2014 Reprint of 1939 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, and is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics. Today he is most widely known for his contributions to the study of North American Indian languages. A founder of ethno-linguistics, which considers the relationship of culture to language, he was also a principal developer of the American (descriptive) school of structural linguistics.