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Georg Forchhammer
Born	Johannes Georg Forchhammer (1861-05-22)22 May 1861 Aalborg, North Jutland Region, Denmark
Died	23 July 1938(1938-07-23) (aged 77) Ordrup, Capital Region of Denmark
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen
Occupation	Deaf educator
Father	Johannes Forchhammer
Relatives	Forchhammer family [da], including: Henni Forchhammer (sister) Johan Georg Forchhammer (grandfather)

Johannes Georg Forchhammer (22 May 1861 – 23 July 1938) was a Danish educator of the deaf, who was director of several deaf schools in Nyborg and Fredericia from 1891 to 1926. Born to a family of academics, in Aalborg, Forchhammer first trained as a chemist, and taught physics for several years before starting work as a deaf educator. Forchhammer developed one of the first mouth–hand systems, an approach to manually coded languages, which he used to teach the Danish language to deaf students; his system was used through the twentieth century, and was later adapted to teach German. The system used a series of handshapes under the chin to show the sounds of speech as one spoke, giving the observer extra information about pronunciation

Forchhammer conducted research in linguistics, creating a theory of vocal intensity, and invented a device that used flames to show vowel quality when teaching children to speak. In 1903, he completed a doctorate degree on the subject of deaf communication. Forchhammer was also a supporter of various constructed languages, running a society for one, Ido, in Copenhagen. Forchhammer had one son, Eiler, who also became an educator of the deaf.

Family

Forchhammer was a member of the Forchhammer family [da], a Danish bourgeoisie and academic family with roots in Southern Germany; Sebald Forchhammer, who had family originating in Forchheim, Bavaria, was a goldsmith in Kiel around 1840. The family had a presence in and around Denmark by Sebald's great-grandson, Thomas Forchhammer, a parish priest in Rabenkirchen, Schleswig-Holstein, who died in 1771; his son, Johann Ludolph Forchhammer [de], was, like Georg, a pedagogist, founding multiple schools and colleges in the state.

Johann Ludolph had seven children with his wife, publisher Margaretha Elisabeth [de], including Johan Georg, August, and Peter. Johan Georg was Georg's grandfather; Georg was born to philologist and educator Johannes Nicolai Forchhammer and his wife Abigail Ebbesen on 22 May 1861 in Aalborg. He was one of thirteen children, his siblings including:

• Henni Forchhammer
• Holger Forchhammer
• Ejnar Forchhammer [de]
• Johannes Forchhammer [da]
• Jørgen Forchhammer [da]
• Herluf Forchhammer [da]
• Viggo Forchhammer [sv]
• Olaf Forchhammer [da]

Career

Forchhammer finished secondary education at Herlufsholm School in 1879, taking a polytechnic examination in Chemistry on 29 January 1885, from which he gained a first grade (1ste Kar.) degree and the title cand.poly. From 1 September 1885 to 1 August 1886, Forchhammer worked as an assistant at the Carlsberg Laboratory, before working as a physics teacher; he was a part–time teacher (Template:Lang-da) at the Metropolitan School from 1886 to 1891, and taught at the Royal Danish Naval Academy from 1888 to 1891. While teaching physics, he wrote two school textbooks with Julius Petersen: Mekanisk Fysik (1888) and Astronomi (1898). In 1903, Forchhammer completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Copenhagen, defending his thesis "On the Necessity of Safe Means of Communication in Deaf-Mute Education. With a Look Back at their own Previous Work" (Om Nødvendigheden af sikre Meddelelsesmidler i Døvstummeundervisningen. Med Tilbageblik paa egne tidligere Arbejder) on 27 June of that year to a panel including Drs Kristian Kroman [da] and Otto Jespersen. Forchhammer was awarded the degree on 11 July 1903.

Tegnsproget er et uudviklet sprog. Og den döve verden, som staar saa langt tilbage for den horende, vil aldrig kunne udvikle tegnsproget til folkesprogenes höjde. De döves udvikling er betinget af den fyldigst mulige tilegnelse af landets sprog i sznlig skikkelse.

Sign language is an undeveloped language. And the deaf world, which is so far behind the hearing world, will never be able to develop sign language to the level of the vernacular. The development of the deaf is conditioned by the fullest possible acquisition of the country's language in a meaningful form.

When the Keller speaking school moved from Copenhagen to Nyborg, Forchhammer became its first headmaster on 1 April 1891. The school's teaching was based on the principle of oralism; when it opened, it had 175 pupils. He taught there until 1909, when he applied to the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Fredericia (Det kongelige Døvstummeinstitut i Fredericia); he taught there until his retirement in 1926. In 1908, Forchhammer established an agricultural high school in Fredericia. At the school in Nyborg, students lived with families in the town, to prevent them from signing in the school dormitories – at the time, use of sign language was considered negative in Danish deaf education; Forchhammer's later mouth-hand system afforded a freer style of education to deaf students, and a form of communication less strenuous than speech.

Forchhammer advocated an imitative style of language teaching, which had a diminished importance of pronunciation in speech production. He gave students written language before introducing speech, which had the effect of improving understanding of language, but reducing ability of self expression in it.

