---the analysis of the sounds of a language according to the pattern of their distribution---and he analyzed some 10 American Indian languages. In cultural anthropology, he contributed to personality-and-culture studies by insisting that the true locus of culture is in the interactions of specific individuals and in the meanings that the participants abstract from these interactions. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: E. Sapir, E. Sapir, Edward Sapir, Эдвард. Сепир, エドワードサピア

Image credit: Edward Sapir, age 28, Chicago, IL. Frontispiece from The collected works of Edward Sapir (1900) Volume 3

Works by Edward Sapir

Popular Recent

Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech (1921) 484 copies, 4 reviews

Culture, Language and Personality: Selected Essays (1949) 124 copies

Selected Writings in Language, Culture, and Personality (1949) 92 copies

The Psychology of Culture: A Course of Lectures (1994) 8 copies

Anthropologie (1971) 7 copies

Nootka texts; tales and ethnological narratives, with grammatical notes and lexical materials (1978) 6 copies

Takelma texts and grammar (1990) 5 copies

The collected works of Edward Sapir Volume 5, American Indian languages, volume 1 (1990) 5 copies

Anthropologie (1971) 5 copies

Southern Paiute and Ute : linguistics and ethnography (1992) 4 copies

Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture: A Study in Method (Classic Reprint) (2017) 4 copies

Yana Dictionary (1960) 4 copies

The collected works of Edward Sapir Volume 7, Wishram texts and ethnography (1990) 4 copies

Selected Writings of Edward Sapir: In Language, Culture and Personality (Classic Reprint) (2015) 4 copies

Wishram texts (1974) 4 copies

Northwest California linguistics (2001) 3 copies

The phonology and morphology of the Navaho language (1967) 3 copies

American Indian languages, Vol. 1 (1994) 3 copies

Culture (1999) 3 copies

Kultura, język, osobowość : wybrane eseje 3 copies

Notes on the Culture of the Yana 3 copies

Ethnology (1994) 3 copies

Notes on Chasta Costa phonology and morphology 3 copies

Избранные труды по языкознанию и культурологии / (1993) 3 copies

The Whaling Indians Legendary Hunters (Mercury Series) (2004) 3 copies

Herder's "Ursprung der Sprache" 2 copies, 1 review

El lenguaje 2 copies, 1 review

Edward Sapir / Selected Writings in Language Culture and Personality 1985 (1985) 2 copies

Abnormal Types of Speech in Nootka [and] Noun Reduplication in Comox, a Salish Language of Vancouver Island. Canada… (2010) 2 copies

A sketch of the social organization of the Nass River Indians (1915) 2 copies

Family Origin Histories : The Whaling Indians : West Coast Legends and Stories, Part 11 of the Sapir-Thomas Nootka… (2009) 2 copies

The position of Yana in the Hokan stock 2 copies

The Sapir-Kroeber Correspondence: Letters Between Edward Sapir and A. L. Kroeber, 1905-1925 2 copies

The collected works of Edward Sapir (1991) 2 copies

The collected works of Edward Sapir. 1, General linguistics (2008) 2 copies

Navaho texts (1975) 2 copies

The fundamental elements of Northern Yana 2 copies

Yana terms of relationship 2 copies

Language, Culture, and Personality. Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir 1 copy

Canada Department of Mines. Time perspective in Aboriginal American Culture, a study in method (1916) 1 copy

Jezik : uvod u istraživanje govora 1 copy

Folk Songs of French Canada 1 copy

COLLECTED WORKS OF EDWARD SAPIR: General Linguistics 1 copy

Yana texts (1901) 1 copy

Contraception and Sexuality (1990) 1 copy

ANTHROPOLOGIE.1.CULTURE ET PERSONNALITE.PRESENTATION DE CHRISTIAN BAUDELOT. (1967) 1 copy

Anthropologie (1967) 1 copy

语言论: 言语研究导论 1 copy

The Complete Works of Edward Sapir Vol V American Indian Languages 1 (1994) 1 copy

The Collected Works of Edward Sapir Vol. VI: American Indian Languages II (Collected Works of Edward Spair) (1991) 1 copy

