Georg Forchhammer

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, first training as a chemist, he 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, and created a theory of vocal intensity. He was inventor of the phonoscope, a device whichwas used to demonstrate to deaf students whether the vowel they were making was correct using a gas flame and rotating drum. In 1903, he completed a doctorate degree on the subject of deaf communication, and was 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 Georg Forchhammer was a member of the , a Danish bourgeoisie 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; founding multiple schools and colleges in the state. 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. Holger Forchhammer colwidth=20em

Career Forchhammer finished secondary education at Herlufsholm School in 1879, From 1 September 1885 to 1 August 1886,

When the Keller speaking school moved from Copenhagen to Nyborg, He taught there until 1909, when he applied to the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Fredericia ; he taught there until his retirement in 1926. In 1908, Forchhammer established an agricultural high school in Fredericia.

Forchhammer advocated an imitative style of language teaching, which lent less importance to pronunciation in speech production. He gave students written language before introducing speech, which had the effect of improving understanding of language, but reduced students' ability to express themselves.

Other work Forchhammer was a phonetician, constructing a three-dimensional vowel chart with axes of tongue height, roundedness, and place of articulation. He 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.

In 1903, Forchhammer created a manually coded language (a signed representation of phonetic speech) to help students learn Danish, 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 system was used for much of the twentieth century, and although not adopted in other Scandinavian countries, was modified for use with German 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.

He was the inventor of the phonoscope, a device similar to the stroboscope, His device was created in 1885, and was used to demonstrate to deaf students whether the vowel they were making was correct, (by Jespersen), and Occidental (by Edgar de Wahl). In a 1935 report from the Occidental-language magazine Cosmoglotta by , Forchhammer stated that he considered Occidental and Novial to be different dialects of the same language, "Jewahli", and considered himself a "Jewahlist": He found Novial grammar to be more regular and easy to memorise, but preferred de Wahl's handling of the genitive case. In 1910, he was 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 forums 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, with Forchhammer dying on 23 July 1938 in Ordrup.