Other work

Forchhammer was also a phonetician, constructing a three-dimensional vowel chart with axes of tongue height, roundedness, and place of articulation. He also developed a theory regarding vowel stress, which rejected the notion that vowel stress was a result of a lower expirative force, and instead a result of a difference in closure of the vocal cords – while in singing, vocal intensity was primarily determined by the expirative muscles, in speech, unstressed vowels came from a laxer constriction of the vocal cords and a greater airflow. In 1896, he ran a course teaching phonetics to other teachers of the deaf, working with Jespersen. Forchhammer was the inventor of the phonoscope, a device similar to the stroboscope. Forchhammer's device was created in 1885, and was used to demonstrate to deaf students whether the vowel they were making was correct using a gas flame and rotating drum.

In 1903, Forchhammer created a manually coded language (a signed representation of phonetic speech) to help students learn Danish, which he named the Mund-Hand System. It used fourteen handforms located under the chin, representing Danish consonants, although there was not a one-to-once correspondence between handforms and individual consonants (one handform was used for the consonants b and v, and all vowels). Several handforms were derived from Danish Sign Language. The aim of the system was to provide visual aid in determining lipreading, giving the observer information about voice and nasalization in the flow of speech; the system did not show orthography, but instead pronunciation of words. The system was used for much of the twentieth century, and although not adopted in other Scandinavian countries, was adapted to the German language in 1923. As of 2010, the system had continued use to convey meaning when there is no individual sign for a concept. The system benefitted articulation training, but did not greatly improve lipreading; deaf speakers using the system have a tendency towards speaking abnormally slowly.

Forchhammer was a supporter of the abstinence movement, as well as several international auxiliary languages. Forchhammer supported several of these languages, including Esperanto, Ido, Novial, by Jespersen, and Occidental, by Edgar de Wahl – in a 1935 report from the Occidental-language magazine Cosmoglotta by Ilmari Federn [es], Forchhammer stated that he considered Occidental and Novial to be different dialects of the same language, "Jewahli", considering himself a "Jewahlist". Forchhammer found Novial grammar to be more regular and easy to memorise, but preferred de Wahl's handling of the genitive case. In 1910, Forchhammer was the president of the Inter­naciona Linguo Klubo, an Ido-language association based in Copenhagen. Forchhammer's sister Henni was also a supporter of international languages - being a Danish delegate to the League of Nations, she was present in debates concerning such languages, and was the only person in these fora to argue for a constructed language other than Esperanto.

Personal life

Forchhammer was married to Karen Marie Groth, the daughter of captain lieutenant Eiler Peter Christopher Munthe Groth, on 15 May 1888; their son, Eiler, was born in 1890. Like his father, Eiler was educated at Herlufsholm and became an educator of the deaf, later teaching at the deaf schools in Nyborg and Fredericia. Forchhammer's wife died in 1920, with Forchhammer dying on 23 July 1938 in Ordrup.

Bibliography

• Mechanical Physics (Mekanisk Physik), 1888 (with Julius Petersen)
• Astronomy (Astronomi), 1898, ibid
• On the Necessity of Safe Means of Communication in Deaf-Mute Education (Om nödvendigheden af sikre meddelelsesmidler i dövstummeundervisningen), 1903
• The education of blind and mute children (Ido: La eduko di blinda e surdamuta puerino)
• Why and How? Discussions on deaf education (Ido: Pro quo a Quale? Diserturi pri surdala instrukteso), 1916