Canada Department of Mines Geological Survey, Memoir 62 - Abnormal Types of Speech in Nootka, Memoir 63 - Noun… 1 copy

The Fundamental Elements of Northern Yana, April 12, 1922, University of California Publications in American… 1 copy

The Position of Yana in Hokan Stock, July 12, 1917, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and… 1 copy

言語―ことばの研究序説 (岩波文庫) (1998) 1 copy

Origin of the Wolf Ritual, The : The Whaling Indians, West Coast Legends and Stories: The Sapir-Thomas Nootka Texts 1 copy

The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint) (2015) 1 copy

Le langage introduction a l'étude de la parole 1 copy

The Southern Paiute language (1984) 1 copy

Southern Paiute dictionary 1 copy

Southern Paiute,: A Shoshonean language 1 copy

Wat is taal? Inleiding tot de taalkunde 1 copy

Il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica 1 copy

Grading, A Study in Semantics 1 copy

The Whaling Indians: West Coast Legends & Stories Tales of Extraordinary Experience (Part 10: Sapir-Thomas Nootka… (2000) 1 copy

Language An Introduction to the Study of Speech 语言论 (1991) 1 copy

Language and environment 1 copy

℗Le ℗langage: introduction a l'e tude de la parole 1 copy

...Yana texts. Together with Yana myths 1 copy

The Takelma language of southwestern Oregon 1 copy

Southern Paiute, a Shoshonean language. Texts of the Kaibab Paiutes and Uintah Utes. Southern Paiute dictionary. 1 copy

A Sketch of the Social Organization of the Nass River Indians, Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Museum Bulletin… 1 copy

Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture, A Study in Method 1 copy

Linguaggio e relatività (2017) 1 copy

Yana Terms of Relationship, March 12, 1918, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and… 1 copy

Die Sprache 1 copy

"A Bird's-Eye View of American Languages North of Mexico," 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Left Handed, Son of Old Man Hat: A Navajo Autobiography (1967) — Foreword, some editions — 140 copies, 2 reviews

The sex problem in modern society; an anthology (1931) — Contributor — 12 copies

Edward Sapir, appraisals of his life and work (1984) — Contributor — 3 copies

Taalgebruik : opstellen over de rol van de taal in de samenleving, de opvoeding en het onderwijs (1978) — Contributor — 2 copies

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anthropology (65) autobiography (20) biography (7) communication (4) culture (11) dictionaries (3) English (4) essays (7) French (3) general linguistics (6) Gift of Jonathan E. Reyman (4) grammar (3) history (8) jule library (3) jule personal (5) kinship (4) language (92) languages (7) linguistic anthropology (5) linguistic theory (5) linguistics (144) missing (8) Native American (14) Native Americans (6) Navajo (22) non-fiction (45) philosophy (7) philosophy of language (9) phonetics (9) phonology (9) psychology (8) religion (3) Sapir (5) social life and customs (3) social science (4) sociology (6) theory (4) to-read (22) unread (4) Yana (3)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate: 1884-01-26
Date of death: 1939-02-04
Gender: male
Birthplace: Lauenburg, Prussia
Place of death: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Places of residence: Lauenburg, Pomerania, Prussia (birth)
Education: Columbia University (B.A., Germanic Philology)
Columbia University (Ph.D., Anthropology)
Relationships: Benedict, Ruth (teacher)
Organizations: Geological Survey of Canada (Anthropological Division)

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Reviews

Herder's "Ursprung der Sprache" by Edward Sapir

Based on Sapir's master's thesis, as I understand, this first of many rediscoveries of Herder considers the implications of his move in the Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache from a position where language must have developed from cries of beasts to one where it is the innate human capacity, like the hiving of bees and the webbing of spiders, and the one that shows we were built to inhabit this world entire, in that it lets us adapt it--create new words--to come to grips with all conditions, all climes. There's a lot of "of course, he is no modern scientist"-type pooh-poohing, but it's gently done, especially by the standards of the era, and I must say that the erudite clarity of Sapir's writing puts all subsequent writers of master's theses on the same topic to shame, or me at least. Modern Philology 5(1).… (more)

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MeditationesMartini | May 9, 2013 |