Franz Boas’ Theory of Phonetics

Michael Mackert
Arizona State University West

Franz Boas’ (1858–1942) Statements on phonetics can only be appreciated adequately if they are read against the background of 19th-century experimental psychology, acoustics, physiology, and psychophysics. This paper demonstrates that Boas adhered to a theory of phonetics which included a physical and a psychological component. The former component was informed by contemporary ideas on phonetics put forward by Hermann Helmholtz (1821–1894), Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), Hermann Paul (1846–1921), and Mikołaj Kruszewski (1851–1887). Within this component, Boas included the production of speech sounds, their acoustical nature, and the mechanical workings of the ear. For Boas, speech-sounds were averages consisting of groups of oscillations which gave each sound its peculiar character. The ear analyzed speech-sounds into their component groups of oscillations, and the resulting sensations were individually transmitted into consciousness. The psychological component of Boas’ theory was influenced by Gustav Fechner’s (1801–1887) psychophysics, and it was initially based on Herbartian psychology. This second component included mental representations (Vorstellungen) of sounds, the process of apperception, and Fechner’s law of thresholds (Schwellengesetz). Boas’ theory presupposed a model of the mind as machine in which the ear was seen as a mechanical extension of the mind. Within this mechanical model of the mind, the recognition of speech-sounds was deterministically governed by the law of thresholds and the process of apperception. The interaction of the law of thresholds with the process of apperception was responsible for the phenomenon of alternating sounds. With the help of his theory, Boas countered positions which considered such seemingly fluctuating sounds as the hallmark of ‘primitive’ languages. In order to distance himself from Heymann Steinthal’s (1823–1899) Eurocentric linguistics, which was rooted in the Herbartian tradition, Boas later abandoned his Herbartian framework in favor of an associationist theory of psychology.

Quick links
Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Anderson, Stephen
1985 Phonology in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Theodore
1923 [1895] A Dictionary of Musical Terms. 21st ed. New York: Schirmer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Dawn, Vi Hilbert & Thorn Hess
1994 Lushootseed Dictionary. Ed. by Dawn Bates. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press & Lushootseed Research Corporation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baudouin de Courtenay, Jan
1972[1871] “Some General Remarks on Linguistics and Language”. A Baudouin de Courtenay Anthology ed. by Edward Stankiewicz, 49–80. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1972[1895] “An Attempt at a Theory of Phonetic Alternations”. Ibid. , 144–212.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1972[1910] “Phonetic Laws”. Ibid , 260–277.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1972[1927] “The Difference between Phonetics and Psychophonetics”. Ibid. , 278–283.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Leonard
1933 Language. New York: Henry Holt & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boas, Franz
1881a Beiträge zur Erkenntnis der Farbe des Wassers. Inaugural-Dissertation, Univ. of Kiel. (Printed, Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig 1881.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1881b “Ueber eine neue Form des Gesetzes der Unterschiedsschwelle”. Pflüger’s Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere 26.493–500. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882a “Ueber den Unterschiedsschwellenwerth als ein Maass der Intensität psychischer Vorgänge”. Philosophische Monatshefte 18.367–375.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882b “Ueber die verschiedenen Formen des Unterschiedsschwellenwerthes”. Pflüger’s Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere 27.214–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882c “Ueber die Berechnung der Unterschiedsschwellenwerthe nach der Methode der richtigen und falschen Fälle”. Ibid. 28.84–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882d “Die Bestimmung der Unterschiedsempfindlichkeit nach der Methode der übermerklichen Unterschiede”. Ibid. 28.562–566.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882e “Ueber die Grundaufgabe der Psychophysik”. Ibid. 28.566–576.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1885 “Baffin-Land”. Petermann’s Mittheilungen. Ergänzungsband 80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1888a Letter to Horatio Hale 11 Sept. 1888 Boas Papers. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1888b Letter to Horatio Hale 24 Sept. 1888 Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1888c “A Critique of Psychophysic Methods”. Science 11.119–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1889a “First General Report on the Indians of British Columbia”. Fifth Report on the North Western Tribes of the Dominion of Canada ed. by Horatio Hale, 5–97. London: British Association for the Advancement of Science.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1889b “On Alternating Sounds”. American Anthropologist 2.47–53. (Repr. in Stocking 1974b.72–77.) Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1900 “Sketch of the Kwakiutl Language”. American Anthropologist 2.708–721. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
191 la[1908] “Introduction”. Handbook of American Indian Languages, Part I, ed. by Franz Boas, 1–83. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. (Repr. separately, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown Univ. Press 1963.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1911b The Mind of Primitive Man. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1922 Kultur und Rasse. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1938 “Language”. General Anthropology ed. by Franz Boas, 124–145. Boston: D. C. Heathy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boas, Franz. et al.