References

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3. Worsøe, Hans H. (2 July 2014). "Forchhammer". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 16 September 2023 – via lex.dk.
4. Jessen, Johann Christian (1860). Grundzüge zur Geschichte und Kritik des Schul- und Unterrichtswesens der Herzogthümer Schleswig und Holstein vom christlich wissenschaftlichen Standpunkte [Basics of the History and Criticisms of the Education System in the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from a Scientific Christian perspective] (in German). Nolte & Köhler (Herold). p. 247.
5. Hayessen, Ute (1991). "FORCHHAMMER, Margaretha Elisabeth". Biographisches Lexikon für Schleswig-Holstein und Lübeck (PDF) (in German). Vol. 9. pp. 847–848.
6. ^ Christiansen, C. (1891). "Forchhammer, Johannes Georg". In Bricka, Carl Frederik (ed.). Dansk biografisk lexikon (in Danish). Vol. 5. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag. pp. 254–255. Retrieved 16 September 2023 – via Project Runeberg.
7. Dahlsgård, Inga; Haislund, Niels (17 July 2011). "Henni Forchhammer". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 20 September 2023 – via lex.dk.
8. ^ "Johannes Forchhammer- Census 1880". Danish Family History (in Danish). 1880. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
9. Krogh, Torben (21 July 2014). "Ejnar Forchhammer | lex.dk". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 16 September 2023.
10. Fafner, Jørgen (6 December 2011). "Viggo Forchhammer". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 16 September 2023 – via lex.dk.
11. Simonsen, Jens (17 July 2011). "Olaf Forchhammer". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 16 September 2023 – via lex.dk.
12. ^ Wad, Gustav Ludwig (1887). Meddelelser om Dimitterede fra Herlufsholm. Tilføjelser og Fortsættelse indtil 1886 [Announcements about Graduates from Herlufsholm. Additions and Continuations from 1886] (PDF) (in Danish). Næstved: A. C. Bafigs Enkes Bogtrykkeri. p. 297.
13. Blangstrup, Christian, ed. (1919). "Forchhammer, Johannes Georg". Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon (in Danish). Vol. 8. Copenhagen: J. H. Schultz Forlagsboghandel. p. 429. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
14. "Akademiske Promotioner" [Academic Promotions]. Aarbog for Kobenhavns Universitet: kommunitetet og den Polytekniske laereanstalt, Danmarks tekniske hojskole 1900/01-02/03 [Yearbook for the University of Copenhagen: the community and the Polytechnic Institute, Denmark's Technical College 1900/01-02/03] (in Danish). University of Copenhagen. p. 678.
15. Widell, Jonna (1988). Den danske døvekultur: hvorfor er døves integration i uddannelsessystemet en nødvendighed? : en dynamisk analyse af sammenhængen mellem uddannelsessystem, arbejdsmarked of den danske døvekultur (in Danish). Vol. 1. Center for Tegnsprog. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-87-87471-38-1.
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18. Wendel-Hansen, Jens Lei; Thøgersen, Mette Ladegaard (1 April 2021). "1850-1920 i Nyborg Kommune". Trap Danmark (in Danish). Retrieved 17 September 2023 – via lex.dk.
19. ^ Leonardt 2010, p. 247. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLeonardt2010 (help)
20. Widell, Jonna (1988). Den danske døvekultur: hvorfor er døves integration i uddannelsessystemet en nødvendighed? [The Danish deaf culture: why is the integration of the deaf in the education system a necessity?] (in Danish). Vol. 1. Center for Tegnsprog. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-87-87471-38-1.
21. Mulholland, Ann M. (1981). Oral Education Today and Tomorrow. Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-88200-144-9.
22. Fischer-Jørgensen, Eli (19 March 1979). "A sketch of the history of phonetics in Denmark until the beginning of the 20th century". Annual Report of the Institute of Phonetics University of Copenhagen. 13: 162–163. doi:10.7146/aripuc.v13i.131718. ISSN 2794-3224.
23. Olrik, Hans (1906). Danmarks Lærerhøjskole, 1856-1906 [Denmark's Teacher School, 1856-1906] (in Danish). Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag. p. 178.
24. Brock-Nannestad, George (2014). "The mechanization of performance studies". Early Music. 42 (4): 625. ISSN 0306-1078.
25. ^ Ghari, Zohreh (2017). "Variations in the Baghcheban Manual Alphabet in Iranian Sign Language". Sign Language Studies. 18 (1): 90–92. ISSN 0302-1475.
26. Leonhardt, Annette (18 February 2019). Grundwissen Hörgeschädigtenpädagogik [Basic Knowledge of Education for the Hearing Impaired] (in German). UTB. p. 126. ISBN 978-3-8252-5062-1.
27. Reynolds, Brian Watkinds (December 1980). Speechreading Training Related to the Danish Mouth Hand System for Adventitiously Hearing Impaired Adults (PhD thesis). Purdue University. p.3.
28. Schein, Jerome Daniel; Stewart, David Alan (1995). Language in Motion: Exploring the Nature of Sign. Gallaudet University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-56368-039-7.
29. Leonhardt, Annette (15 September 2010). Einführung in die Hörgeschädigtenpädagogik (in German). UTB. p. 135. ISBN 978-3-8252-2104-1.
30. Benderly, Beryl Lieff (1990). Dancing Without Music: Deafness in America. Gallaudet University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-930323-59-2.
31. Markides, Andreas (1983). The Speech of Hearing-impaired Children. Manchester University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7190-0915-0.
32. Ahlborg, Per (March 1938). Hagerup, H. (ed.). "Necrologe" [Obituary]. Novialiste: Revue por li Cosmopoli Standard-Lingue (in Novial). No. 19. pp. 410–411. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
33. Federn, Ilmari (December 1935). "Occidental-Information Copenhag Dania" [Occidental-Information Copenhagen Denmark]. Cosmoglotta B (in Interlingue). p. 38. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
34. "Kroniko" [Chronicle]. Progreso - 3a yaro.pdf  (in Esperanto). 1910. p. 213 – via Wikisource.
35. Larsen, Jens Stengaard (14 December 2014). "La lingvistiko estas ridinda" [Linguistics is ridiculous]. Libera Folio (in Esperanto). Retrieved 20 September 2023.
36. Holm, Asger (17 July 2011). "Eiler Forchhammer". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 20 September 2023 – via lex.dk.

External links

• Works by or about Georg Forchhammer at the Internet Archive

• Education
• Denmark
• Constructed languages

• 1861 births
• People from Aalborg
• Danish physicists
• Textbook writers
• Danish educators
• Educators of the deaf
• Danish Esperantists
• Idists
• Novial
• Interlingue speakers
• 1938 deaths