LINGUIST

Benjamin Lee Whorf

1897 - 1941

Photo of Benjamin Lee Whorf

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Benjamin Lee Whorf (; April 24, 1897 – July 26, 1941) was an American linguist and fire prevention engineer best known for proposing the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. He believed that the structures of different languages shape how their speakers perceive and conceptualize the world. Whorf saw this idea, named after him and his mentor Edward Sapir, as having implications similar to those of Einstein's principle of physical relativity. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Benjamin Lee Whorf has received more than 489,265 page views. His biography is available in 41 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 37 in 2019). Benjamin Lee Whorf is the 37th most popular linguist (up from 38th in 2019), the 1,582nd most popular biography from United States (up from 1,734th in 2019) and the 4th most popular American Linguist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 490k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 59.65

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 41

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 7.28

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.35

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among LINGUISTS

Among linguists, Benjamin Lee Whorf ranks 37 out of 214. Before him are Nicholas Marr, Michel Bréal, Georg Friedrich Grotefend, Alexandre de Rhodes, Louis Hjelmslev, and Vasily Radlov. After him are Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Otto Jespersen, André Martinet, Vilhelm Thomsen, Bedřich Hrozný, and Friedrich August Wolf.

Most Popular Linguists in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1897, Benjamin Lee Whorf ranks 65. Before him are Theodor Busse, Lester B. Pearson, Yeghishe Charents, Ana Aslan, Jiroemon Kimura, and Vito Genovese. After him are Karl Löwith, Hans Baur, Sidney Bechet, Adolf Heusinger, Mukhtar Auezov, and Thornton Wilder. Among people deceased in 1941, Benjamin Lee Whorf ranks 54. Before him are Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Franz Gürtner, Ernst Lindemann, Maria Spiridonova, Edwin S. Porter, and Gaetano Mosca. After him are Karin Boye, Henri Cornet, Guido Adler, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Natalie of Serbia, and Hjalmar Söderberg.

Others Born in 1897

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Others Deceased in 1941

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Benjamin Lee Whorf ranks 1,582 out of 20,380. Before him are George Wald (1906), Alben W. Barkley (1877), Don Ameche (1908), Mark Harmon (1951), Walter Gilbert (1932), and Jessica Chastain (1977). After him are Roger B. Chaffee (1935), John Robert Schrieffer (1931), Asa Griggs Candler (1851), Brad Dourif (1950), Stan Smith (1946), and Ma Barker (1873).

Others born in United States

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Among LINGUISTS In United States

Among linguists born in United States, Benjamin Lee Whorf ranks 4. Before him are Noam Chomsky (1928), William James Sidis (1898), and Noah Webster (1758). After him are Leonard Bloomfield (1887), Joseph Greenberg (1915), George Lakoff (1941), Joshua Fishman (1926), William Labov (1927), Morris Swadesh (1909), Stephen Krashen (1941), and George Kingsley Zipf (1902).

American born Linguists

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