1916 Phonetic Transcription of Indian Languages: Report of [a] committee of [the] American Anthropological Association. (= Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 66:6.) [Smithsonian Publication no. 2415]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, Daniel Garrison
1890 Essays of an Americanist. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bühler, Karl
1931 “Phonetik und Phonologie”. Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague 4.22–53.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cole, Douglas
1983 “The Value of a Person Lies in His Herzensbildung: Franz Boas’ Baffin Land letter diary, 1883–1884”. Observers Observed ed. by George W. Stocking, 13–52. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cole, Douglas. & Ludger Müller-Wille
1984 “Franz Boas’ Expedition to Baffin Island, 1883–1884”. Études Inuit 8.37–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorsey, J. Owen
1885[1883] On the Comparative Phonology of four Siouan Languages. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellis, Alexander John
1874 On Early English Pronunciation. Part IV. London: Asher & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erdmann, Benno
1881a Letter to Franz Boas 26 Aug. 1881 Philadelphia: APS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1881b Letter to Franz Boas 6 Sept. 1881 Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1886a “Zur Theorie der Apperception”. Vierteljahreszeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 10.307–345.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1886b “Zur Theorie der Apperception”. Ibid . 391–418.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1896 “Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Beziehungen zwischen Sprechen und Denken”. Archiv für systematische Philosophie 2.356–416.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1897 “Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Beziehungen zwischen Sprechen und Denken”. Ibid . 3.150–173.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fechner, Gustav
1860 Elemente der Psychophysik. 2 vols. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1877 In Sachen der Psychophysik. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882 Revision der Hauptpuncte der Psychophysik. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischer-Jørgensen, Eli
1975 Trends in Phonological Theory. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fourier, Jean Baptiste
1822 Théorie analytique de la chaleur. Paris: F. Didot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, Pliny E.
1907 “The Phonology of the Hupa Language”. American Archeology and Ethnology 5.1–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Horatio
1885 “On Some Doubtful Intermediate Articulations: An experiment in phonetics”. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 14.233–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1888a Letter to Franz Boas 17 Sept. 1888 Philadelphia: APSGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1888b Letter to Franz Boas, Sept. 22 1888 Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Helmholtz, Hermann
1857 “The Physiological Causes of Harmony in Music”. Transl, by Alexander J. Ellis. Selected Writings of Hermann von Helmholtz ed. by R. Kahl, 75–108. Middletown: Wesleyan Univ. PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1877 [1863] Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik. 4th ed. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herbart, Johann Friedrich
1887[1816] Lehrbuch der Psychologie. Ed. by G. Hartenstein. 3rd ed. Hamburg: Leopold Voss.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holton, Gerald
1988 Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto
1904a Phonetische Grundfragen. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1904b Lehrbuch der Phonetik. Transl, by Hermann Davidsen. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kinkade, M. Dale
1985 “More on Nasal Loss on the Northwest Coast”. IJAL 51.478–480.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, Clyde & Olaf Prüfer
1959 “Influences during the Formative Years”. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association 89.4–28.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knötsch, Carol
1993 “Franz Boas’ Research Trip to Baffin Island 1882–1884”. Polar Geography and Geology 17.3–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kruszewski, Mikolaj
1884, 1885, 1887, 1890 “Prinzipien der Sprachentwicklung”. Internationale Zeitschrift für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft 1.295–307, 2.258–268, 3.145–187, 5.133–144, 339–360. (Repr., Amsterdam: John Benjamins 1973.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lazarus, Moritz
1878[1857] Das Leben der Seele. Vol.II: Geist und Sprache. 2nd ed. Berlin: Ferdinand Dümmler.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepsius, Richard
1863 Standard Alphabet. 2nd ed. London: Williams & Norgate. (Repr., with an introduction by J. Alan Kemp. Amsterdam: John Benjamins 1981.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mackert, Michael
1993 “The Roots of Franz Boas’ View of Linguistic Categories as a Window to the Human Mind”. HL 20.331–351. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Friedrich
1876 Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft. Vol.1.: Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft. Wien: Alfred Hölder.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Georg E.
