에드워드 사피어

소개

에드워드 사피어(영어: Edward Sapir 에드워드 서피어[*] 영어 발음: /səˈpɪər/, 1884년 1월 26일 ~ 1939년 2월 4일)는 미국의 언어학자이자 인류학자이다. 초기 언어학의 발전에 가장 큰 영향을 끼친 인물 중 하나로 꼽힌다.

Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, and one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Born in German Pomerania, in what is now northern Poland, his family emigrated to the United States of America when he was a child. He studied Germanic linguistics at Columbia, where he came under the influence of Franz Boas, who inspired him to work on Native American languages. While finishing his Ph.D. he went to California to work with Alfred Kroeber documenting the indigenous languages there. He was employed by the Geological Survey of Canada for fifteen years, where he came into his own as one of the most significant linguists in North America, the other being Leonard Bloomfield. He was offered a professorship at the University of Chicago, and stayed for several years continuing to work for the professionalization of the discipline of linguistics. By the end of his life he was professor of anthropology at Yale. Among his many students were the linguists Mary Haas and Morris Swadesh, and anthropologists such as Fred Eggan and Hortense Powdermaker.