1879 “Ueber die Maassbestimmungen des Ortssinnes der Haut mittels der Methode der richtigen und falschen Fälle”. Pflüger’s Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere 19.191–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Max
1854 “Proposal for a Missionary Alphabet”. Christianity and Mankind, their Linguistics and Prospectives ed. by C. K. J. Bunsen, vol.4, Appendix D. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1890[1863] Lectures on the Science of Language. Vol.11. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller-Wille, Ludger
1984 “Two Papers by Franz Boas”. Études Inuit 8.117–144.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohm, Georg
1843 “Ueber die Definition des Tones, nebst daran geknüpfter Theorie der Sirene und ähnlicher tonbildender Vorrichtungen”. Poggendorfs Annalen der Chemie und Physik 59.413–465.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1844 “Noch ein paar Worte über die Definition des Tons”. Ibid . 62.11–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parks, Douglas
1976 A Grammar of Pawnee. New York: Garland Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paul, Hermann
1880 Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. 1st ed. Halle: Max Niemeyer. (5th rev. ed. 1920.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Postal, Paul
1964 “Boas and the Development of Phonology: Comments based on Iroquian”. IJAL 30.269–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Powell, John Wesley
1880[1877] Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages. 2nd ed. Washington: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ribot, Theodule
1886 German Psychology Today. Transl, by James M. Baldwin. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riemann, Hugo
1908[1893] Dictionary of Music. 4th ed. Transl. by John S. Shedlock. London: Augener.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rohner, Ronald
1966 “Franz Boas: Ethnographer on the North West Coast”. Pioneers of American Anthropology ed. by June Helm MacNeish, 149–212. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward
1921 Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1923 “The Phonetics of Haida”. IJAL 2.143–158.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1925 “Sound Patterns of Language”. Language 1.37–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1933 “La réalité psychologique des phonèmes”. Journal de Psychologie Normale et Pathologique 30.247–265.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sayce, Archibald Henry
1880 Introduction to the Science of Language. 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sievers, Eduard
1893 [1876] Grundzüge der Phonetik. 4th ed. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. (5th rev. ed. 1901.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael
1991 “Problems of Sapir Historiography”. HL 18.181–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stainer, John & William A. Barrett
1888[1876] A Dictionary of Muscial Terms. 3rd ed. London: Novello, Ewer, & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steinthal, Heymann
1881 Abriss der Sprachwissenschaft. Vol. I: Einleitung in die Psychologie der Sprachwissenschaft. 2nd ed. Berlin: Ferdinand Dümmler.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1888 Der Ursprung der Sprache im Zusammenhange mit den letzten Fragen alles Wissens. 4th ed. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stocking, George W.
1968 Race, Culture and Evolution. New York: The Free Press. (Repr., with an new preface, Chicago & London: Univ. of Chicago Press 1982.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stumpf, Carl
1883 Tonpsychologie. Vol.I. Leipzig: S. Hirzel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1890 Tonpsychologie. Vol II. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swanton, John R.
1911 “Haida”. Handbook of American Indian Languages, Part I, ed. by Franz Boas, 205–282. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Techmer, Friedrich
1884a “Naturwissenschaftliche Analyse und Synthese der hörbaren Sprache”. Internationale Zeitschrift für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft 1.69–170.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1884b “Transkription mittels der lateinischen Kursivschrift”. Ibid. 1. 171–192.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trubetzkoy, Nikolaj S.
1929 “Zur allgemeinen Theorie der phonologischen Vokalsysteme”. Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague 1.39–66.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1962[1939] Grundzüge der Phonologie. 3rd ed. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tyndall, John
1875[1857] Sound. 3rd ed. New York: Appleton & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Voegelin, Charles F. & Florence M. Voegelin
1963 “On the History of Structuralizing in 20th Century America”. Anthropological Linguistics 5:1.12–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wells, Rulon S.
1974 “Phonemics in the Nineteenth Century, 1876–1900”. Studies in the History of Linguistics ed. by Dell Hymes, 434–453. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whitney, William Dwight
1865 “On the Relation of Vowels and Consonants”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 8.357–373.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wiltse, Sarah
1888 “Sound Blindness”. American Journal of Psychology 1.702–705.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Otto
1871 Sprache und Ohr. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wundt, Wilhelm
1878 Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen. 4th ed. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1880a Grundzüge der Physiologischen Psychologie. Vol.I. 2nd ed. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1880b Grundzüge der Physiologischen Psychologie. Vol.II. 2nd ed. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue